Papers (1890-1926) including correspondence, clippings, and certificates, publication, biographical sketches.
Eugene C. Beddingfield was born near Raleigh in 1862 and died in 1926. In 1879, he began teaching in the Wake County schools. Beddingfield then followed this with a distinguished career in government and politics as a leader of the Democratic Party in North Carolina. He was elected to the state legislature in 1888 and 1891. He served as secretary to the North Carolina Farmers' Alliance in 1890, a member of the North Carolina Railroad Commission (1891-1897), and a member of the North Carolina Corporation Commission (1896-1908). He was elected to the North Carolina State Senate in 1919 and was appointed Trustee of East Carolina Teachers College in 1925.
The collection reflects Beddingfield's professional career, although primarily through secondary materials.
Correspondence consists of a letter of congratulations upon his election as secretary of the N.C. Farmers' Alliance, a luncheon invitation from Clarence Poe, and a letter of appointment from Governor Angus W. McLean.
Clippings reflect Beddingfield's appointment to the railroad commission (1891), a speech on the Farmers' Alliance made to the Northampton County Democratic Convention (ca. 1892), his retirement (1908) from the Corporate Commission, and obituary memorials upon his death in 1926. Certificates in the collection include a Wake County Teachers' Certificate (1901), and appointments to the board of trustees of East Carolina Teachers College (1925) and as a delegate to a Cotton Conference in Atlanta, Georgia (1926).
Also of interest is a publication, Twentieth Century Statesmen, which contains biographical sketches of most prominent Democratic Party legislators in 1901.
Gift of Mrs. George B. Cherry
Processed by D. Lennon, February 1974
Encoded by Apex Data Services
Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.