John H. Bankhead

John Hollis Bankhead (September 13, 1842 – March 1, 1920) was a Democratic U.S. Senator from the state of Alabama between 1907 and 1920.

For his son, see John H. Bankhead II.

John H. Bankhead
United States Senator
from Alabama
In office
June 18, 1907 – March 1, 1920
Preceded byJohn T. Morgan
Succeeded byB. B. Comer
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Alabama's 6th district
In office
March 4, 1887 – March 3, 1907
Preceded byJohn Mason Martin
Succeeded byRichmond P. Hobson
Member of the Alabama Senate
In office
1876-1877
Member of the Alabama House of Representatives
In office
1865-1867
1880-1881
Personal details
Born
John Hollis Bankhead

(1842-09-13)September 13, 1842
Moscow, near the present day town of Sulligent, Alabama, U.S.
DiedMarch 1, 1920(1920-03-01) (aged 77)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Signature

Biography

Bankhead was born on September 13, 1842, at Moscow, Marion County, Alabama (near present-day Sulligent, Alabama).[1] His great-grandfather, James Bankhead (1738–1799) was born in Ulster and settled in South Carolina.[2]

Tallulah James Brockman

He was educated in the common schools and served in the Civil War, rising to the rank of captain.[3] He married Tallulah James Brockman. She was of Revolutionary ancestry, her father's great-grandfather, Benjamin Kilgore, having been a captain of a South Carolina company in the War of the Revolution. She was the daughter of James H. Brockman, a native of Greenville District, South Carolina. Her education was received in the fashionable schools of Tuskegee and Montgomery, Alabama. Their two elder sons, John Hollis and William Brockman, were practicing lawyers. The youngest, Henry McAuley, was a student at the University of Alabama. The elder daughter, Louise, was the wife of Ex-Representative W. H. Perry, of Greenville, South Carolina, and the younger, Marie, was the wife of Thomas McAdory Owen, a historian by profession.[4]

Bankhead was a member of the Alabama House of Representatives from 1865 to 1867, and again in 1880 and 1881. In 1876 and 1877 he was a member of the State Senate. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1887, serving until 1907.[3] At age 65, John H. Bankhead was appointed, then elected, to serve out the remainder of the U.S. Senate term left by the death of John Tyler Morgan and later re-elected twice. He served from June 18, 1907, until his death in Washington on March 1, 1920.[5] B. B. Comer, former governor of Alabama, was appointed to serve the rest of his term, until November 2, 1920, when J. Thomas Heflin was elected to serve out the term.

Bankhead was a member of the Inland Waterways Commission in 1907,[6] and was instrumental in enacting the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916, which became the first federal highway funding legislation. He was also a member of the Commission on Public Buildings and the Commission on Rivers and Harbors. He wrote several books relating to post roads.[3]

United States Senator John H. Bankhead II and Speaker of the House William Brockman Bankhead were his sons, and actress Tallulah Bankhead was his granddaughter. The cross-country Bankhead Highway was named after him, as is Bankhead Lake on the Black Warrior River near Birmingham. Also, the Bankhead Tunnel on US 98 in Mobile, Alabama, is named after him.

See also

References
  1. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. XIV. James T. White & Company. 1910. p. 210. Retrieved December 15, 2020 – via Google Books.
  2. "James Bankhead". Ancestry.com. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  3.  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Reynolds, Francis J., ed. (1921). "Bankhead, John Hollis" . Collier's New Encyclopedia. New York: P. F. Collier & Son Company.
  4. Hinman, Ida (1895). The Washington Sketch Book.
  5. "John H. Bankhead, Alabama's Senator, Dies at Washington". Los Angeles Evening Express. Washington. Associated Press. March 1, 1920. p. 1. Retrieved December 15, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Donald J. Pisani, Water Planning in the Progressive Era: The Inland Waterways Commission Reconsidered, Journal of Policy History 18.4 (2006) pp.389-418
Party political offices
First Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator from Alabama
(Class 2)
1918		 Succeeded by
James Thomas Heflin
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by
John Mason Martin		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Alabama's 6th congressional district
1887–1907		 Succeeded by
Richmond P. Hobson
U.S. Senate
Preceded by
John Tyler Morgan		 U.S. senator (Class 2) from Alabama
1907–1920
Served alongside: Edmund Pettus, Joseph F. Johnston, Francis S. White and Oscar Underwood		 Succeeded by
Braxton B. Comer
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