William D. Upshaw

William D. Upshaw (1919)

William David Upshaw (born October 15, 1866 in Newnan , Georgia , †  November 21, 1952 in Glendale , California ) was an American politician . Between 1919 and 1927 he represented the state of Georgia in the US House of Representatives .

Career

William Upshaw attended public schools in his home country and in Atlanta . He then studied at Mercer University in Macon . After graduating from college, Upshaw worked in agriculture and commerce. After an accident, he suffered permanent damage that made it impossible to continue these activities. Hence he became a reciter, writer and evangelist. In 1906 he founded The Golden Age magazine in Atlanta.

Upshaw was a member of the Democratic Party . In 1907 he campaigned for an alcohol ban in Georgia. In the 1918 congressional election he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , in the fifth constituency of his state , where he succeeded William S. Howard on March 4, 1919 . After three re-elections, he was able to complete four legislative terms in Congress by March 3, 1927 . The 18th and 19th amendments to the Constitution were passed there in 1919 and 1920 . It was about the nationwide ban on the trade in alcoholic beverages and the nationwide introduction of women's suffrage .

In 1926, Upshaw was not nominated for re-election by his party. He then became Vice President of the Scandinavian Commercial Commission . In 1932, when the alcohol ban was being lifted due to a proven impracticability, Upshaw temporarily joined the Prohibition Party , which campaigned to uphold the law. He was even nominated as the party's presidential candidate. In the elections , however, he and his splinter party had no chance against the candidates of the two major American parties. Eventually the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president. Upshaw took fifth place with 81,905 votes, which corresponded to a share of 0.2 percent, behind the applicants of the socialists and the communists .

He later returned to the Democratic Party. In 1942 he unsuccessfully sought their nomination for the US Senate . In the meantime he continued to work as a lecturer, writer and evangelist. Upshaw became vice president of Linda Vista Bible College and Seminary . In 1938, at the age of 72, he was officially ordained a minister of the Baptist Church. He remained a supporter of the prohibition movement until his death.

Upshaw had suffered from accidental paralysis since 1884, but it gradually disappeared over the years, so that he could walk without crutches. However, he continued to use his walking frame, which earned him the accusation of being a simulant in Washington, DC. After a healing event by the spirit healer William Branham in Los Angeles, California in February 1951 , Upshaw announced his healing in the media and finally got rid of his crutches. His propagated miracle healing during the Healing Revival (1948–1958) is viewed by some authors as a staging to promote faith; as some religious groups practice to this day.

William Upshaw died in Glendale on November 21, 1952.

Web links

• William D. Upshaw in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• William D. Upshaw in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wilmington Morning News , Wilmington, Delaware, July 18, 1936
2. ↑ Roy Weremchuk, "Thus Saith the Lord?" William M. Branham (1909-1965). Life and teaching , Deutscher Wissenschafts-Verlag, Baden-Baden 2019, p. 176 f.
3. ↑ Cf. Deborah Davis, The Unscaled Truth , Schulte + Gerth Verlag, Asslar, 1985