Leonidas C. Houk

Leonidas Campbell Houk was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for the 2nd congressional district of Tennessee. He was born near Boyds Creek, Tennessee in Sevier County on June 8, 1836. He attended the common schools for less than three months and learned the trade of cabinet-making. He studied law, was admitted to the bar on October 13, 1859, and practiced. He enlisted in the Union Army as a private on August 8, 1861. He served with the Tennessee Volunteer Infantry until his resignation on account of his ill health on April 23, 1863.

He was a presidential elector on the Republican ticket in 1864 and a member of the Tennessee state constitutional convention in 1865. From 1866 to 1870, he was the judge of the circuit court of Tennessee. He then moved to Knoxville and resumed the practice of law. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1868, 1880, 1884, and 1888. He was a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1873 to 1875.

He was elected as a Republican to the Forty-sixth and the six succeeding Congresses. He served from March 4, 1879 until his death in Knoxville on May 25, 1891. During the Forty-seventh Congress, he was the chairman of the United States House Committee on War Claims. He was interred in Old Gray Cemetery. He was the father of fellow Tennessee congressman John Chiles Houk.

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