WILLIAM HAMILTON SAWYER.
William Hamilton Sawyer, Democrat, Representative from Wake County, was born at Raleigh, N. C, January 8, 1887. Son of Mannlieff Dixon and Henrietta Elizabeth (Walker) Sawyer. Was educated at Raleigh Public Schools, 1895.-1903. Lawyer. Financial secretary of Robert G. Lassiter & Co., 1917; Record Clerk, Selective Service Bureau, 1918; Register of Deeds of Wake County, 1904-1912; City Clerk of Raleigh, 1913-1917. Baptist. Married Miss Ida Margaret Cates, June 29, 1910.   Three children.   Address: Raleigh, N. C.
(Source: North Carolina Manual. 1919. Published by the North Carolina Historical Commission.)

SYLVESTER BROWN SHEPHERD
Sylvester Brown Shepherd, Democrat, Representative from Wake County, was born at. Washington, N. C, August 6, 1876. Son of James E. and Elizabeth B. (Brown) Shepherd. Was educated at Bronson's School, Warrenton, 1889; Bingham Military School, Asheville, 1890; Raleigh Male Academy, 1890-1892; University of North Carolina, 1893-1807; University of North Carolina, Law School, 1897-1898. Lawyer. Acted in 1859 as Attorney-General by appointment of Governor during absence of Attorney-General Gilmer. Trustee St. Augustine School at Raleigh; Trustee of Olivia Raney Library of Raleigh. Delta Kappa Epsilon; Order of Gimghoul. Episcopalian. Married Miss Lilla May Vass, October 11, 1900. Four children. Address: Raleigh, N. C.
(Source: North Carolina Manual. 1919. Published by the North Carolina Historical Commission.)

Senate Years of Service: 1950-1953
Party: Democrat
SMITH, Willis, a Senator from North Carolina; born in Norfolk, Va., December 19, 1887; at the death of his father, moved with his mother to North Carolina in 1889 and attended the public schools in Elizabeth City; graduated from Atlantic Collegiate Institute, Elizabeth City, N.C., in 1905, Trinity College (now Duke University), Durham, N.C., in 1910, and from the law school of Duke University in 1912; admitted to the bar in 1912 and commenced the practice of law in Raleigh, N.C.; during the First World War served in the United States Army at Fort Monroe, Va.; inheritance tax attorney of North Carolina 1915-1920; member, State house of Representatives 1928-1932, serving as speaker 1931; member of commission preparing rules for federal courts in North Carolina in 1933; observer at Nuremburg Trials in 1946; United States delegate to the Interparliamentary Union in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1951, and served as chairman of the American delegation to the Interparliamentary Union in Bern, Switzerland, in 1952; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate on November 7, 1950, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of J. Melville Broughton and served from November 27, 1950, until his death in the naval hospital at Bethesda, Md., June 26, 1953; interment in Oakwood Cemetery, Raleigh, N.C.
(Source: Biographical Directory of the United States 1774-present.)

SNEED, JOHN LOUIS TAYLOR, soldier, lawyer, jurist, state legislator, author, was born May 12, 1820, in Raleigh, N. C. He was a member of the Tennessee legislature in 1845; and was captain of a Tennessee company in the Mexican war in 1846-47. He was judge of the state Supreme Court in 1870-78, and of the court of arbitration in 1879, and judge of the state court of referees in 1883-84. In 1888 he was chosen president of the Memphis School of Law. He is the author of Reports of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, 1854-59.
[Herringshaw's encyclopedia of American biography of the nineteenth century; Edited by Thomas William Herringshaw; Publ. 1901; Donated and Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack]