John Milton was governor of Florida through most of the American Civil War. A lawyer who served in the Florida Legislature, he supported the secession of Florida from the Union and became governor in October 1861. In that post, he turned the state into a major supplier of food for the Confederacy. In his final message to the state legislature as the war was ending, he declared that death would be preferable to reunion with the North. When he killed himself, his son Jefferson Davis Milton was a toddler.
Russell Alexander Alger was an American politician and businessman. He served as the 20th governor of Michigan, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Secretary of War.
Frank Swett Black was an American newspaper editor, lawyer and politician. A Republican, he was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1895 to 1897, and the 32nd governor of New York from 1897 to 1898.
John Coit Spooner was a politician and lawyer from Wisconsin. He served in the United States Senate from 1885 to 1891 and from 1897 to 1907. A Republican, by the 1890s, he was one of the "Big Four" key Republicans who largely controlled the major decisions of the Senate, along with Orville H. Platt of Connecticut, William B. Allison of Iowa, and Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island.
John RhodericMcPherson was an American businessman, inventor, and Democratic politician who represented New Jersey in the United States Senate for three terms from 1877 to 1895. Prior to his election, he was engaged in Jersey City politics and represented Hudson County in the New Jersey Senate.
More than 1,500 African American officeholders served during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877) and in the years after Reconstruction before white supremacy, disenfranchisement, and the Democratic Party fully reasserted control in Southern states. Historian Canter Brown Jr. noted that in some states, such as Florida, the highest number of African Americans were elected or appointed to offices after the end of Reconstruction in 1877. The following is a partial list of notable African American officeholders from the end of the Civil War until before 1900. Dates listed are the year that a term states or the range of years served if multiple terms.
Charles Creighton Carlin was an American lawyer, newspaper publisher and Democratic politician who served in the United States House of Representatives representing Virginia's 8th congressional district.
Charles Henry Robb was an American lawyer from Vermont and Washington, DC. He was most notable for his service as an Associate Justice of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Marshall Silas Cornwell was a 19th-century American newspaper publisher and editor, writer and poet in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Cornwell was a younger brother of railroad and timber executive William B. Cornwell (1864–1926) and West Virginia Governor John Jacob Cornwell (1867–1953).
Charles Richard Chapman was an American lawyer and politician who was Mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, and served in both houses of the Connecticut legislature.
Samuel Lightfoot Flournoy was an American lawyer, politician, and businessperson in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Flournoy served as a state senator representing the 12th Senatorial District in the West Virginia Senate (1885–1890) and served three terms as mayor of Romney, West Virginia. Flournoy unsuccessfully ran as a candidate for the West Virginia Democratic Party gubernatorial nomination in 1900.
William Benjamin Cornwell was an American lawyer, businessperson, newspaper editor and publisher, and railroad and timber executive in the U.S. state of West Virginia. He was an older brother of writer and newspaper publisher Marshall S. Cornwell (1871–1898) and of West Virginia Governor John J. Cornwell (1867–1953).
William C. Clayton was an American educator, lawyer, politician, and businessperson in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Clayton served in the West Virginia Senate representing the Eleventh Senatorial District of West Virginia from 1875 until 1879. He was twice principal of the Romney Classical Institute in Romney in 1853 and 1866.
Ernest Amos was an American politician in Florida. Early in his career he was a law clerk for Charles J. Perrenot. He was elected to one term in the Florida House of Representatives in 1900 and then served as state auditor from 1904 until 1917. He also served a comptroller until 1933 when he was defeated in an election. He went on to hold lesser offices for the state. The Florida archives have a photo of him and state secretary of state R. A. Gray in an office in Tallahassee.
Thomas Palmer (1859–1946) was an American lawyer, developer, and politician in Florida representing Tampa. He served in the Florida Senate including as President of the Florida Senate.
Edward Marshall Grout was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He served as first Borough President of Brooklyn, and later as New York City Comptroller.
Charles Benjamin Page was an American lawyer and politician from New York.
John Webley Slocum was an American lawyer, politician, and judge from New Jersey.
Charles L. Hodges was a career officer in the United States Army. A Union Army veteran of the American Civil War, American Indian Wars, Spanish–American War, and Philippine–American War, Hodges remained in the army from 1861 until retiring in 1911 and attained the rank of major general.
