Thomas Settle (1831-1888) from Rockingham County, NC, entered the University in 1847, joined the Dialectic Society, and graduated with third honors in 1850. He became a lawyer and founder of the North Carolina Republican party. He was a member of the NC House of Commons (1854-59), a University trustee (1856-68), a presidential elector, a captain in the Confederate army, speaker of the NC Senate (1865), a member of the NC Supreme Court (1868-71), a minister to Peru (1871), president of the Republican National Convention (1872), and a judge of the US district court in Florida (1877-88) (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography 5:316-17).