Representative Samuel Andrew Witherspoon

Samuel Andrew Witherspoon (May 4, 1855 – November 24, 1915) was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Mississippi who served in the United States Congress from 1911 until his death in 1915. He represented his state during a significant period in American history, contributing to the legislative process over three consecutive terms in the House of Representatives and working to represent the interests of his constituents.

Witherspoon was born near Columbus, Lowndes County, Mississippi, on May 4, 1855. He attended the public schools in and around Columbus during his youth. In 1872 he moved with his mother to Oxford, Mississippi, a relocation that would shape the course of his education and professional life. Growing up and coming of age in post–Civil War Mississippi, he experienced firsthand the social and political transformations of the Reconstruction era and the reestablishment of state institutions in the late nineteenth century.

Witherspoon pursued higher education at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. He studied law and graduated in 1876 with a law degree. Immediately upon graduation, he joined the faculty of the University of Mississippi, serving as a professor from 1876 to 1879. His early appointment to the faculty reflected both his academic ability and the university’s need for trained legal scholars during a period of rebuilding and expansion in Mississippi’s higher education system.

In 1879 Witherspoon was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in Meridian, Mississippi, that same year. Establishing himself in Meridian, an important commercial and transportation center in eastern Mississippi, he built a legal career that provided the foundation for his later political service. Through his law practice he became a recognized figure in the community and participated in the civic and professional life of the city, aligning himself with the Democratic Party that dominated Mississippi politics in the post-Reconstruction era.

Witherspoon was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-second, Sixty-third, and Sixty-fourth Congresses, representing Mississippi in the U.S. House of Representatives. His service in Congress began on March 4, 1911, and extended through a period marked by the presidencies of William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson, the rise of the Progressive movement, and growing national debates over economic regulation, tariffs, and foreign policy. During his tenure from 1911 to 1917, he participated in the democratic process at the federal level, contributing to deliberations on legislation and advocating for the needs and interests of his Mississippi constituents as part of the Democratic majority that helped advance key elements of the Wilson administration’s domestic agenda.

Witherspoon’s congressional service was cut short when he died in office in Meridian, Mississippi, on November 24, 1915, during his third term in the House of Representatives. His death placed him among the members of the United States Congress who died in office in the first half of the twentieth century. Following his death, he was interred in Rose Hill Cemetery in Meridian. Memorial addresses honoring his life and public service were later delivered in the House of Representatives and the Senate and published in 1917, reflecting the esteem in which he was held by his colleagues and his role in representing Mississippi in the national legislature.