William Gordon Brantley, Sr.
This name has for thirty-five years been prominently associated with the Georgia bar. In the district where he was born and reared and where he began his practice Mr. Brantley has been accorded a share of public honors such as rarely falls to the lot of a native son, and which is the best testimonial to his integrity of character, his solid ability, and his conscientious performance of every duty and responsibility. Besides his service in various local and state offices, he was for sixteen years a member of Congress.

Born at Blackshear, Pierce County, Georgia. September 18, 1860, William Gordon Brantley is of English and Scotch extraction and a son of Benjamin Daniel and Janet Baker (McRae) Brantley. His father, who was born in Laurens County. Georgia, January 14. 1832. and died at Blackshear March 13, 1891, was one of the most extensive freeholders in Southeast Georgia. Early in life he moved to Ware County, and thence to Pierce County in 1857. He accumulated large commercial and agricultural interests, but also frequently filled public office, serving as clerk of the Superior Court, as a member of the Legislature and as county treasurer. The possession of a strong native intellect, great practical common sense and an honesty of purpose and character that knew no changing enabled him to win a most honorable success, though he began life without the advantages of education or property and among people who were strangers to him. His wife, who died at Blackshear November 7, 1910, was of Scotch ancestry, her grandfather McRae having come from Scotland and locating as an original settler in Montgomery County, Georgia, where he was one of the progenitors of the McRae family which for several generations has been prominent in the industrial affairs of Georgia.

After finishing school in his native town William Gordon Brantley attended the state university two years and as a young man displayed that aptitude for studious research which has characterized his later life and has been a pronounced factor in his successful career. Incidentally it should be mentioned that in 1904 he delivered the baccalaureate address at the centennial commencement of the state university. In commemoration of the university's first commencement the address was delivered under a bush arbor, his theme was "Reverence," and both the matter and manner of his speech were not only in keeping with the time and dignity of the occasion but added to his own reputation as a forceful orator and thinker. During his university career some of his classmates were men who likewise attained distinction in after life, including Associate Justice Marcus W. Beck of the Supreme Court, Hon. E. H. Callaway of Augusta, Hon. O.H.B. Bloodworth of Forsyth and Prof. C. M. Strahan of the state university.

After completing his education his early experiences included teaching school, keeping books in his father's store and work as a telegraph operator at Blackshear. He began the study of law under Hon. John C. Nichols, at that time representing the First Congressional District in Congress. Admitted to the bar in the fall of 1881 just after reaching his majority he was offered and accepted a partnership with his former preceptor, and for two years he was a member of the firm of Nichols & Brantley. After that he practiced alone, and almost from the first gained notable distinction as a member of the bar. In 1889 Mr. Brautley removed to Brunswick and that city has since been his legal place of residence, though he is equally well known in Atlanta and has spent many years in Washington.

His public service began as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives in 1884-85, and until he retired from Congress in 1913 he was continuously in some public office. In 1886 he was elected to the Senate from the Third District, then composed of Wayne, Pierce and Appling counties. During his term in the Senate he took an active part in the passage of the telegraph bill of 1887, requiring the prompt delivery of messages under heavy penalties, and also took a decided stand in opposition to the efforts made at that time to sell the Western & Atlantic Railroad. While in the House he gave his support to and helped in the passage of the local option law for Georgia. After his term as senator he was elected solicitor general of the Brunswick Judicial District, composed of Appling, Camden, Charlton, Clinch, Coffee, Glynn, Pierce, Ware and Wayne counties. The duties of this office caused-him to remove to Brunswick in 1889, and in 1892 he was re-elected solicitor general for another term of four years. The judge who presided in the district during Mr. Brantley's incumbency said of the solicitor general: "He is a fine, clean man. If, after examining all the evidence in a case, he thought the prisoner innocent, he had the moral courage to say so and move for his dismissal. On the other hand, when convinced that a prisoner was guilty, he prosecuted him with all the force and vigor of his nature." Though urged to do so, Mr. Brautley declined to become a candidate for the vacant judgeship on the Brunswick circuit caused by the resignation of Judge Spencer R. Atkinson in 1892, and his name was also mentioned for the vacancy in the United States Senate caused by the death of Senator A. H. Colquitt.

On June 18, 1896, while he was still serving as solicitor general, the democratic convention of the Eleventh Congressional District assembled on St. Simon's Island for the purpose of renominating Hon. Henry G. Turner for Congress. Judge Turner had been in Congress for sixteen years and had no opposition, and it was a 'great surprise to the convention and the country when a letter from him, declining a renomination, was presented. The convention with one accord turned to Mr. Brantley as his successor and nominated him by acclamation. No other name was presented. Few Georgia members of Congress have had so nearly unanimous support from their home district as Mr. Brantley. At every successive term he had no democratic opposition for the office, and in several elections there was no candidate from the opposition party, so that he was the unanimous choice of the district. Beginning his service in the Fifty-fifth Congress, he was regularly re-elected at each succeeding two years, serving from 1897 to 1913, concluding his congressional career with the Sixty-second Congress. Though still firmly intrenched in the confidence of his party in the Eleventh District, he voluntarily retired from Congress March 4, 1913, in order to devote all his energies to the practice of his profession.

