Franklin H. Elmore

Who was Franklin H. Elmore?

Franklin Harper Elmore was a United States Representative and Senator. Born in Laurens District, he graduated from the South Carolina College at Columbia in 1819, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1821 and commenced practice in Walterboro. He was solicitor for the southern circuit from 1822 to 1836, a colonel on the staff of the Governor from 1824 to 1826, and was elected as a State Rights Democrat to the Twenty-fourth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James H. Hammond. Elmore was reelected to the Twenty-fifth Congress and served from December 10, 1836, to March 4, 1839. From 1839 to 1850 he was president of the Bank of the State of South Carolina 1839-1850; he declined appointment by President James Polk as Minister to Great Britain. Elmore was appointed as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John C. Calhoun and served from April 11, 1850, until his own death in Washington, D.C. in 1850; interment was in First Presbyterian Churchyard, Columbia.