and does not include East in its official list of former governors. When Johnson became president following Lincoln's assassination, he asked East to serve in his cabinet, but East declined. East served as chancellor for Davidson County from 1869 to 1870, and chancellor for the state's Seventh Division (created by the 1870 state constitution) from 1870 to 1872. Afterward, he worked as counsel for the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway. In 1874, East was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives, and served as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. As such, he was instrumental in convincing the state to acknowledge and resolve its debt issues. The state's Greenback Party nominated East as their candidate for governor in 1878, but he declined the nomination. In 1892, East ran for governor on the Prohibition Party ticket, but placed a distant fourth behind Democrat Peter Turney, Republican George W. Winstead, and Farm-Labor incumbent John P. Buchanan. Death East died in Davidson County on November 12, 1904. He is interred at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville. Family life and public service East was the second husband of Ida Horton. Edward and Ida had two daughters, Edine and Bessie. Ida was active in the Temperance movement. East served on the inaugural Board of Trust of Vanderbilt University. He was also president of the Board of Trust for the Tennessee School for the Blind in Nashville, and president of the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Hospital for the Insane. In 1880, he was awarded an honorary LL.D from the University of Nashville. East represented the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at the Methodist Ecumenical Council in London in 1881. See also List of governors of Tennessee References External links Tennessee Blue Book National Governors Association 1830 births 1904 deaths Governors of Tennessee Secretaries of State of Tennessee People of Tennessee in the American Civil War Cumberland School of Law alumni American people of English descent Tennessee Whigs 19th-century American politicians Tennessee state court judges Southern Unionists in the American Civil War Tennessee Republicans Republican Party governors of Tennessee Tennessee Prohibitionists Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Nashville) 19th-century American judges