Thomas C. Catchings
Thomas Clendinen Catchings was a U.S. Representative from Mississippi.Biography
Born near Brownsville, Mississippi, Catchings was tutored at home.
He attended the University of Mississippi at Oxford in 1859, where he was a member of St. Anthony Hall, and Oakland College in 1861. He studied law.
He entered the Confederate States Army in 1861 and served as a private in Company K, Eighteenth Mississippi Infantry, and subsequently in Company C, Eleventh Mississippi Cavalry.
He was admitted to the bar in 1866 and commenced practice in Vicksburg.
Catchings was elected to the Mississippi State Senate in 1875 but resigned in 1877.
Catchings was elected Mississippi Attorney General in 1877.
He was reelected in 1881 and served until February 16, 1885.
Catchings was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-ninth and to the seven succeeding Congresses. He served as chairman of the Committee on Levees and Improvements of the Mississippi River, Committee on Railways and Canals, Committee on Rivers and Harbors. He first introduced a bill for Vicksburg National Military Park in January 1896. When it failed to pass, although favorably reported by committee, he re-introduced the bill in the next Congress in December 1897.
He resumed the practice of law.
He also served as division counsel for the Southern Railway Co..
He served as member of the Mississippi Code Commission by appointment of Governor Vardaman.
He died in Vicksburg, Mississippi, December 24, 1927.
He was interred in Cedar Hill Cemetery.