In Congress as in all his other public and private relations Mr. Brantley showed himself a man of intellectual force and moral character, of distinguished culture and personal magnetism. There were few of his contemporaries in Congress who could equal him in the matter of hard work and application, and he showed his breadth of view and statesmanship in considering the interests not only of his own section but of the entire nation. One who was personally familiar with his career has written: "He is not demonstrative, seldom speaks, but whenever he arises to a question he commands the respect and close attention of the whole house. His speeches against holding the Philippine Islands, against a colonial policy, against the abolishment by Congress of the compulsory pilotage system of the state, in favor of the impeachment of Judge Swayne, of reciprocity with Cuba and of a national quarantine law, have been widely read and approved. They show the wide range of his investigation. Extracts from his Cuban speech have appeared in books and periodicals as specimens of American oratory deserving to be preserved."

In the sixteen years of his congressional service in the course of which he had advanced to the position almost of seniority in the Georgia delegation, he served on many important committees including the judiciary and public grounds committees and the powerful ways and means committee of which he was a member when he retired. He was of the few men in Congress who served on both the judiciary and ways and means committees at the same time. In his home state he is remembered for his work in securing appropriations for the improvement of the Brunswick Harbor, which was of great benefit not only to that port but also to the whole South Atlantic Coast. He was also a member of the Federal Commission which for three years investigated the matter of workmen's compensation and employers' liability for Interstate Common Carriers. This commission reported a bill providing for a compulsory form of such compensation and liability. Mr. Brantley's last speech was in advocacy of it, of which he had charge in the house, and which was considered a few days before adjournment and passed by the house by an overwhelming majority. It also passed the Senate, but in somewhat different form, and its passage by the House being very late in the session, the opponents of the measure succeeded in preventing any conference between the two houses and the bill was lost.

After retiring from Congress in the spring of 1913 Mr. Brantley formed a partnership with Harrison Jones and his son William G. Brantley, Jr., for the practice of law at Atlanta under the name Brantley, Jones & Brantley. However, before he was able to begin practice in that city, he was retained in June, 1913, by the various railroads in the southeastern part of the United States to represent them in the valuation of all their property by the Interstate Commerce Commission in pursuance of the Act of Congress of March 4, 1913. This employment required his return to Washington, where he has since been engaged in its discharge, and where he is now residing. The latest calculations of the Government are that the investigation will require from seven to ten years.

Like his father and mother before him Mr. Brantley is a member of the Presbyterian Church. His fraternities are the Masons, Elks, Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He possesses a familiarity with a broad range of literature, particularly in the field of history and biography, subjects which have greatly assisted him in his professional and public career. Politically he has been described as a consistent democrat who without shirking or evasion meets public questions as they arise with courage and with fidelity to his constituents. His record of success has been gained through straightforward, honest, vigorous, persistent efforts.

On June 6, 1883, he married Miss Jessie Kate Westbrook of Waycross, Georgia. She died February 2, 1895. On January 8, 1901, he married Miss Mary George Linn of Birmingham, Alabama. The three children of the first marriage are William G., Jr., who graduated at the University of Georgia in 1907 with the degree of A. B., and Jessie Kate and Marguerite, who completed their education in the Agnes Scott College. Two sons of the second marriage are Linn McRae and George Daniel and one daughter is Mary Elizabeth.

William Gordon Brantley, Jr., who was born at Blackshear, Georgia, March 15, 1886, gained his early education at Blackshear and Brunswick, and also attended school in Washington during his father's residence there. After his graduation from the University of Georgia in 1907 he, in 1910, won the degree of LL. B. from the George Washington University at Washington, District of Columbia. He practiced law in Atlanta for a few years, first as a member of the law firm of Jones & Brantley and later as a member of the firm of Brantley, Jones & Brantley. He became a member of the Atlanta Bar Association, the University Club and the Atlanta Athletic Club, is affiliated with the Masonic Order, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church.

In 1915 he yielded to the solicitations of his family and returned to his native town of Blackshear to take a responsible position with the A. P. Brantley Company, cotton and general merchant manufacturers and bankers, and is now actively engaged with the business of this company.
[Source: "A standard history of Georgia and Georgians", Volume 4 By Lucian Lamar Knight - Transcribed by K. Torp]

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