My Genealogy Hound

WASHINGTON CURRAN WHITTHORNE was born in that part of Lincoln County subsequently made a part of Marshall County, Tenn.; was raised in Bedford, attended school at Arrington Academy in Williamson, Campbell Academy in Wilson, and graduated at East Tennessee University. He was a student of law under James K. Polk at the time of his election to the presidency, and entered into the politics of the State at an early age; was a member of the State Senate in 1855-56 and 1857-58, and was speaker of the House of Representatives in 1859-60, having been elected to the House over W. L. McConnico, the Whig candidate, and one of the foremost orators in the State. In 1860 he was selected by his party as a candidate for elector for the State at large. He canvassed the State from one end to the other, meeting more competitors of the ablest of his opponents than was ever done in any former political canvass in the State. Upon the breaking out of the war he became assistant adjutant-general, serving with Gen. Andersen in West Virginia in 1861. At the close of the war he returned to the practice of his profession at Columbia, in which he achieved great success until the year 1871, when he was elected to the Forty-second congress where he continued to serve without intermission until the close of the Forty-seventh Congress. During his service in Congress, his most marked work was as a member of the Committee on Naval Affairs, of which he was chairman for six years. Of Gen. Whitthorne’s services to his party and country since the war, it is unnecessary to speak at length. He has served both with untiring zeal, energy and ability. While earnest, bold and energetic by nature, he combines with those qualities a prudence, conservatism and sagacity which gives them extraordinary weight and influence. He was appointed to the Senate by Gov. Bate to fill the unexpired term of Senator Howell E. Jackson, appointed United States Circuit Court Judge.