Bragg, Walter Lawrence, 1835-1891

Walter Lawrence Bragg, son of P.N. and Martha W. Bragg, was born in Lowdnes County, Alabam, on 25 February 1838. When he was four, the family moved to Ouachita County, Arkansas, and grew up there. He graduated from Harvard in 1858 and practiced law in Camden, Arkansas. He rose to the rank of captain in the Army of Tennessee during the Civil War, after which he settled in Marion, Alabama. In 1871, he moved to Montgomery.

Bragg's political career began in 1874, when he was elected head of the Democratic State Executive Committee. He later was elected as Alabama's representative on the Democratic National Committee, and in 1880, was a presidential elector when the Democrats carried the state.

In early 1881, he was appointed President of the Alabama Railroad Commission. When his second term expired, he returned to his law practice in Montgomery. Bragg was the first president of the Interstate Commerce Commission, appointed by President Grover Cleveland. He was influential in ending "carpetbag" rule in Alabama politics.

Suffering from war wounds, Bragg's health declined. On 21 August 1891, he died at Avon-by-the-Sea, New Jersey, following a two-year long illness.

From the guide to the Walter Lawrence Bragg letters MSS. 0200., 1881-1882, (W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, The University of Alabama)