Robert Desha

Robert Desha (January 14, 1791 – February 6, 1849) was an American politician who represented Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. A member of the Jackson Party from Tennessee, he served two terms in Congress during a formative period in the nation’s political development, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents in the early decades of the nineteenth century.

Born on January 14, 1791, Desha came of age in the early years of the American republic, a time marked by rapid territorial expansion and the emergence of new political alignments. Although detailed records of his early life and formal education are limited, his later political affiliation with the Jackson Party suggests that he was shaped by the frontier-oriented, populist, and states’ rights currents that were influential in Tennessee and the broader South in the early 1800s. His rise to public office indicates that he attained sufficient standing in his community to be selected as a representative of his district at the national level.

Desha’s personal life was closely tied to prominent regional families of his era. He married and had at least two daughters who survived to adulthood and formed connections with notable figures through marriage. His daughter Phoebe Ann Desha (1821–1871) married Murray Forbes Smith (1814–1875), thereby linking the Desha family to a well-established mercantile and professional lineage. Another daughter, Caroline Lula Desha (1828–1876), married John Hindman Barney (1811–1853). After Barney’s death, Caroline remarried in 1857 to James Lloyd Abbot (1827–1883), further extending the family’s social and familial ties. These marriages reflected the patterns of alliance and mobility among families of standing in the antebellum South.

Following the death of his first wife in 1833, Robert Desha married Ellen Porter (1815–1889), a daughter of James Porter and Eliza Porter (née French) Farquharson. This second marriage again connected Desha to families of regional prominence and underscored his position within the social and political networks that underpinned public life in the South. Through these relationships, Desha’s household became part of a broader web of kinship that intersected with commercial, professional, and political circles in Tennessee and neighboring states.

Desha’s congressional career placed him in Washington during a significant period in American history, when questions of federal power, economic policy, and territorial expansion were vigorously contested. As a member of the Jackson Party representing Tennessee, he contributed to the legislative process over two terms in office, aligning himself with the political movement associated with Andrew Jackson that emphasized a strong presidency, opposition to entrenched financial interests, and advocacy for the interests of western and southern states. In this capacity, Desha participated in debates and votes that helped shape national policy during a time of growing sectional tension and democratic expansion.

After his service in Congress, Desha remained identified with the public life and interests of the region, though the surviving record of his later career is comparatively sparse. His movements and associations suggest that he maintained connections across the Gulf South, reflecting the commercial and social links that tied Tennessee to emerging urban centers along the Gulf Coast. By the late 1840s, he was residing in Mobile, Alabama, a significant port city whose growth was closely tied to the cotton economy and the broader currents of southern development.

Robert Desha died in Mobile on February 6, 1849, aged 58 years old. He was interred in Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile, a burial ground that became the resting place for many of the city’s civic and commercial leaders. His death in one of the South’s principal port cities, and his burial in a prominent local cemetery, underscored the regional scope of his life and connections, extending beyond his years of service as a representative of Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.