William Lyne WILSON, Congress, WV (1843-1900)

WILSON, William Lyne, a Representative from West Virginia; born near Charles Town, Jefferson County, Va. (now West Virginia), May 3, 1843; attended Charles Town Academy; was graduated from Columbian College (now George Washington University), Washington, D.C., in 1860 and subsequently studied in the University of Virginia at Charlottesville; during the Civil War served in the Confederate Army as a private in the Twelfth Virginia Cavalry; taught for several years in Columbian College, during which time he was graduated from its law school; was admitted to the bar in 1869 and commenced practice in Charles Town, W.Va.; delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1880; chosen president of the West Virginia University at Morgantown and entered upon the office September 4, 1882; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth and to the five succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1895); chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (Fifty-third Congress); Postmaster General in the Cabinet of President Cleveland and served from April 4, 1895, to March 5, 1897; president of the Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.; died in Lexington, Rockbridge, County, Va., October 17, 1900; interment in Edgehill Cemetery, Charles Town, W.Va.

Bibliography

Summers, Festus P. William L. Wilson and Tariff Reform. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953.

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