William Harrell Felton (June 19, 1823 – September 24, 1909) was an American politician, armysurgeon, andMethodist minister. Felton was elected to three terms of office to theUnited States House of Representatives as anIndependent Democrat, where he served as a sharp critic of commercial and financial interests and the return to thegold standard.

William Harrell Felton
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromGeorgia's7th district
In office March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1881
Preceded by	Pierce M. B. Young
Succeeded by	Judson C. Clements
Member of theGeorgia House of Representatives
In office 1851–18??
In office 1884–1890
Personal details
Born	(1823-06-19)June 19, 1823 nearLexington, Georgia
Died	September 24, 1909(1909-09-24) (aged 86) Cartersville, Georgia
Resting place	Oak Hill Cemetery
Political party	Democratic(Independent)
Spouse	Rebecca Latimer
Alma mater	University of Georgia Medical College of Georgia

Felton's wife wasRebecca Latimer Felton, who later became the first woman to serve in theUnited States Senate, albeit for only one day.

William Harrell Felton was born on June 19, 1823, nearLexington, Georgia. Felton studied at theUniversity of Georgia inAthens, from which he graduated in 1843.^[1] He then studied at theMedical College of Georgia inAugusta for a year before spending the next seven years inCartersville, Georgia practicing medicine, teaching, and farming.^[1]

In 1851, the year his first wife, Mary Anne Carlton, died, he was elected as a member of theGeorgia House of Representatives, representing Cass County (now calledBartow County).^[1] In October 1853, he married his second wife,Rebecca Ann Latimer; they lived at his plantation just north ofCartersville, Georgia. They had five children, one daughter and four sons. Only one, Howard Erwin Felton, survived childhood. In the aftermath of the Civil War, their plantation was destroyed. Because they were now unable to rely on slave labor as a means of producing income, Felton returned to farming as a way to earn income until there was enough money to open a school. The Feltons opened Felton Academy in Cartersville, where they both taught.^[2]

He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1857, and served as asurgeon in theConfederate States Army during theAmerican Civil War.^[1]

In 1874 Felton ran for theUnited States House of Representatives in Georgia's 7th Congressional District, located in the Northwestern part of the state.^[3] Felton ran as a reform-orientedIndependent Democrat, winning election over the electoral opposition of the conservativeBourbon Democrats who dominated Georgia state politics.^[3] Felton's campaign was aided by the efforts of his wife,Rebecca Latimer Felton, who helped direct his political campaign and contributed political commentary, frequently pseudonymous, to the daily and weekly press around the state.^[3]

Felton took a radical political line in the 1874 race, declaring that farmers and factory workers were being exploited by a corrupt and wasteful government.^[4] In response, Felton advocated that Georgia's common people should "hurl the public plunderers from office" and instead elect those who were representatives of "the whole people."^[4]

Felton was supportive of theGrange movement, although he himself never joined the organization.^[4] Nor did he choose to join theGreenback Labor Party, instead remaining within theDemocratic Party, which retained hegemonic control over Southern politics in the years after the overthrow ofReconstruction.^[4]

Despite his refusal to join the formal organization, Felton shared a number of the key ideas of the Greenbackers. In November 1877 coming out strongly for the repeal of theResumption Act which restored thegold standard, charging that the tight money economy with which it was associated served to turn "monopolists, corporationists, national bondholders, and the money changers" into "the unchallenged lords of the country."^[4] Felton was also sharply critical of the country's banking establishment and the financial system, which he accused of being "a deliberate conspiracy on the part of the creditor class to rob, defraud, and impoverish the debtor class."^[4]

Felton ran for re-election in 1876 and 1878, winning election both times.^[3] He was joined in Congress in 1878 by a fellow Independent Democrat, attorneyEmory Speer of Athens, who had served previously as Georgia's Solicitor General.^[3]

An attempt to win a fourth term of office in 1880 was unsuccessful, however, with his supporters charging that voting "irregularities" had certainly taken place inRome and possibly inMarietta, Georgia — two key county seats in Felton's district.^[5] Despite these protestations, Felton did not choose to contest the result of the 1880 election,^[5] instead returning to his farm and his ministerial work.^[1]

In 1884 Felton once again won election to the Georgia House of Representatives, where he would serve until 1890.^[1]

Felton died on September 24, 1909, and was buried inOak Hill Cemetery inCartersville, Georgia^[1]Thirteen years after his death, in 1922, his 87 year-old widow became the first woman to serve as a United States Senator, though only for a single day.