Meigs was born in Middletown in the Colony of Connecticut on November 17, 1764. He was the son of Return J. Meigs Sr. and the descendant of early Puritan settlers in Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale College in 1785 and studied law there. In 1788, after being admitted to the bar in Connecticut, he moved to Marietta, Ohio, where his father had been one of the first settlers, arriving earlier that year.[1]
Career
In Marietta, Meigs was a lawyer, storekeeper and farmer, as well as serving in public offices. He was appointed the first court clerk for the court established at Marietta in 1788.[1] When a post office was established in Marietta in 1794, he became its first postmaster. In 1798 he was named to a judgeship on the Northwest Territory's territorial court, and in 1799 he won election to the territorial legislature.[1]
He returned to Ohio in 1807 to run for governor. He won the election but was declared ineligible for failing to meet the residency requirements. He then was appointed to the U.S. Senate to finish the term of John Smith and was re-elected to his own term a year later. He resigned in late 1810 after winning the governorship.
He served two two-year terms, resigning in April 1814 when appointed Postmaster general by President James Madison. His service as Postmaster General was not without controversy. Congress investigated him twice, and he was cleared both times. The size of the Post Office doubled during his tenure, which implicated financial difficulties.[3] He served until 1823, when he retired due to ill health and returned to Marietta.
Meigs died March 29, 1825, and is buried in Marietta's Mound Cemetery. His grave is marked by a large monument bearing a long inscription reciting his public services and family devotion.[1]
Family
Meigs was married in 1788 to Sophia Wright, and they had one child, a daughter named Mary who married congressman and federal Judge John George Jackson of Clarksburg, Virginia, in 1810.[1][2]
Return J. Meigs Jr. did not have a direct male heir, but two of his younger brothers, John and Timothy, each named a son Return Jonathan Meigs. The first of these—called Return J. Meigs III—passed the bar in Frankfort, Kentucky, commenced law practice in Athens, Tennessee, and became prominent in Tennessee state affairs before the Civil War. He moved to Staten Island, New York, however, at the time of Tennessee's secession from the Union in 1861.[4] Among those men who read law under his tutelage in Tennessee was William Parish Chilton who would become Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.
Timothy's son, Return J. Meigs IV, married Jennie Ross, daughter of principal Cherokee chief John Ross, and emigrated to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears.[5]
Meigs, Return Jonathan Jr. (1764–1825): A Prophecy, Ohio Archæological and Historical Society Publications: Volume 20 [1911], pp. 351–352, poem by Return J. Meigs Jr.
External links
Return J. Meigs Jr. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress - Retrieved on 2008-08-10
