Franklin Potts Glass Sr.

Franklin Potts Glass Sr. (June 7, 1858 – January 10, 1934)[1][2] was an American Democratic politician, newspaper publisher, editor, and United States Senator-Designate from Alabama.

Franklin Glass
Personal details
Born
Franklin Potts Glass Sr.

(1858-06-07)June 7, 1858
Centreville, Alabama, U.S.
DiedJanuary 10, 1934(1934-01-10) (aged 75)
Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
EducationPrinceton University (BA, MA)

Background

Glass was born on June 7, 1858, in Centreville, Alabama, to Benjamin F. Glass and Caroline Potts Glass. Glass graduated from Princeton University in 1877, and received his master's degree there in 1880.[3] Returning to Alabama, he founded the newspaper the Bibb Blade in Bibb County, Alabama, in 1880. In 1881, Glass bought the Selma Daily News in Selma, Alabama. He bought a share of the Montgomery Advertiser in Montgomery, Alabama, and became the editor and publisher. Glass eventually moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where he was the editor and publisher of the Birmingham News.[4][5]

Appointment to the United States Senate

United States Senator Joseph F. Johnston died in office, on August 8, 1913. Alabama Governor Emmet O'Neal appointed Glass to the United States Senate. Glass was a Democrat.[6] However, on February 4, 1914, the United States Senate voted 32-31 to uphold the Committee of Elections and Privileges recommendation to deny Glass a seat, because the recent ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution supported Alabama state law that the Governor of Alabama had to call a special election to fill the vacancy.[7]

Railroad Labor Mediation Board

In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Glass to the Railroad Labor Mediation Board. While traveling from Washington D.C. to Memphis, Tennessee, to hear railroad mediation cases, Glass caught a cold. He died in Birmingham, Alabama, on January 10, 1934, as a result of the cold.[8]

Personal life

Glass married Mattie Byrd Purnell, who died in September 1933; he was survived by three sons and three daughters.[3]

Notes
  1. 'Alabama Biographical Dictionary,' Jan Onofrio: Book Digit LCC: 1998, biographical sketch of Franklin Potts Glass, pp. 124–127
  2. The 1930s Media:Deaths
  3. "FRANKLIN P. GLASS, PUBLISHER, IS DEAD; Noted Southern Editor Was a Member of United States Board of Mediation". The New York Times. January 11, 1934. Retrieved May 6, 2018.
  4. 'History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biographies,' vol. 3, Thomas McAdry Owen and Maria Bankhead Owen, S.J. Clements Publishing Company: 1921, biographical sketch of Franklin Potts Glass Sr., p. 663
  5. 'Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography,' Thomas William Herringshaw, American Publishers Association: 1909, Biographical Sketch of Franklin Potts Glass, p. 590
  6. 'Glass Named A Senator; Alabama Governor Appoints Editor In Johnston's Place,' The New York Times, November 17, 1913
  7. 'Bars Glass From Senate, Elect Committee Sustained by Majority of Only One Vote,' The New York Times, February 4, 1914
  8. 'Princeton Alumni Weekly,' volume XXXIV, No. 20, Obituary-Franklin Potts Glass Sr., class of 1877, p. 458
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