Sydenham Benoni ALEXANDER, Congress, NC (1840-1921)

ALEXANDER, Sydenham Benoni, (cousin of Adlai Ewing Stevenson and John Sharp Williams), a Representative from North Carolina; born at “Rosedale,” near Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, N.C., December 8, 1840; attended preparatory schools at Rocky River and Wadesboro, N.C.; was graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1860; during the Civil War enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861 as a private in the First Regiment, North Carolina Volunteer Infantry; elected captain of Company K, Forty-second North Carolina Regiment, in June 1862; detached from his company in 1864 and served as inspector general on the staff of Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke; member of the State senate in 1879, 1883, 1885, 1887, and 1901; was instrumental in the establishment of the North Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical College and served as a member of its board of trustees; president of the North Carolina Railroad; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses (March 4, 1891-March 3, 1895); was not a candidate for renomination in 1894; retired to his estate, “Enderly Plantation,” in Mecklenburg County, N.C., and engaged in agricultural pursuits; moved to Charlotte, N.C., in 1906 and died there June 14, 1921; interment in Elmwood Cemetery.

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