J. William Stokes

James William Stokes ( * December 12, 1853 in Orangeburg, Orangeburg County, South Carolina, † July 6, 1901 ) was an American politician. Between 1895 and 1901 he represented the state of South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

William Stokes attended the common schools and then studied until 1876 at Washington and Lee University in Lexington ( Virginia). Subsequently, he worked for twelve years as a teacher before he studied medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville (Tennessee). Since 1889 he has also worked in agriculture. In 1890 he became president of the farmers union of South Carolina.

Politically, Stokes was a member of the Democratic Party. In 1890 he was elected to the Senate of South Carolina. In 1892 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, was again nominated on the ex- incumbent Grover Cleveland as a presidential candidate. In the same year, Stokes applied for the first time unsuccessfully for a seat in Congress.

In 1894, he was then in the seventh constituency of South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC selected. There he entered on March 4, 1895 on the succession of George W. Murray. The election result was however challenged. After this appeal had been upheld, the House of Representatives seat on June 1, 1896, declared vacant and scheduled elections. This election won Stokes, who thus could take his old seat in the House of Representatives. Since he was confirmed in all subsequent regular elections, he could remain until his death on July 6, 1901 Congress. In this time of the Spanish-American War was. At that time, the Philippines and the Kingdom of Hawaii came under American administration. According to Stokes ' death Asbury Francis Lever was elected his successor.