Dewitt Clinton Giddings (July 18, 1827 – August 19, 1903) served three non-consecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives as a representative from Texas. A member of the Democratic Party, he participated in the legislative process during a significant period in American history, representing the interests of his Texas constituents during the turbulent Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction eras.
Giddings was born on July 18, 1827, in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, the youngest of eight children of James and Lucy (Demming) Giddings. His family background was closely tied to the early history of Texas through his brothers. One brother, Giles Giddings, had fought in the Texas Revolution and died of wounds received at the Battle of San Jacinto, later entitling his heirs to a Texas land bounty. Several of Giddings’s brothers ultimately relocated from Pennsylvania to Texas. Among them, George Giddings and John James Giddings became successful operators of the San Antonio, Texas, to Santa Fe, New Mexico Mail Line, a key transportation and communications link in the region.
In his youth and early adulthood, Giddings worked as a schoolteacher part-time in order to finance his education as a civil engineer. He subsequently found employment as a railroad engineer, reflecting the rapid expansion of rail infrastructure in the mid-nineteenth century United States. Seeking to enter the legal profession, he began his legal studies in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, in 1850. The death of his brother Giles in Texas and the resulting land bounty claim drew the family’s attention southward. When word of Giles’s death and land entitlement reached the family, another brother, Jabez Demming Giddings, traveled to Texas to claim the land. Dewitt Clinton Giddings followed, joining Jabez in Brenham, Texas, in 1852.
After settling in Texas, Giddings completed his legal training and was admitted to the Texas bar in 1853. He entered into practice in Brenham as the junior partner in a law firm with his brother Jabez, establishing himself professionally in the growing community. His legal career coincided with Texas’s development as a state and the mounting sectional tensions that would culminate in the Civil War. In 1860, he married Malinda C. Lusk, the daughter of Texas soldier and politician Samuel C. Lusk. The couple had five children, three of whom survived to adulthood: De Witt, May Belle, and Lilian.
During the American Civil War, Giddings served in the Confederate States Army, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel in the 21st Texas Cavalry Regiment. His service placed him among the many Texas leaders whose careers bridged the antebellum, wartime, and Reconstruction periods. Following the war, he resumed his legal and civic activities in Brenham and emerged as a Democratic political figure in a state undergoing federal military occupation and political reorganization.
Giddings’s entry into national politics came with his election to the United States House of Representatives. His first service in Congress was in the Forty-second Congress, following a closely contested and controversial election against Republican incumbent William T. Clark. Giddings initially appeared to have defeated Clark by 135 votes, but suspected voting irregularities led to Clark being seated at the outset. Giddings formally contested the election, and after review, the House determined that he was the rightful winner, whereupon he took his seat. He was subsequently reelected as a Democrat to the Forty-third Congress, serving from May 13, 1872, to March 4, 1875, and later to the Forty-fifth Congress, serving from March 4, 1877, to March 4, 1879. Across these three non-consecutive terms, he participated in the democratic process during a formative era in Texas and national politics, representing his district’s interests as the state transitioned from Reconstruction toward the late nineteenth-century political order.
After his final term in Congress, Giddings returned to private life in Texas, continuing his association with Brenham and maintaining his standing as a prominent local attorney and former legislator. He remained in Brenham for the rest of his life. On August 19, 1903, Dewitt Clinton Giddings succumbed to heart disease and died in Brenham, Texas. He is buried, along with his wife Malinda, in Prairie Lea Cemetery in Brenham, marking the resting place of a family deeply intertwined with both the early military history and the later political development of Texas.
Congressional Record
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