Background
Charles Fenton was born on September 27, 1817, in Petersburg, Virginia, United States. Little is known about his early life.
Charlottesville, VA, United States
Collier attended the University of Virginia.
Cambridge, MA, United States
Collier studied law at Harvard from 1847 to 1848.
congressman farmer lawyer politician
Charles Fenton was born on September 27, 1817, in Petersburg, Virginia, United States. Little is known about his early life.
Collier attended the University of Virginia and studied law at Harvard from 1847 to 1848.
Before the Civil War, Charles Collier was a slaveholding farmer of relative affluence, a law partner of Joseph S. Budd in Petersburg, Virginia. Collier sat in the lower house of the Virginia legislature from 1857 to 1862. In May 1860, while presiding over a Petersburg meeting, he disapproved of a Southern walkout from the Charleston Democratic convention on the grounds of party harmony.
He supported Stephen A. Douglas for president in 1860. However, in rallying secession feelings for the Richmond convention, he could be labeled a secessionist. In 1862, he replaced Roger Pryor as a congressman from Virginia’s Fourth Congressional District.
He served on the Naval Affairs, Commerce, and War Tax Committees. He was a candidate for the Second Confederate House in 1863 but lost to Thomas S. Gholson, a state' rights Democrat and ally of James A. Seddon, by a margin of twenty-seven votes. He returned to Petersburg and participated in local government affairs during the remainder of the war.
In 1865, he offered the surrender of Petersburg to Northern troops. He had been a member of the Common Council of the city. He returned to his law practice and was elected mayor of Petersburg in 1866.
The Reconstruction Congress removed him from office in 1868. He was again elected mayor in 1888 and served until his death in Petersburg on June 29, 1899.
Collier member of the unionist wing of the Democratic party.
Charles married Mrs. Elizabeth Amos on April 18, 1843.