George D. Tillman Explained

Image Name:GeorgeDTillman.jpg
State1:South Carolina
Term Start1:March 4, 1883
Term End1:March 3, 1893
Predecessor1:Edmund W.M. Mackey
Successor1:W. Jasper Talbert
State2:South Carolina
Term Start2:March 4, 1879
Term End2:July 19, 1882
Predecessor2:Robert Smalls
Successor2:Robert Smalls
Office3:Member of the South Carolina Senate from Edgefield County
Term Start3:November 27, 1865
Term End3:December 21, 1866
Predecessor3:Thomas Glascock Bacon
Successor3:Franz Walburg von Arnim
Office4:Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from Edgefield District
Term Start5:November 27, 1854
Term End5:December 19, 1855
Term Start4:November 28, 1864
Term End4:December 22, 1864
Birth Name:George Dionysius Tillman
Birth Date:August 21, 1826
Birth Place:Curryton, South Carolina
Death Place:Clarks Hill, South Carolina
Profession:Attorney, politician
Party:Democratic
Alma Mater:Harvard University
Allegiance: Confederate States of America
Branch:Confederate States Army
Serviceyears:1862–1865
Battles:American Civil War

George Dionysius Tillman (August 21, 1826 – February 2, 1902) was a Democratic politician from South Carolina. He was a state representative, state senator, and U.S. Representative. He was the brother of Governor Benjamin Ryan Tillman, and father of James H. Tillman, who was Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina from 1901 to 1903 and in the latter year shot newspaper editor Narciso Gener Gonzales and was acquitted.[1]

Early life

He was born near Curryton, South Carolina, and attended schools in Penfield, Georgia, and in Greenwood, South Carolina. He attended Harvard University but did not graduate. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1848, and commenced practice in Edgefield, South Carolina. During the American Civil War, he enlisted in the Confederate States Army. He served in the 3rd South Carolina Infantry Regiment in 1862. After the 3rd South Carolina was disbanded, he joined the 2nd South Carolina Artillery, in which he served until the close of the war.

Political career

He served as a state representative from 1854 to 1855 and in 1864. He served as member of the State constitutional convention in 1865, held under the Reconstruction proclamation of President Andrew Johnson. He then served as a state senator in 1865.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1876 to the Forty-fifth Congress. Tillman was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-sixth Congress from the Fifth district (1879–1881), and re-elected to the Forty-seventh Congress (1881–1883). He served from March 3, 1881, to June 19, 1882, when his election was overturned by the House. Republican Robert Smalls, his African-American opponent in 1880, contested the election, and succeeded Tillman.

Tillman was elected to the Forty-eighth Congress from the Second district and to the four succeeding Congresses (1883–1893). He served as chairman of the Committee on Patents in the Fifty-second Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1892. He served as member of the State constitutional convention in 1895, and was an unsuccessful candidate for election as Governor of South Carolina in 1898.

Besides his political and legal activities, he engaged in agricultural pursuits and also worked as a publicist.

He died in Clarks Hill, McCormick County, South Carolina, on February 2, 1902, and was interred in the Bethlehem Baptist Church Community Cemetery.

Notes and References

  1. Edgar, Walter B. (2006). The South Carolina Encyclopedia. University of South Carolina Press. pp. 962–963. .