Edward deGraffenried

Who was Edward deGraffenried?

Edward deGraffenried was a U.S. Representative from Alabama.

Born in Eutaw, Alabama on June 30, 1899, Edward de Graffenried was the second direct male descendant of Baron Christopher de Graffenried, the founder of New Bern, North Carolina, to be elected to Congress. Mr. Ed, as he was known, was the son of Edward de Graffenried, who was at one time a Judge of Court of Appeals of Alabama, and prior to that, having a distinguished law practice throughout Alabama, a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1901, legal adviser to the Governor of Alabama, a noted orator and author. The Congressman was raised in Greensboro, Alabama and attended local public schools, afterwards he graduated from Gulf Coast Military Academy, Gulfport, Mississippi, in 1917. There he was the editor of the Portlight and the Conch Shell, monthly and annual publications, respectively, of the Academy, and Chairman of the Honor Committee and President of the Literary Society.

In the fall of 1917, he entered the University of Alabama where he enrolled in R.O.T.C. Later, during the First World War, he volunteered as a Private in the U.S. Army.