Thomas Clay McCreery

Thomas Clay McCreery (December 12, 1816 – July 10, 1890) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a Democratic United States Senator from Kentucky during the Reconstruction era, holding office from 1868 to 1871 and again from 1873 to 1879. Over the course of two nonconsecutive terms, he contributed to the legislative process and represented the interests of his Kentucky constituents during a significant and turbulent period in American history.

McCreery was born on December 12, 1816, at Yelvington in Daviess County, Kentucky. Little is recorded about his early childhood, but he came of age in a state that was politically and geographically at the crossroads of North and South. He pursued formal education in Kentucky and prepared for a professional career at a time when the state was developing its legal and political institutions in the decades before the Civil War.

In 1837, McCreery graduated from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, one of the state’s leading institutions of higher learning. After completing his collegiate studies, he read law, was admitted to the bar, and commenced the practice of law in Frankfort, Kentucky, the state capital. Following his initial legal practice there, he returned to Owensboro in Daviess County, where he continued his professional pursuits and also engaged in literary activities, reflecting a broader interest in letters and public discourse beyond the courtroom.

McCreery’s early political career was marked by persistence despite initial setbacks. A committed Democrat, he ran unsuccessfully for election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1842 for the Twenty-eighth Congress and again in 1844 for the Twenty-ninth Congress. Although these campaigns did not result in office, they established him as an active figure in Kentucky Democratic politics. He further solidified his standing in the party by serving as a presidential elector on the Democratic tickets in 1852, 1856, and 1860, participating in the formal process of choosing the President and Vice President of the United States in the years leading up to the Civil War.

McCreery’s national legislative career began in the aftermath of the Civil War. He was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Senator James Guthrie. He took his seat on February 19, 1868, and served until March 3, 1871. His service in Congress thus spanned a crucial phase of Reconstruction, during which he participated in the Senate’s deliberations and contributed to the democratic process as Kentucky and the nation adjusted to the war’s aftermath and the reintegration of the Southern states. During this period, McCreery became embroiled in a political controversy when Governor John W. Stevenson accused him of assisting former Union General Stephen G. Burbridge, a figure widely disliked in Kentucky, in obtaining a federal position as revenue collector. These accusations damaged McCreery’s standing within the state’s Democratic leadership and contributed to his loss to Stevenson in a subsequent Senate election.

Despite this setback, McCreery returned to the Senate a short time later. He was again elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1872 and served a full term from March 4, 1873, to March 3, 1879. This second period of service extended his overall tenure in the Senate to two terms, as reflected in accounts noting his service from 1867 to 1879, and placed him in the upper chamber during the later years of Reconstruction and the beginning of the Gilded Age. During these years, he continued to represent Kentucky’s interests at the federal level and to participate in the legislative work of the Senate. At the conclusion of his term in 1879, McCreery declined to be a candidate for reelection, thereby ending his congressional career.

After leaving the Senate, McCreery retired from public life and returned to Daviess County, Kentucky. He lived on his farm there, withdrawing from the active political arena that had occupied much of his adult life. In his later years he moved back into Owensboro, maintaining his ties to the community in which he had long resided and practiced law. Thomas Clay McCreery died in Owensboro on July 10, 1890. He was interred in Rosehill Elmwood Cemetery in Owensboro, Kentucky, closing the life of a figure who had played a notable role in Kentucky’s political history during one of the most consequential periods in the history of the United States.