Marion BUTLER, Congress, NC (1863-1938)

BUTLER, Marion, a Senator from North Carolina; born near Clinton, Sampson County, N.C., May 20, 1863; graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1885; taught school for three years; moved to Clinton, N.C., in 1888 and became editor and publisher of the Clinton Caucasian; moved to Raleigh in 1894, but continued the publication of the paper; elected to the State senate in 1890; president of the National Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union in 1894 and 1895; chairman of the People’s Party State committee in 1894; trustee and member of the executive committee of the University of North Carolina 1891-1899; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1899 and commenced practice in Raleigh, N.C.; elected as a Populist to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1895, to March 3, 1901; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1901; chairman, Committee on Organization, Conduct, and Expenditures of Executive Departments (Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses); chairman of the Populist National Executive Committee 1896-1904; affiliated with the Republican Party in 1904; assisted in organizing the Cotton and Tobacco Cooperative Marketing Association of the South in 1923 and 1924; resumed the practice of law in Washington, D.C.; died June 3, 1938, in Takoma Park, Md., where he had been confined in a hospital; interment in Clinton Cemetery, Clinton, N.C.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Hunt, James L. Marion Butler and American Populism. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present