After unsuccessfully trying to regain the Eighth District seat from Thompson in 1884, Durham was appointed First Comptroller of the Treasury in 1885, serving throughout President Cleveland's term. In 1890, after battling a severe case of influenza, Durham abandoned his law practice, moving to Lexington, Kentucky and helping organize the Bank of Lexington. He was an officer of the bank for several years. He ardently held to a sound money position during the height of the Free Silver movement. He was appointed deputy clerk of the Internal Revenue Service at Lexington in 1901, a position he held until his death on February 12, 1911.
On June 18, 1850, Durham married Martha J. Mitchell.[4] The couple had five children – Louis H. Durham, Benjamin J. Durham, James Wesley Durham, Robert M. Durham, and Ora B. (Durham) Morris.[3] Martha Durham died in 1879.[3] After the death of his first wife, Durham married Margaret Letcher Carter in 1886.[3]
Political career
Although active in Democratic politics and frequently urged by friends and acquaintances to seek a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives or Kentucky Senate, Durham held no public office prior to 1861.[4] In that year, GovernorBeriah Magoffin appointed him circuit judge of the eighth judicial district.[2] He served until 1862, but declined further service on the bench.[4]
Durham sought re-election to his seat in 1878.[1] He was opposed for the nomination by Philip B. Thompson, Jr., who defeated him by one-tenth of a vote at the Democratic nominating convention at Stanford, Kentucky and went on to defeat the Republican challenger, George Denny.[7] At the expiration of his term, Durham returned to his law practice in Danville.[1] He again sought the Democratic nomination to represent the Eighth District in 1884.[8] His opponents were the incumbent, Philip B. Thompson, Jr., and former Governor James B. McCreary.[8] So great was the excitement about the race that party leaders decided to choose the nominee by a primary election rather than a nominating convention for the first time in the history of the district.[9] Durham finished behind both Thompson and McCreary, who won the nomination and went on to defeat the Republican nominee, James Sebastian.[8]
In 1885, PresidentGrover Cleveland appointed Durham First Comptroller of the Treasury of the United States; he served from March 20, 1885, until the office was discontinued on April 22, 1889.[1][2] During his tenure, he sparked a minor controversy between himself and Governor J. Proctor Knott when, in a private letter to a friend, he suggested that Kentucky needed a financier in the governor's office.[10] The letter went on to say that, while Durham had no plans to actively seek the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1887, he would consider running if the nomination were offered him, provided that President Cleveland approved of his resignation to seek the office.[10] The courier who delivered the letter also shared it with a newspaper editor who subsequently published it.[10] Governor Knott took the letter as a slap at his financial acumen.[10] A noted satirist from his time in Congress, Knott responded with a biting letter in the local newspaper.[10]
Later life and death
After a severe bout with influenza, Durham's doctors advised him to abandon the practice of law.[2] In 1890, he moved to Lexington, Kentucky and engaged in banking.[1] He helped organize the Central Bank of Lexington and served as the bank's cashier and also served as the treasurer of the Blue Grass Building and Loan Association.[2]
Remaining interested in politics, he was among the speakers at a May 14, 1894 rally to condemn the renomination of Congressman William Campbell Preston Breckinridge because of his admission, under oath, of having an extramarital affair.[11] Later that year, the announcement of Durham as a replacement speaker for SenatorWilliam Lindsay at a rally in Mount Sterling, Kentucky advocating the gold standard touched off a riot among free silver supporters in which one man was killed and several others were injured.[12] In 1896, Durham disputed an article that appeared in the Lexington Leader newspaper claiming that he and other sound money backers had advised Treasury SecretaryJohn G. Carlisle not to visit Kentucky at that time.[13] Durham's initial meeting with the newspaper's editor ended peacefully, but when Durham returned later in the day to further protest, he got into an altercation with one of the newspaper's writers and bloodied his face.[13]
Durham was appointed deputy clerk of the Internal Revenue Service at Lexington in 1901 and served until his death in that city on February 12, 1911.[1] He was interred in Bellevue Cemetery in Danville.[1]
References
^ abcdefghij"Durham, Milton J." Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
