Background
FEARN, Thomas was born on November 15, 1789 in Danville, Virginia, United States, United States. Son of Thomas and Mary (Burton) Fearn.
FEARN, Thomas was born on November 15, 1789 in Danville, Virginia, United States, United States. Son of Thomas and Mary (Burton) Fearn.
Private school, southern university, medical school.
He attended Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, and was graduated from the Old Medical College in Philadelphia in 1810. Fearn, who was connected by marriage to Leroy Pope Walker, married Sallie Bledsoe Shelby on February 26, 1822. They had seven daughters.
Fearn settled in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1810 to practice medicine. He traveled to Europe in 1818 to study surgery and was made a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. From 1820 to 1837, he practiced in Huntsville.
He was a member of the State Board of Medical Examiners from 1823 to 1829. He practiced medicine for fifty years, owned a plantation, and ran a bank in Huntsville. Although a unionist, Fearn was elected to the Montgomery Convention.
In the provisional Confederate Congress, he served on the Public Lands and Territories Committees and spoke out for Southern unity. He was a Democrat. At seventy-two, he was the oldest delegate to the Congress, and he soon retired in favor of a younger and more vigorous candidate. He held no further office in the Confederacy.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
He served in the United States Army in the War of 1812 and as a member of the Alabama state legislature.
