Waightstill Avery was born in Groton, Connecticut back in 1741. He enrolled in Yale around 1763 but only stayed for two years because of the oppressive discipline and the college’s unpopular president. He and fellow student later to become a Justice of the Supreme Court Oliver Ellsworth transferred to the College of New Jersey (today Princeton University) where he received his law degree.
He was a successful attorney elected to the colonial assembly in 1772. In 1775, he was elected to the North Carolina Provincial Congresses helping to draft the first North Carolina Constitution. The first Attorney General of North Carolina and a colonel in the state’s militia during the American Revolutionary War. He also served I the North Carolina General Assembly and the Senate. He died in Morgantown, North Carolina in 1821, he was 79.
What you may not know about Waightstill is that in 1788 he was challenged to a duel by Andrew Jackson, while the stories of why Andrew challenged Waightstill to that duel remains lost to history what did happen it that it took place. Both parties met on the field of honor, each intentionally missing the other while firing. They left fast friends for the rest of their lives.
Until tomorrow give someone the free gift of a smile
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