William A. B. Branch

William Augustus Blount Branch ( born February 26, 1847 in Tallahassee, Florida, † November 18, 1910 in Washington, North Carolina ) was an American politician. Between 1891 and 1895 he represented the state of North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

William Branch was the son of Congressman Lawrence O'Bryan Branch (1820-1862) and a great-nephew of U.S. Senator and Governor John Branch ( 1782-1863 ). In 1852 he moved with his father to Raleigh, North Carolina. There he attended the Lovejoy 's Academy. Then he graduated from the Bingham Military Academy and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Branch then continued his education at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. During the Civil War he was a soldier in the army of the Confederacy. He worked as a courier on the staff of General Robert Frederick Hoke. After the war he studied law; but he has never worked as a lawyer. In the following years he managed his estate in Beaufort County.

Politically Branch was a member of the Democratic Party. In the congressional elections of 1890, he became the first constituency of North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of Thomas Gregory Skinner on March 4, 1891. After a re-election he was able to complete in Congress until March 3, 1895 two legislative sessions. In the elections of 1894 he lost to Harry Skinner.

After his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives, William Branch was dedicated again farming on his estate. In 1896 he was elected to the House of Representatives from North Carolina. He died on 18 November 1910 in Washington, where he was also buried.

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