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Lewis Porter Featherstone (July 28, 1851 – March 14, 1922) was an American planter and farm activist who served for one year as a Labor Party U.S. Representative from Arkansas from 1890 to 1891.

Biography

Born in Oxford, Mississippi, Featherstone was the eldest son of Lewis H. and Elizabeth (Porter) Featherstone. He attended the common schools and Cumberland School of Law at Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee. He married Alice White in 1874, and the couple had five children.

Career

Featherstone engaged in planting in Shelby County, Tennessee from 1872 to 1881. He moved to Forrest City in St. Francis County, Arkansas, and continued as a planter.

State legislature

As a Democratic member, Featherstone served in the Arkansas House of Representatives in 1887 and 1888. He was elected president of the Agricultural Wheel (a farmers' organization) in 1887 and reelected in 1888.

Congress

In 1888, he ran as a Labor Party candidate against Democrat William H. Cate for the Fifty-first Congress; although Cate was initially declared re-elected, Featherstone challenged on the grounds of election fraud. Following the Featherstone v. Cate hearings held in the U.S. House of Representatives, Featherstone was seated in Congress in 1890 and served until March 3, 1891. He was an unsuccessful candidate on the Union Labor ticket for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress.

Populist Party

By 1892, constantly under attack for supporting efforts to preserve the right of blacks and poor whites to vote, Featherstone was one of the Union Labor members who joined the Populist Party, and served as platform committee chairman at the state party convention, which adopted a resolution (introduced by a black delegate from the St. Francis County delegation) calling on Arkansas "to elevate the down-trodden sons and daughters of industry in all matters ... irrespective of race or color." Featherstone was the head of the Arkansas delegation to the Populist national convention in Omaha. After the defeat in 1892 of the Arkansas Populists, Featherstone abandoned politics as populism faded, and Arkansas Democrats reasserted their political dominance by means of laws that disenfranchised many black and poor white voters.

Later career

Featherstone eventually moved to Galveston, Texas, where he engaged in railroad building and in development of the iron resources of Texas. During the Spanish–American War in 1898, he was commissioned as a first lieutenant, and became captain, in the First United States Volunteer Infantry, a unit mustered out in Galveston that saw no service outside the United States.

Death

He died in Longview, Texas, on March 14, 1922, and is interred at Mission Burial Park South, San Antonio, Texas.

References

1. Welch, Melanie (2012). "Lewis Porter Featherstone (1851–1922)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture.
2. "Lewis P. Featherstone". Govtrack US Congress. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
3. "Lewis P. Featherstone". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
4. "Lewis P. Featherstone". The Political Graveyard. Retrieved June 27, 2013.

External links

• United States Congress. "Lewis P. Featherstone (id: F000056)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

v t e Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arkansas
Territory Bates Conway Sevier At-large Yell Cross Yell Newton Johnson Hynes Breckinridge
1st district Greenwood Hindman Roots Hanks Hodges Gause Dunn Cate Featherstone Cate McCulloch Macon Caraway Driver Gathings Alexander Lincoln Berry Crawford 2nd district Warren Rust Warren Rust Hinds Elliott A. A. C. Rogers O. P. Snyder Slemons Jones Breckinridge Little Brundidge W. Oldfield P. Oldfield Miller Mills Tucker Bethune T. Robinson Thornton V. Snyder Griffin Hill 3rd district Boles Edwards Boles Wilshire Gunter Wilshire J. Cravens J. H. Rogers McRae Dinsmore Floyd Tillman Fuller Ellis Fulbright Trimble Hammerschmidt T. Hutchinson A. Hutchinson Boozman Womack 4th district Gunter Peel J. H. Rogers W. Terry Reid Little W. B. Cravens O. Wingo E. Wingo W. B. Cravens W. F. Cravens Tackett Harris Pryor Thornton Anthony Dickey Ross Cotton Westerman 5th district Peel Dinsmore Reid Jacoway Ragon D. Terry Hays Alford 6th district Neill Brundidge J. Robinson S. Taylor C. Taylor Sawyer Reed Glover McClellan W. Norrell C. Norrell 7th district Wallace Goodwin Parks Kitchens Harris

• 1851 births
• 1922 deaths
• 19th-century American planters
• Arkansas Laborites
• Arkansas Populists
• Democratic Party members of the Arkansas House of Representatives
• Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Arkansas
• People from Forrest City, Arkansas
• Cumberland School of Law alumni
• People from Oxford, Mississippi
• Labor Party members of the United States House of Representatives
• 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives
• 19th-century members of the Arkansas General Assembly