James Lawrence PUGH, Congress, AL (1820-1907)

PUGH, James Lawrence, a Representative and a Senator from Alabama; born in Burke County, Ga., December 12, 1820; moved with his parents to Alabama in 1824; pursued an academic course in Alabama and Georgia; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1841 and commenced practice in Eufaula, Ala.; also engaged in agricultural pursuits; Democratic presidential elector in 1848, 1856, and 1876; elected to the Thirty-sixth Congress and served from March 4, 1859, to January 21, 1861, when he withdrew; during the Civil War joined the Eufaula Rifles, First Alabama Regiment, as a private; elected to the Confederate Congress in 1861 and reelected in 1863; after the war resumed the practice of law; member of the convention that framed the State constitution in 1875; presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1876; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term ending March 2, 1885, caused by the death of George S. Houston; reelected in 1884 and 1890 and served from November 24, 1880, to March 3, 1897; was not a candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on the Judiciary (Fifty-third Congress), Committee on Revolutionary Claims (Fifty-fourth Congress); retired from active business and resided in Washington, D.C., until his death there on March 9, 1907; interment in the Fairview Cemetery, Eufaula, Barbour County, Ala.

Bibliography

Watson, Elbert L. “James Lawrence Pugh.” In Alabama United States Senators, pp. 88-90. Huntsville, AL: Strode Publishers, 1982.

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