Josiah T. Walls

Josiah T. Walls

Josiah Thomas Walls (born December 30, 1842 in Winchester , Virginia , †  May 15, 1905 in Tallahassee , Florida ) was an American politician . Between 1871 and 1876 he represented the state of Florida in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Josiah Walls was born a slave in Virginia. At the beginning of the Civil War , he was forced to serve in the Confederate Army . In 1862 he was captured by Union forces. Later he became a member of an African American unit in the Union's army. After the war ended, he left the military and settled in Alachua County , Florida. There he worked in horticulture.

Politically, Walls was a member of the Republican Party . In 1868 he was a delegate to a meeting to revise the Florida Constitution. From 1869 he was a member of the Florida Senate . In the congressional election of 1870 he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , in what was then the only constituency of that state , where he succeeded Charles Memorial Hamilton on March 4, 1871 . This election was challenged by the Democrat Silas L. Niblack . After this objection had been granted, Walls had to cede his mandate to Niblack on January 29, 1873. This then ended the current legislative period in Congress by March 3 of the same year . Meanwhile, Josiah Walls had been re-elected to Congress in the 1872 elections in the newly created Second District of Florida. There he completed a full term of office between March 4, 1873 and March 3, 1875. Walls was also confirmed in 1874. Therefore, on March 4, 1875, he was able to take up another legislative period in the US House of Representatives. The outcome of this election was contested by Democrat Jesse Johnson Finley . After this objection was also met, Walls had to cede his mandate on April 19, 1876 to Finley. This decision also marked the end of Walls' political career.

After leaving the US House of Representatives, Josiah Walls ran a successful plantation in Alachua County. A severe frost break in 1895 then led to the end of this plantation. He then worked in Tallahassee as a teacher. In 1896 he became director of the agricultural faculty at Florida A&M University . Josiah Walls died in Tallahassee on May 15, 1905.

Web links

• Josiah T. Walls in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Josiah T. Walls in the database of Find a Grave (English)