This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. Please see our privacy policy for more information.
South Carolina
Gov. William Haselden Ellerbe
- January 18, 1897 - June 2, 1899
- Democratic
- April 7, 1862
- June 2, 1899
- South Carolina
- Wofford College, Vanderbilt University
- Married Henrietta Rogers; six children
- Pronounced Dead in Office
About
WILLIAM HASELDEN ELLERBE was born in Marion, South Carolina. After attending Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, he became both a planter and businessman. He was twice elected Comptroller General of South Carolina. After mounting one unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1894, he went on to win the first gubernatorial race in which a statewide primary election was held. During Ellerbe’s administration, South Carolina raised troops to fight in the Spanish-American War. At the same time, all railroads operating in the state were required to provide separate cars for blacks and whites. Ellerbe was elected to a second term in November 1898 and died in office seven months later.
Source
Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 4. Westport, CT: Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols.
The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 12. New York: James T. White & Company.