Zedekiah Kidwell

Who was Zedekiah Kidwell?

Zedekiah Kidwell was a nineteenth-century politician, physician, lawyer, teacher and clerk from Virginia and West Virginia.

Kidwell was born in Fairfax, Virginia. His father was a civil engineer. Kidwell received an English education and studied medicine. He moved to Clarksburg, Virginia with his father in 1834 where he taught school and clerked in a store. He resumed studying medicine and graduated from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1839, commencing practice in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Kidwell moved to Fairmont, Virginia and served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1842 to 1845, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1849, leaving his medical practice the same year. He was a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1849 and served in the House of Delegates again in 1849, 1850 and 1852. In 1852, he was a Presidential elector for the Pierce and King ticket. That year he was also elected a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives, serving 1853 to 1857. Afterward, he resumed practicing medicine.

He was a member of the Virginia Board of Public Works from 1857 to 1860. From 1861 to the end of the Civil War, he held a civil office in Richmond. He died in Fairmont, West Virginia on April 27, 1872, and was interned there in Fairmont Cemetery.