David Austin Starkweather

David Austin Starkweather (January 21, 1802 – July 12, 1876) was an American lawyer, legislator, and diplomat who served as a U.S. representative from Ohio and as United States Ambassador to Chile. A member of the Democratic Party, he held a series of judicial and legislative posts in Ohio before serving two non-consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives in the mid-nineteenth century and later representing the United States abroad during the administration of President Franklin Pierce.

Starkweather was born in Preston, New London County, Connecticut, on January 21, 1802. He pursued a classical education and graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. After college he read law under the supervision of his brother in Cooperstown, New York, following the common practice of legal apprenticeship in the early nineteenth century. He was admitted to the bar in 1825 and soon afterward moved west, joining the wave of New England–born professionals who settled in the developing communities of the Old Northwest.

Upon his admission to practice, Starkweather established a law practice in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1825. In 1828 he relocated to Canton, Stark County, Ohio, which became his long-term home and the base of his professional and political career. In addition to his private legal practice, he served on the bench as a judge in one of the higher courts of Stark County, gaining experience in both civil and criminal matters and building a regional reputation that facilitated his entry into elective office.

Starkweather’s political career began in the Ohio General Assembly. He was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, serving from 1833 to 1835, and then advanced to the Ohio Senate, where he served from 1836 to 1838. As a Democratic Party officeholder during a period of rapid growth and internal improvement in Ohio, he participated in state-level debates over infrastructure, finance, and governance that paralleled national political controversies of the Jacksonian and post-Jacksonian eras.

Starkweather was first elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat from Ohio, serving in the Twenty-sixth Congress from 1839 to 1841. During this initial term in Congress he was appointed to the Committee on Roads and Canals, where he took part in deliberations over federal support for transportation infrastructure, a central issue in antebellum national policy. After an interval out of federal office, he returned to the House as a representative in the Twenty-ninth Congress, serving from 1845 to 1847. In this second term he was assigned to the Committee on Invalid Pensions, dealing with claims and benefits for disabled veterans and their families. Across his two non-consecutive terms, Starkweather represented Ohioan and Democratic interests during a significant period in American history marked by territorial expansion, economic development, and intensifying sectional tensions. He continued his engagement in national politics as a presidential elector in 1848, when he was chosen to support the Democratic ticket of Lewis Cass and William O. Butler. He later sought, but did not win, election to represent Ohio’s 18th congressional district in 1860.

In addition to his legislative service, Starkweather held a prominent diplomatic post. Under President Franklin Pierce, he was appointed United States envoy to Chile, serving from 1854 to 1857. In this capacity, often styled at the time as United States Minister or Ambassador to Chile, he represented American commercial and political interests in South America during a period of growing U.S. involvement in hemispheric affairs. His diplomatic tenure coincided with expanding trade routes along the Pacific coast and ongoing negotiations over the rights and protections of U.S. citizens and enterprises abroad.

In his personal life, Starkweather was married and had three daughters and one son. In his later years he resided in Ohio, remaining connected to his family and to the communities where he had practiced law and held office. He died of paralysis at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Brinsmade, in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 12, 1876. His death marked the close of a career that spanned local judicial service, state legislative leadership, national representation in Congress, and diplomatic service in South America.