Tunstal Quarles

Tunstal Quarles (ca 1770 - 1857) was a United States lawyer and politician, as well as one of the pioneer settlers of Somerset, Kentucky in Pulaski County.

He was born in King William County, Virginia, in approximately 1770, and moved with his parents to Woodford County, Kentucky in about 1790.

In 1796, he was the first citizen of the county or town to serve in the national legislature. He came to Somerset sometime before 1812, for in May 1812, he was one of a commission to supervise the building of a County Clerk’s office.

He was a lawyer and became a member of the state legislature in 1811 and 1812. In the War of 1812, he armed and equipped a company of the Second Regiment Kentucky Militia at his own expense and then commanded them. After the war, he served as a circuit court judge. He was elected as a Democratic-Republican PartyDemocrat-Republican to be a member of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Congresses and served from March 1817 until his resignation in July 1820.

He was appointed receiver of public moneys for the Cape Girardeau land district, with offices at Jackson, Missouri, and served from May 1821 to July 1824.

He returned to Somerset in July 1824, where he resumed his law practice and agricultural pursuits.

Like so many other early figures of Pulaski County history, Tunstal Quarles was an avid member of the Freemasons. Using funding from the National Freemason Association, Quarles was able to organize the first bank in Somerset, the Farmers Bank, and served as president from 1825 to 1827. Little else is known about the role of Tunstal Quarles in masonic lore.

In 1828, Quarles was again elected to the state House of Representatives, and was elector on the Democratic ticket of Jackson and Calhoun. He served a term in the state Senate in 1840.

Tunstal Quarles died in Somerset on January 7, 1857, and is interred in the old Baptist Cemetery.

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