Daniel Lindsay Russell

Who was Daniel Lindsay Russell?

Daniel Lindsay Russell, Jr. was the 49th Governor of North Carolina from 1897 to 1901, an attorney and judge, and a politician elected as state representative and to the United States Congress. Although he fought with the Confederacy during the Civil War, Rusell and his father were both Unionists. He was the first Republican elected as governor since the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877 and the last until 1973.

After the war, Russell joined the Republican Party in North Carolina, which was an unusual affiliation for one of the planter class. He served as a state judge, as well as in the state and national legislatures. In 1896, he was elected governor on a Fusionist ticket, a collaboration between Republicans and Populists that was victorious over the Democrats.