William Harrell Felton

William Harrell Felton (June 19, 1823 – September 24, 1909) was an American politician, army surgeon, and Methodist minister. Felton was elected to three terms of office to the United States House of Representatives as an Independent Democrat, where he served as a sharp critic of commercial and financial interests and the return to the gold standard.

Felton's wife was Rebecca Latimer Felton, who became the first woman to serve in the United States Senate, albeit for only one day.

William Harrell Felton was born on June 19, 1823, near Lexington, Georgia. Felton studied at the University of Georgia in Athens, from which he graduated in 1843. He then studied at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta for a year before spending the next seven years in Cartersville, Georgia practicing medicine, teaching, and farming.

In 1851, he was elected as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives, representing Cass County (now called Bartow County). He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1857, and served as a surgeon in the American Civil War.

In 1874 Felton ran for the United States House of Representatives in Georgia's 7th Congressional District, located in the Northwestern part of the state. Felton ran as a reform-oriented Independent Democrat, winning election over the electoral opposition of the conservative Bourbon Democrats who dominated Georgia state politics. Felton's campaign was aided by the efforts of his wife, Rebecca Latimer Felton, who helped direct his political campaign and contributed political commentary, frequently pseudonymous, to the daily and weekly press around the state.

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