J. Willard Ragsdale

James Willard Ragsdale ( born December 14, 1872 in Timmonsville, Florence County, South Carolina, † July 23, 1919 in Washington DC ) was an American politician. Between 1913 and 1919 he represented the state of South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Willard Ragsdale attended the common schools and then worked in the management of a railroad company in Wilmington (North Carolina). He then studied at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. After a subsequent study of law and its made ​​in 1898 admitted to the bar, he began practicing in his new profession in Florence (South Carolina). He also became involved in the banking industry and in agriculture. Ragsdale was also curator of the South Carolina Industrial School.

Politically, he was a member of the Democratic Party. In 1899 and 1900 he sat as an MP in the House of Representatives from South Carolina, from 1902 to 1904 he was a member of the State Senate. In the meantime, he applied unsuccessfully for the post of Attorney General of his home state. In 1910, failed his first candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Ragsdale 1912 but was then selected in the sixth constituency of South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, where he became the successor of J. Edwin Ellerbe on March 4, 1913. After three re- elections he could remain until his death July 23, 1919 in Congress. In this time of the First World War fell. During his time in Congress, the 17th and the 18th Amendment to the Constitution were adopted.

J. Willard Ragsdale was buried in Florence.