Jeremiah V. Cockrell

Jeremiah Vardaman Cockrell, also known as "Vard" Cockrell, (May 7, 1832 – March 18, 1915) was a U.S. Representative from Texas, as well as a field commander in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was a prominent member of the famed South–Cockrell–Hargis family of Southern politicians.

Early life

Cockrell was born near Warrensburg, Missouri, to Joseph Cockrell (the sheriff of Johnson County and Nancy (Ellis) Cockrell. He attended the common schools and Chapel Hill College in Lafayette County, Missouri. He was the older brother of Francis Marion Cockrell, another future Congressman and Confederate officer. He went to California in 1849 during the Gold Rush, where he was a miner and a merchant near the Bear River. Cockrell returned to Missouri in 1853 and engaged in agricultural pursuits, studied law, and, for a time, was a minister in the Methodist Church.

On April 7, 1852, he married Maranda "Jane" Douglas. They had five children.

Civil War

Cockrell entered the Missouri State Guard and Confederate States Army as a lieutenant and served throughout the Civil War, attaining the rank of colonel. He was nominally in command at the 1862 Battle of Lone Jack, Missouri. He was wounded so severely in 1864 that he could never return to field duty.

Post-war and politics

At the close of the war, he settled in Sherman, Texas, and engaged in the practice of law. He became Chief Justice of Grayson County, Texas, in 1872. He served as delegate to the Democratic state conventions in 1878 and 1880. He moved to Jones County, Texas, and was appointed judge of the thirty-ninth judicial district court in 1885, to which position he was elected in 1886 and reelected in 1890.

Cockrell was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth Congresses (March 4, 1893–March 3, 1897). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1896 and engaged in farming and stock raising in Jones County.

He died in Abilene, Texas, on March 18, 1915 at the age of 82 and was interred in the Masonic Cemetery.

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