Charles Triplet O'Ferrall

Charles Triplett O'Ferrall (born October 21, 1840 in Brucetown , Frederick County , Virginia , † September 22, 1905 in Richmond , Virginia) was an American politician ( Democratic Party ) and from 1894 to 1898 governor of the state of Virginia. Between 1884 and 1893 he represented the state in the US House of Representatives .

Early years

Charles O'Ferrall attended the public schools in his home country and in 1855 became secretary of a court in Morgan County , now part of West Virginia . He held this office until the outbreak of the civil war . Although the supporters of the Union were clearly in the majority in his homeland, decided O'Ferrall, the army of the Confederate States join. In the course of the war he rose to the rank of colonel in a cavalry regiment from Virginia . He was wounded several times.

After the war, O'Ferrall studied law at Washington College in Lexington . After his admission to the bar, he began to work in Harrisonburg in his new profession.

Political career

Between 1871 and 1873 he was a member of the Virginia House of Representatives . In 1872 he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the US House of Representatives . From 1874 to 1880, O'Ferrall was a judge in the Rockingham County District Court . From 1880 to 1883 he worked for his party as a canvasser .

In 1883, O'Ferrall ran again for a seat in the US House of Representatives. This time he was only barely defeated. After an objection by O'Ferrall against the election result, he was found to be right and he was awarded the seat in Congress , which he took on May 5, 1884. In the following years he was confirmed in this office. In the House of Representatives he was temporarily chairman of the mining committee and a member of the committee on elections .

In 1893 he was elected governor of his state with a clear majority. He then resigned from Congress on December 28, 1893. On January 1, 1894, he took up his new office in Richmond. He supported the principle of law and order and succeeded in drastically reducing the number of lynchings in Virginia. During strikes in the mining industry, he used the militia to protect the strike breakers, which naturally made him unpopular with the striking workers. He also drove the so-called Coxey's Army protest march from Virginia. The second half of his tenure was overshadowed by a dispute between O'Ferrall and the majority of his party, which made him virtually politically incapable of acting. The issue was the gold standard of the currency that O'Ferrall supported. The Democratic Party and its presidential candidate for the 1896 election, William Jennings Bryan , supported the silver standard. As a result, Governor Bryan refused to support him.

Another résumé

After his tenure on January 1, 1898, O'Ferrall retired from politics and began working again as a lawyer in Richmond. However, his health soon deteriorated, which was partly due to an old war injury. In 1904 he published his autobiography. He died in September 1905. Charles O'Ferrall was married twice and had two children from his first marriage to Annie E. Hand.

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personal data
SURNAME	O'Ferrall, Charles Triplet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	O'Ferrall, Trip
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American politician
DATE OF BIRTH	October 21, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH	Brucetown , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH	September 22, 1905
Place of death	Richmond , Virginia