William Ephraim SMITH, Congress, GA (1829-1890)

SMITH, William Ephraim, a Representative from Georgia; born in Augusta, Richmond County, Ga., March 14, 1829; pursued an academic course; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1846, under a special act of the legislature, and practiced in Albany, Ga.; also a planter; ordinary of Dougherty County, Ga., in 1853; solicitor general of the southwest circuit 1858-1860; during the Civil War enlisted in the Confederate Army as a first lieutenant in the Fourth Georgia Volunteer Infantry; elected captain in April 1862; elected to the house of representatives of the Second Confederate Congress in 1863; declined the office of circuit judge of Georgia in 1874; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, and Forty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1881); was not a candidate for renomination in 1880; resumed the practice of law; president of the Democratic State convention in 1886; served in the State senate 1886-1888; died in Albany, Dougherty County, Ga., March 11, 1890; interment in Oakview Cemetery.

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