Bright, Jesse D.

Born: 1812-12-18 Norwich, New York

Died: 1875-05-20 Baltimore, Maryland

Jesse D. Bright moved to Madison, Indiana in 1820, with his parents. He attended public school and later studied law. He earned admittance to the bar and started practicing in 1831 in Madison. He won election as judge of the Jefferson County probate court in 1834. Bright married Mary E. Turpin in 1835, and they had seven children. He served as U.S. marshal for the District of Indiana from 1840 to 1841. In 1841, he won election to the Indiana Senate, where he served until 1843. He then served as lieutenant governor of Indiana from 1843 to 1845. Bright won election, as a Democrat, to the U.S. Senate in 1845. He was elected president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate December 5, 1854, June 11, 1856, and June 12, 1860. Bright was expelled from the U.S. Senate in 1862 for his Confederate sympathies. He moved to Carrollton, Kentucky in 1863, then later to Covington.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1949 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1950), 890; Vernon L. Volpe, “Bright, Jesse David,” American National Biography, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 3:550-51; U.S. Senate Journal. 1854. 33rd Cong., 2nd Sess., 26; Gravestone, Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, MD.