Homer Casteel

Homer Casteel
Homer Casteel
	Casteel in 1917
Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi
	In office; January 1920 – January 1924
President pro tempore of the Mississippi Senate
	In office; January 1928 – January 1932
Member of the Mississippi Senate; from the 18th district; 21st (1916-1920)
	In office; January 1928 – January 1932
	In office; January 1916 – January 1920
Personal details
Born	April 14, 1879; Walnut Grove, Mississippi
Died	December 11, 1958 (aged 79)
Political party	Democratic

Homer Harris Casteel (April 14, 1879 - December 11, 1958) was an American politician in the state of Mississippi who served in the Mississippi Senate and as Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi from 1920-1924.

Career

Casteel was the son of Marion Lafayette Castell (1833-1892) and his wife Virginia Lindsey Casteel (1843-1914). He went to the public schools in Leake County and attended Mississippi Central Normal School in Walnut Grove. In 1911 he was living in Pickens, Mississippi and was elected to the state senate from Holmes County (21st district).^[1] He was re-elected in 1915.^[2] In 1919 Casteel ran successfully for lieutenant governor on a ticket with fellow Democrat Lee M. Russell. While Governor Russell was out of state briefly, Casteel issued several controversial pardons; one was challenged in court but was held valid by the Mississippi Supreme Court.^[3] Casteel also cast a tie-breaking vote to pass the Nineteenth Amendment in the Mississippi Senate in 1920 (although the amendment was then voted down, for a second time, in the House.)^[4]

After his term in office he purchased 400 acres near Canton, Mississippi and built a home there named "Poverty Hill". In 1927 he was elected to another term in the state senate, this time from Madison County, and served as senate president pro tem. He then was appointed to the Tax Commission, serving until 1934, and in 1935 was elected to the Railroad Commission, which was renamed the Public Service Commission at his suggestion. Re-elected three times, he served 16 years on the commission, serving most of those years as chairman. In 1941 he moved from the plantation to a house in the town of Canton.^[5]

Casteel was a delegate to the 1928 Democratic National Convention in Houston, Texas and served as the chairman of the Mississippi delegation. On the last day of the convention he rode a donkey down the aisle to his seat carrying an image of nominee Al Smith.^[6]

Family

On June 9, 1913 Casteel married Jean Calahan (1889-1914) of Pickens, who died September 9, 1914. On August 17, 1917 he married Annie Winters (1890-1970). They had one son, artist Homer Casteel Jr. (1919-1972).

Casteel is buried in the Canton City Cemetery in Canton.

References

^ The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi, Volume 3, Dunbar Rowland, Nashville, Tennessee: Brandon Printing Co., 1912, p. 373
^ Rowland, Dunbar (1917). The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi. Department of Archives and History.
^ https://cite.case.law/miss/134/132/ Montgomery et al v. Cleveland, 1923, Caselaw Access Project
^ http://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/articles/245/mississippi-women-and-the-woman-suffrage-amendment "Mississippi Women and the Woman Suffrage Amendment", Marjorie Julian Spruill and Jesse Spruill Wheeler, Mississippi History Now, December 2001, Mississippi Historical Society
^ http://collections.msdiglib.org/digital/collection/madison/id/2589 "Homer Harris Casteel 1879 - 1958", Inez M. Wallace (unpublished family history in Casteel family papers, Canton (Mississippi) Public Library)
^ "Fun at the Convention", The Sunday Times (Perth, Western Australia), July 1, 1928, p. 1