Randall Lee GIBSON, Congress, LA (1832-1892)

GIBSON, Randall Lee, a Representative and a Senator from Louisiana; born September 10, 1832, at Spring Hill, near Versailles, Woodford County, Ky.; was educated by a private tutor at ‘Live Oak,’ his father’s plantation in Terrebonne Parish, La.; graduated from Yale College in 1853 and from the law department of the University of Louisiana (later Tulane University), New Orleans, La., in 1855; traveled in Europe for several years; engaged in planting until the outbreak of the Civil War; enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861 and served until 1864, when he was promoted to brigadier general; after the war was admitted to the bar and practiced in New Orleans, La.; resumed agricultural pursuits; served as administrator of the Howard Memorial Library, trustee of the Peabody Fund, Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and as president of the board of administrators of Tulane University, New Orleans, La.; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1872 to the Forty-third Congress; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1883); elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1882; reelected in 1889 and served from March 4, 1883, until his death at Hot Springs, Ark., December 15, 1892; interment Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Ky.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; McBride, Mary. “Senator Randall Lee Gibson and the Establishment of Tulane University.” Louisiana History 28 (Summer 1987): 245-62; U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses for Randall Lee Gibson. 53rd Cong., 2nd sess. 1893-1894. Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1894.

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