Pryor Lea (August 31, 1794 – September 14, 1879) was an American politician and railroad entrepreneur who represented Tennessee's 2nd district in the United States House of Representatives from 1827 to 1831. He moved to Goliad, Texas, in the 1840s, where he engaged in railroad construction, and served in the Texas Senate. He was a delegate to the 1861 Texas convention that adopted the state's Ordinance of Secession on the eve of the Civil War. Early life Lea was born in what is now Grainger County, Tennessee, but was then part of Knox County, the son of Major Lea and Lavinia (Jarnagin) Lea. He attended the former Greeneville College (now Tusculum College), after which he studied law. He fought in the Creek War as a major under Andrew Jackson in 1813, and clerked for the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1816. He was admitted to the bar in 1817, and began practicing in Knoxville. He owned slaves. He married Maria Kennedy on October 6, 1818. They had four children, Abraham, Julia, Centhia, and James Kennedy. His second marriage was to Minerva Heard, and his third was to Mary Perkins. Lea was appointed to the Board of Trustees of East Tennessee College (the forerunner of the University of Tennessee) in 1821, and later served as the board's secretary. That same year, he was appointed United States Attorney for Eastern Tennessee. Congress A supporter of Andrew Jackson, Lea was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1827, defeating fiery anti-Jacksonite Thomas D. Arnold by a vote of 3,688 to 3,316. He again defeated Arnold in a hotly contested election in 1829, winning 4,713 votes to Arnold's 4,496. Arnold charged Lea with voter fraud, but the House Committee on Elections found no evidence of irregularities, and Lea was allowed to take his seat. He served in the Twentieth and Twenty-first congresses, from March 4, 1827, to March 4, 1831. He was narrowly defeated by Arnold for a third term in 1831, 4,935 votes to 4,702. As a congressman, Lea was a strict constructionist and states' rights advocate. He generally opposed federal funding for internal improvements, most notably voting against the 1830 "Hemphill Bill," which would have financed the construction of a road connecting Buffalo and New Orleans. He voted in favor of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, describing the House debate on the bill as "one of the severest struggles that