Date Died: June 17, 1915

Place Buried: Cherry Hill Cemetery in Greenville, NC

Occupation: Teacher/Educator, Merchant

Thomas Jordan Jarvis was born on January 18, 1836 in Currituck County, NC, the son of Bannister Hardy Jarvis and Elizabeth (Daley) Jarvis. Raised in a relatively poor family, Jarvis worked when he was young on a three hundred acre farm owned by his father, while he was studying in the common schools.

At nineteen years old, Jarvis attended Randoph-Macon College in Ashland, VA, earning an M.A. in 1861. He was a teacher during the summer to pay for his college tuition. An educator by training, Jarvis opened a school in Pasquotank County and would later be one of the founders of East Carolina University in Greenville, NC.

Thomas Jordan Jarvis enlisted in the military at the beginning of the Civil War and served in the 8th North Carolina Regiment. On April 22, 1863 he was named Captain. Captured and exchanged in 1862, Jarvis was injured and permanently disabled at the Battle of Drewry's Bluff in 1864. After the war ended, he was on sick leave in Norfolk and in May 1865, he got probation and returned home.

Thomas Jordan Jarvis then opened a general store before being named a delegate to the 1865 NC Constitutional Convention. In 1867, he bought out William H. Happer's share of his small general store, but in June of that year, he abandoned the store and moved to Columbia, the county seat of Tyrrell County. Here he also studied law; was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1867, and commenced his own law practice.

In 1868, Thomas Jordan Jarvis was first elected to represent Tyrrell County in the House of Representatives of the:
- 78th General Assembly that met from 1868-1869
- 79th General Assembly that met from 1870-1872 - elected Speaker of the House

Thomas Jordan Jarvis then moved to Greenville, NC, where he would remain for the rest of his life.

In December of 1874, Thomas Jordan Jarvis married Mary Woodson, the daughter of Judge John Woodson of Goochland County, VA; they had no children.

In 1876, Thomas Jordan Jarvis was elected as Lieutenant Governor and served under Gov. Zebulon Baird Vance, until Vance resigned from office.

On February 5, 1879 Gov. Zebulon B. Vance resigned from office, and Lt. Gov. Thomas Jordan Jarvis assumed the duties of the governorship. He was elected to his own term and left office on January 21, 1885. As governor, he fought against government corruption and attempted to cut taxes, the state's debt, and government control. He also completed the sale of various state railways to private companies. He established mental health services in Morganton and Goldsboro, managed the establishment of normal schools for teachers in North Carolina and helped develop the State Board of Health.

In his second term, Gov. Jarvis convinced the legislature to authorize construction of the North Carolina Executive Mansion, although it was not completed until 1891. He supported establishing a system of county superintendents of education elected by boards of education, grades of teacher certification, standards of examinations for public school teachers, and lists of recommended textbooks. Also, funds for the mental institutions continued to increase, and the laws of North Carolina were for the first time codified and state insurance laws fully defined.

In 1885, Thomas Jordan Jarvis was appointed U.S. Minister to Brazil by President Grover Cleveland, and he served in this capacity until 1889.

Following U.S.Senator Zebulon Baird Vance's death in 1894, Thomas Jordan Jarvis again succeeded him in office, serving as a U.S. Senator through an appointment by Gov. Elias Carr. In 1895, the state legislature, now under the control of Republicans and Populists, would not elect Jarvis to a term of his own.

In 1896, Thomas Jordan Jarvis was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, where he supported William Jennings Bryan in his last major political act. He was instrumental in the founding of what is now East Carolina University in Greenville, where the oldest residential hall on campus is named in his memory.

Jarvis reopened his law firm and in 1912 he founded a partnership with Frank Wooten. On June 17, 1915, Thomas Jordan Jarvis died and was buried at the Cherry Hill Cemetery in Greenville, NC.

Born in Jarvisburg, North Carolina, in Currituck County, the son of a Methodist minister, Jarvis was educated locally and went on to attend Randoph-Macon College, earning an M.A. in 1861. An educator by training, Jarvis opened a school in Pasquotank County and would later be one of the founders of East Carolina University.

Jarvis enlisted in the military at the beginning of the American Civil War and served in the Eighth North Carolina Regiment. Captured and exchanged in 1862, Jarvis, by then a Captain, was injured and permanently disabled at the Battle of Drewry's Bluff in 1864.

In 1865, Jarvis returned home and opened a general store before being named a delegate to the 1865 state constitutional convention. Active in the Democratic Party, Jarvis was elected to the State House in 1868 and served there for four years, two of them (1870-1872) as Speaker of the House. An opponent of federal Reconstruction policy, Jarvis was elected lieutenant governor in 1876 on a ticket with Zebulon Vance. Jarvis also married Mary Woodson in December 1874.

In 1879, Vance resigned the governorship to serve in the United States Senate, and Jarvis filled the vacant position. He won election in his own right in 1880, defeating Daniel G. Fowle for the Democratic nomination and narrowly winning over Republican challenger Ralph Buxton.

Term-limited, Jarvis stepped down as governor in 1885, but was appointed United States Ambassador to Brazil by President Grover Cleveland. Jarvis held this post for four years, after which he practiced law in Greenville, North Carolina. Following Senator Vance's death in 1892, Jarvis again succeeded him in office, serving as a U.S. Senator from until 1895, but was not elected to a term of his own.

In 1896, Jarvis was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, where he supported William Jennings Bryan, his last major political act before his death in Greenville in 1915.

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