Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1907 — SENATOR PETTUS IS DEAD. [ARTICLE]

SENATOR PETTUS IS DEAD.

Alabama Ilna Its New United States Senator Already Chosen. By the death of Senator Edmund W. Pettus at Hot Springs, N. C., Saturday, former Gov. Joseph F. Johnson practically becomes Senator from Alabama. lie was elected .second alternate Senator at the recent primaries and his election by the Legislature is a mere formality. Senator Pettus’ death at the age of 86 was caused by an apoplectic stroke, suffered at breakfast. He had been in poor health for some time. Edmund Winston Pettus was the oldest man in the United States Senate. He also enjoyed the distinction of being one of the few survivors of the Mexican war. He was born in Limestone county, Alabama, in IS2I, being dsseended from a Revolutionary soldier. He graduated from Clinton college, Tennessee, and studied and practiced law in Alabama until the Mexican war, when he went to California, but returned to Alabama and was elected Judge in 1855. He resigned in 1858, moving to Dallas county, where he resided at the time of his death. In 1861 he entered the Confederate army as major and was promoted gradually until he became a brigadier general. At the end of the war he resumed the practice of law. In 1896 he was nominated by the Democrats and elected United States Senator. He waa unanimously re-elected in 1903, his term expiring March S, 1909. Senator Pettus ha# missed only two Democrats national conventions since the war and has generally been chairman of the Alabama delegation.