Anson-Wake County NcArchives Obituaries.....Polk, Leonidas LaFayette 1892 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Carolyn Shank carolynshank@msn.com June 18, 2007, 5:52 pm The Landmark The Statesville Landmark of N.C. - June 16, 1892 DEATH OF COL. L. L. POLK The Alliance president Passed Away Last Saturday President LEONIDAS L. POLK, of the National Farmer's Alliance, whose serious sickness was announced in The Landmark last week, died at The Garfield Hospital in Washington City at 11:15 o'clock last Saturday morning. The immediate cause of death was uremia (blood poisoning) caused from bladder trouble, of which Mr. Polk had been a victim for many years. The patient had been lying seriously ill at his private residence for the past ten days. The result of the consultation of physicians was his removal to the Garfield Hospital last Friday where a surgical operation was deemed to be the only means of saving Mr. Polk's life. He became unconscious Friday afternoon, from which condition he never rallied, and it was decided not to perform the operation. When the end came Saturday morning Mrs. Polk who had just arrived in the City was at his bedside. Telegrams from all parts of the South were received inquiring as to Mr. Polk's condition, and he was daily visited by prominent men of the Farmer's Alliance. The remains left Washington last Saturday night for Raleigh in a special car tendered by the Richmond & Danville Railroad Co. The funeral party consisted of the wife and son-in-law of Col. Polk, Senator Peffer of Kansas and Irby of South Carolina, Congressmen Davis, Otis, Simpson and Baker of Kansas, McKeaghan of Nebraska, Alexander, Williams and Branch of North Carolina, Dr. Maenne, Secretaries Turner and Wynne, Dr. Walter C. Murphy and others. A delegation of prominent citizens of Raleigh, met the body at Greensboro and escorted it to its last resting place. The funeral took place from the Past Baptist Church of Raleigh, of which the deceased was a member, Sunday afternoon at 4 o'clock, the exercises being conducted by Rev. Dr. Carter, the pastor. A large concourse of people was present. Leonidas LaFayette Polk was born in Anson County, North Carolina April 24, 1837. He was left an orphan at 14 and received by a meagre education. His wife was Miss S. P. Gaddy of Anson. In 1860 he was elected to the Legislature. In 1862 he entered the Confederate Army as a private, serving afterward as a sergeant-major and third lieutenant. In 1864 he was elected to the Legislature and in 1865 to the Constitutional Convention. When the Legislature of 1877 established the Department of Agriculture he was elected its first commissioner and held this position until 1880 when he resigned. He was subsequently on the staff of the Raleigh News and Observer and about 1882 established the Progressive Farmer at Winston, moving it afterwards to Raleigh. He was the first secretary of the North Carolina State Alliance, was elected first vice president of the National Farmer's Alliance about the same time, and was elected the national president of this order at St. Louis in 1889, re- elected at Ocala in 1890 and at Indianapolis in 1819. Had Col. Polk lived he would doubtless have been the candidate this year of the People's Party for President of the United States, as he was the most active, aggressive and influential member of that organization. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/anson/obits/p/polk79ob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ncfiles/ File size: 3.8 Kb