Montfort Stokes was an American Democratic politician who served as U. S. Senator and the 25th Governor of North Carolina.
Background
Montfort was born on March 12, 1762 within the limits of what was then Lunenburg County, Virginia, United States, the eleventh child of David Stokes, a planter and a member of the county court, and of Sarah (Montfort) Stokes. He was probably the descendant of Christopher Stokes who emigrated from England before 1624 and settled in Warwick County, Virginia, where he became a member of the House of Burgesses. Joseph Montfort Street was a nephew.
Career
Although the details of his service are in doubt, it is certain that Stokes served in the Revolutionary War. After the war he was a planter near Salisbury, North Carolina. From 1786 to 1791 he was a clerk of the state Senate, and for some years thereafter clerk of the superior court of Rowan County.
About 1812 he removed to Wilkesboro and, during the War of 1812, served as a major-general of the state militia.
Again elected a federal senator to fill a vacancy and reelected for the full term, he served from December 4, 1816, to March 3, 1823. Active in the long struggle of the western counties to obtain more adequate representation, he was president of the convention that met at Raleigh in November 1823 to attempt constitutional reform.
He sat in the state Senate in 1826 and in the House of Representatives in 1829 and 1830. In 1830 he was elected governor as the candidate of the western element in opposition to Richard Dobbs Spaight.
On July 14, 1832, while still governor, Stokes was appointed by President Jackson one of the three commissioners to report on conditions in the present state of Oklahoma. When the legislature met, November 19, following, he resigned and early in February 1833 was at Fort Gibson in the Indian Territory. On the conclusion of his two-year term he was appointed to another Indian commission, and in March 1836 became sub-agent for the Cherokees, Senecas, and Shawnees.
A year later, on the grant of a full agency to the Cherokees, he was placed in charge. Untiring in his labors, he strove to maintain at least a semblance of peace and order in what was then perhaps the most turbulent section of the Union.
At the end of his term, in 1841, however, President Tyler refused him a reappointment. A post as register of the land office of Fayetteville, Arkansas, for which he did not qualify, was offered, and two months before his death the sub-agency for the Senecas, Shawnees, and Quapaws was given him, which he consented to fill.
He died at Fort Gibson and was buried with military honors.
Achievements
Connections
He was married twice, first to Mary, the daughter of Henry Irwin. She died some years after their marriage. Later he married Rachel, the daughter of Hugh Montgomery of Salisbury, who survived him. A son, Montfort S. Stokes, served with distinction in the Mexican and Civil wars and was mortally wounded at Mechanicsville in 1862.