BADGER, George E.; was born in the town of Newbern, North Carolina, in 1795; graduated at Yale College in 1813; studied and practiced law; was elected to the Legislature in 1816; in 1820 was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court, which position he resigned in 1825; was appointed Secretary of the Navy, by President Harrison, in 1841; was elected a Senator in Congress in 1846, and re-elected in 1849 for a term of six years, serving on the Committees on Military and Naval Affairs; was subsequently wholly devoted to the practice of his profession, visiting Washington occasionally to argue cases in the Supreme Court of the United States; died at Raleigh, North Carolina, May 11, 1866.
(Source: Biographical Annals of the Civil Government of the United States)
A. H. Barlow, one of the oldest and most respected citizens of this county, was born near Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1818. When he was quite a small boy his parents moved to Tennessee where they died. He came to Neosho in 1841, and has lived in Newton and McDonald counties ever since. He received his education at home, studying at night by light of pine knots. He married Elizabeth Gibson in Tennessee, they had twelve children, four of whom are dead. Of the living, two are in Colorado, two in the Chocktaw Nation, one in Kansas, one at Neosho, one at Stella, and one near Miami, I.T. Some years after the death of his first wife he married the widow Michael of Newton county. They have three children all living. One at Anderson, one in Ark. and one in Colorado. Mr. Barlow was originally a Whig, and says he sticks to it yet, but voted for Bryan last fall. He has been a carpenter, cabinet maker and mill wright. During the war he lived on a small farm near Neosho most of the time, but finally went to Neosho and followed the Union army. During the war his house and fences were all burnt, but they caught from the forest fires. He says the Rebels treated him well and he never had an enemy in his life.
(History of McDonald County, Missouri, by Judge J. A. Sturges, 1897)
Beckwith, John Watrus, clergyman, bishop, was born Feb. 9. 1831. in Raleigh, N.C. In 1886 became protestant episcopal bishop of Georgia. He died Nov. 23, 1890, in Atlanta, Ga.
[Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States, by William Herringshaw, 1909 – Transcribed by Therman Kellar]
EUGENE C. BEDDINGFIELD.
(Fifteenth District.—County: Wake. One Senator.)
Eugene C. Beddingfield, Democrat, of Wake County, Senator from Fifteenth District, was born near Raleigh, N. C, October 10, 1862. Son of Alexander H. and Palmyra LaFayette (Chappell) Bedding-field. Was educated in private schools; Forestville Academy, 1876. Farmer. Representative in the General Assembly, 18-89, 1901. Member of N. C. R. R. Commission, 1801-1899; N. C. Corporation Commission, 19021-1909. County Commissioner of Wake County, 1912-1916. Member of Farmers' Union; Mason. Baptist. Married Miss Nannie Peebles, November 24, 1881. Eight children. Address: Raleigh, N. C, R. F. D. 1.
(Source: North Carolina Manual. 1919. Published by the North Carolina Historical Commission.)
BLAKE, Mrs. Lillie Devereux, woman suffragist and reformer, born in Raleigh, N. C., 12th August, 1835. Both her parents were descended from the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, D. D., and by other lines of descent were of highly distinguished ancestry. Lillie received every advantage of education at New Haven, Conn., to which place her widowed mother had removed, taking the Yale College course from tutors at home. She grew up a beautiful and brilliant girl and was an acknowledged belle until she was married in 1855 to Frank G. Q. Umsted, a young lawyer of Philadelphia. They made their home in St. Louis, Mo., and New York City until 1859, when she was left a widow with two children. She had already begun to write for the press, one of her first stories, "A Lonely House," having appeared in the "Atlantic Monthly." A novel, "Southwold." had achieved a decided success. The handsome fortune she had inherited was largely impaired, and the young widow began to work in earnest, writing stories, sketches and letters for several leading periodicals. She made her home mostly with her mother, in Stratford. Conn. In 1862 she published a second novel, " Rockford," and subsequently several romances. In 1866 she was married to Grinfill Blake, a young merchant of New York. In 1869 she became actively interested in the woman suffrage movement. A woman of strong affections and marked domestic tastes, her speaking outside of New York City has been almost wholly done in the summer, when her family was naturally scattered. In 1872 she published a novel called "Fettered for Life," designed to show the many disadvantages under which women labor. In 1873 she made an application for the opening of Columbia College to young women, presenting a class of qualified girl students. The agitation then begun has since led to the establishment of Barnard College. In 1879 she was unanimously elected president of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association, and held that office eleven years. Her lectures, printed under the title of "Woman's Place To-day" (New York), have had a large sale. Among the reforms in which she has been actively interested has been that of securing matrons to take charge of women detained in police stations. As early as 1871 she spoke and wrote on the subject. Public sentiment was finally aroused, and in 1891 a law was passed enforcing this much-needed reform. The employment of women as census takers was first urged in 1880 by Mrs. Blake. The bills giving seats to saleswomen, ordering the presence of a woman physician in every insane asylum where women are detained, and many other beneficent measures were presented or aided by her. In 1886 Mrs. Blake was elected president of the New York City Woman Suffrage League, an office which she still holds. She has attended conventions and made speeches in most of the States and Territories, and has addressed committees of both houses of Congress and of the New York and Connecticut Legislatures. She is a graceful and logical writer, a witty and eloquent speaker and a charming hostess, her weekly receptions through the season in New York having been for many years among the attractions of literary and reform circles.
(American Women Fifteen Hundred Biographies, Volume 1, Publ. 1897. Transcribed by Marla Snow)
BRANCH, William Augustus Blount, (1847-1910)(son of Lawrence O’Bryan Branch and great-nephew of John Branch), a Representative from North Carolina; born in Tallahassee, Fla., February 26, 1847; moved with his father to Raleigh, N.C., in 1852; attended Lovejoy’s Academy, Raleigh, N.C., Bingham Military Academy near Mebane, N.C., the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Virginia Military Institute at Lexington; joined the Confederate Army and served as a courier on the staff of Gen. R. F. Hoke; surrendered with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s army in 1865; studied law but never practiced; in 1867 took charge of his landed estate near Washington, Beaufort County, N.C., and engaged in agricultural pursuits; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses (March 4, 1891-March 3, 1895); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1894 to the Fifty-fourth Congress; again engaged in agricultural pursuits on his estate; member of the State house of representatives in 1896; died in Washington, N.C., November 18, 1910; interment in Oakdale Cemetery.
(Source: Biographical Directory of the United States 1774-present.)
Senate Years of Service: 1948-1949
Party: Democrat
BROUGHTON, Joseph Melville, a Senator from North Carolina; born in Raleigh, Wake County, N.C., November 17, 1888; attended the public schools; graduated from Hugh Morson Academy in 1906 and Wake Forest (N.C.) College in 1910; taught school in Bunn, N.C. 1910-1912; reporter on a newspaper in Winston-Salem, N.C., in 1912; attended Harvard University Law School in 1912 and 1913; admitted to the bar in 1914 and commenced practice in Raleigh, N.C., the same year; also engaged in agricultural pursuits; member, State senate 1927-1929; Governor of North Carolina 1941-1945; served as a member of the board of trustees of Wake Forest College and of the University of North Carolina; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate on November 2, 1948, to fill the vacancy in the term ending January 3, 1949, caused by the death of Josiah W. Bailey and at the same time was elected for the full term commencing January 3, 1949, and served from December 31, 1948, until his death in Washington, D.C., March 6, 1949; interment in Montlawn Memorial Park, Raleigh, N.C.
(Source: Biographical Directory of the United States 1774-present.) |
