William M. Robbins

Who was William M. Robbins?

William McKendree Robbins was a U.S. Representative from North Carolina.

Born in the old homestead near Trinity, North Carolina, Robbins pursued classical studies. He attended Old Trinity College and graduated from Randolph-Macon College, Virginia, about 1850. He studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1854 and commenced practice the same year in Eufaula, Alabama. He served four years as major in the Fourth Alabama Regiment of the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. He served as member of the State senate in 1868 and 1872.

Robbins was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-third, Forty-fourth, and Forty-fifth Congresses. He served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of War. He was appointed by President Cleveland as the southern commissioner on the Gettysburg Battle Field Commission in 1894, which position he held until his death in Salisbury, North Carolina, on May 5, 1905. He was interred in Oakwood Cemetery, Statesville, North Carolina.