Representative David Heaton

David Heaton (March 10, 1823 – June 25, 1870) was an American attorney and Republican politician who served as a U.S. Representative from North Carolina during the Reconstruction era. Over the course of his public career he held legislative office in three different states, having earlier been elected to the state senates of Ohio and Minnesota before representing North Carolina in the Fortieth and Forty-first Congresses.

Heaton was born in Hamilton, Butler County, Ohio, on March 10, 1823, to James Heaton (1779–1841) and Mary Morrell (1782–1871), who had migrated to Ohio from the eastern United States. He completed preparatory studies in his youth and pursued legal training through apprenticeship, as was common at the time. After reading law, he was admitted to the bar and commenced practice, establishing himself as an attorney before entering elective politics.

Heaton became active in public affairs in Ohio and was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1855. Seeking new opportunities on the expanding American frontier, he moved in 1857 to St. Anthony Falls, in what was then the Minnesota Territory and soon to become the state of Minnesota. There he resumed the practice of law and quickly entered territorial and then state politics. He was elected to the Minnesota Senate and served from 1858 to 1863, participating in the early legislative development of the new state.

During the American Civil War, Heaton entered federal service. In 1863 he was appointed a special agent of the United States Treasury Department and United States depository in New Bern, North Carolina, a coastal city occupied by Union forces. In this capacity he oversaw federal financial matters in the region and worked in the context of wartime military administration. Near New Bern, a contraband camp was established to shelter formerly enslaved people who had fled to Union lines, and efforts were undertaken there to begin educating former slaves for independence and citizenship. In 1864 Heaton was offered appointment as the Third Auditor of the Treasury, a senior fiscal post in the department, but he declined the position, choosing instead to remain in North Carolina.

After the war, Heaton decided to make North Carolina his permanent home and became an important figure in the state’s Reconstruction politics. He served as a member of the North Carolina constitutional convention of 1867, which met under the requirements of Congressional Reconstruction to draft a new state constitution providing for loyal government and expanded civil rights. When North Carolina was readmitted to representation in Congress, Heaton was elected as a Republican to the Fortieth Congress and was subsequently reelected to the Forty-first Congress. His service in the U.S. House of Representatives extended from July 15, 1868, until his death on June 25, 1870. As a member of the Republican Party representing North Carolina, he contributed to the legislative process during two terms in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents at a critical moment in American history.

In Congress, Heaton quickly assumed responsibilities beyond those of a freshman member. During the Forty-first Congress he served as chairman of the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures, a standing committee with jurisdiction over the nation’s monetary standards and systems of measurement. His chairmanship placed him at the center of debates over economic policy and technical regulation during Reconstruction, adding a national dimension to a career that had already spanned multiple states and levels of government.

Heaton was nominated as the Republican candidate for reelection to the Forty-second Congress, but he died in office in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 1870, before the new term began. His death placed him among the members of the United States Congress who died in office in the nineteenth century. His body was returned to North Carolina and interred in the New Bern National Cemetery, reflecting the state with which his later public life and congressional service were most closely associated.