Christopher Bishop

Every student at Auburn University is familiar with the name William J. Samford. His name is emblazoned on the front of Samford Hall, the signature building on campus facing College Street. Samford was, in many ways, emblematic of the new southern middle class. Emerging from the Old South planter class, Samford became a lawyer and deeply embedded himself in the turbulent world of postwar Alabama politics. After years in the state senate, he rose to the governor's office but died after only six months in office.

 

Samford had both middle class and planter roots, revealing the tangled web of class in the New South. His father taught English literature at Emory College in Georgia and became a lawyer in 1840. William Flewellyn Samford aspired to enter the planter class. Retiring to a rural estate staffed by slaves was the ultimate goal for a good portion of upwardly mobile southern men. After a few years of practicing law, the elder Samford purchased a plantation in east Alabama in 1846. He staffed it with over fifty slaves and set himself up growing cotton. By 1860, Samford had around 1,700 acres near Auburn, Alabama. Samford also edited several newspapers and twice ran for governor unsuccessfully. In addition to working as a typesetter for his father, young William began his education at a private academy in Chambers County and continued at the public schools of Tuskegee and Auburn. He started his postsecondary education at East Alabama Male College, a small Methodist college in Auburn (now Auburn University), before transferring to the University of Georgia. 

 

Samford did not stay in Athens long.  The seventeen year-old enlisted in the Forty-Sixth Alabama Regiment in 1862, eventually rising to the rank of first lieutenant. During his tenure in the Confederate Army, Samford fought in several battles and was a prisoner of war for eighteen months. He returned to Auburn and became a farmer before joining the bar in 1867. For several years, Samford's meager earnings as a lawyer forced him to maintain his agricultural operation. 

 

By 1876, Samford's law practice expanded enough to allow him to move his family to Opelika. He never accumulated spectacular wealth in law but he earned a sound reputation as an attorney and as a speaker. In these years, Samford became a local preacher in the Methodist church where he further developed his ability as a public speaker. He entered politics at the local level and was soon in demand as a stump speaker throughout the 1870s. He was a delegate to the 1875 constitutional convention and was influential in its proceedings. According to one scholar, he is credited with "limiting the taxing power of the state legislature." 

 

In 1878, with his political reputation rising, Samford was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives as a Democrat, taking conservative positions on states' rights while supporting unlimited silver coinage. He proved sympathetic toward railroad regulation. He did not like life in Washington and only served one term before returning to Opelika. He never returned to the national stage, but he became a force in state politics, serving in both the Alabama House and Senate in the 1880s and 90s. 

 

Samford ran for governor in 1900 with the support of the conservative establishment in the state, who were frustrated with the reforms pushed by Populist-backed candidates. He supported changes in suffrage laws, provided that whites would not lose the vote. Samford grew increasingly ill during the campaign from a heart condition but he faced no real opposition in the general election. He was so sick he could not assume his office until late December of 1900, leaving the president of the senate to govern in his stead. His brief time in office was unexceptional, demanding that the legislature rein in spending. During his illness, the legislature approved a new constitutional convention that would ultimately disenfranchise black and poor white voters. He personally endorsed the convention, which began meeting in May. 

 

Samford died in Tuscaloosa on June 11, 1901 after attending a meeting of the Board of Trustees for the University of Alabama, of which he was a member. Samford did not live to see the ratification of the new constitution, which is still in place.  

 

Read more about Samford here.