William Wyatt Bibb

William Wyatt Bibb (October 2, 1781 – July 10, 1820) was a United States Senator from Georgia and the first Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama. Bibb County, Alabama, and Bibb County, Georgia, are named for him.

William Wyatt Bibb
1st Governor of Alabama
In office December 14, 1819 – July 10, 1820 Territory: March 6, 1817– December 14, 1819
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Thomas Bibb
United States Senator from Georgia
In office November 6, 1813 – November 9, 1816
Preceded by	William B. Bulloch
Succeeded by	George Troup
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's at-large district
In office January 26, 1807 – November 6, 1813
Preceded by	Thomas Spalding
Succeeded by	Alfred Cuthbert
Member of the Georgia House of Representatives from Elbert County
In office 1803–1805
Personal details
Born	(1781-10-02)October 2, 1781 Amelia County, Virginia
Died	July 10, 1820(1820-07-10) (aged 38) Elmore County, Alabama
Political party	Democratic-Republican
Spouse(s)	Mary Freeman
Alma mater	College of William & Mary; University of Pennsylvania
Profession	Physician
Signature

He was a member of the Democratic-Republican political party. Bibb served as governor of the Alabama Territory from August 1817 to December 1819, and as the first elected governor of the state of Alabama from December 1819 to his death on July 10, 1820.

Early life

William Wyatt Bibb was born on October 2, 1781, in Amelia County, Virginia to Captain William Bibb, an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and a member of the state legislature, the General Assembly of the newly independent Commonwealth of Virginia, and his wife Sally Wyatt Bibb.[1] Around 1784, Bibb senior moved with his family south to Georgia with a large number of Virginians who accompanied General George Mathews, hero of the Battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania. Most of the general's followers were veterans like himself, who with their families took advantage of the new nation's offer of land bounties for former soldiers. They established tobacco farms on the rich lands around the confluence of the Broad and Savannah Rivers in newly developing northeastern Georgia. The Bibbs are recorded as one of the earliest pioneer families in Elbert County.[1] After having attended the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, he was awarded a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree in 1801. He returned to Georgia and began practicing medicine in Petersburg.[2] In 1803, he married Mary Freeman.

Politics in Georgia

Bibb's first office was as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives. Elected in 1802, at the age of 21, he took office in 1803 and served one term until 1805.[3] He was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Ninth United States Congress to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Thomas Spalding, and was reelected four times, serving until November 6, 1813.[4] He was then elected by the state legislature, to the United States Senate to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of the nationally known and presidential candidate William H. Crawford and served until November 9, 1816.[5]

Governor of Alabama

Fifth President James Monroe (1758–1831, served 1817–1825), appointed Bibb as the first governor of the newly formed Alabama Territory (out of the larger previous Mississippi Territory) in 1817. Alabama became the 22nd state on December 14, 1819. Bibb was elected governor, defeating Marmaduke Williams. Bibb received 8,342 votes, while Williams received 7,140 votes.[6]

Bibb's primary duties were establishing the state government.[7] Huntsville was designated to be the site of the constitutional convention. The capital was chosen to be the newly created town of Cahawba in 1820 on the Alabama frontier, it then moved to Tuscaloosa in 1826, and finally to the central city of Montgomery in 1846, where a State Capitol building was later begun (later the site of the historic inauguration in 1861 of Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as the first provisional and only President of the Confederate States of America after the first seven of thirteen southern states seceded, with Montgomery as the temporary Southern National Capital. Later several famous Civil Rights Movement marches and protests were held here in the 1950s and 60's).

During Bibb's tenure, the Alabama state militia (now Georgia National Guard) and the beginnings of the state judicial system with the organization and appointments to the Supreme Court of Alabama were accomplished.

Henry Hitchcock was elected the first Attorney General of Alabama and initially held the position of Secretary of State of Alabama as well. However, shortly afterward Thomas A. Rodgers was elected as the second Secretary of State of Alabama. The first session of the state legislature was held from October 25, 1819, to December 17, 1819. William R. King and John W. Walker were chosen as the first U.S. Senators.

Bibb remains one of only three individuals who served as governor of a state and a U.S. senator from a different state.[8] The others are Sam Houston, who (among his other political offices) served as the sixth governor of Tennessee and a U.S. senator from Texas, and Mitt Romney, who served as the seventieth governor of Massachusetts and is currently a U.S. senator from Utah.[8]

Death

In 1820, Bibb was thrown from his horse during a violent thunderstorm.[9] He died from internal injuries on July 10, 1820 at the age of 38. His brother, Thomas Bibb, was president of the state senate at the time and completed the rest of his term. Bibb is buried in Coosada, Alabama. As first governor his likeness appears on the Alabama Centennial half dollar, which was minted in 1921.

See also

• Thomas Bibb

References

1. Daniel S. Dupre (University of North Carolina - Charlotte) (January 7, 2008). "William Wyatt Bibb (1819-20)". Encyclopedia of Alabama - Auburn University. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
2. "William Wyatt Bibb". Alabama Department ofArchives & History. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
3. "Georgia Official and Statistical Register 1975-1976". State of Georgia. p. 1484. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
4. "Georgia Official and Statistical Register 1975-1976". State of Georgia. p. 550. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
5. "Georgia Official and Statistical Register 1975-1976". State of Georgia. p. 549. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
6. Dupre, Daniel S.; Webb, Samuel L.; Armbrester, Margaret E. (2014). Alabama Governors : A Political History of the State. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. p. 16. ISBN 9780817318437. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
7. Abernethy, Thomas Perkins (1990). The Formative Period in Alabama, 1815-1828. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. p. 5. ISBN 9780817352134. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
8. "Mitt Romney Prepares for Unusual US Senate Bid | Smart Politics". editions.lib.umn.edu. Retrieved 2018-04-01.
9. William J. Northen; John Temple Graves (1910). Men of Mark in Georgia: A Complete and Elaborate History of the State from Its Settlement to the Present Time, Chiefly Told in Biographies and Autobiographies of the Most Eminent Men of Each Period of Georgia's Progress and Development. A. B. Caldwell. pp. 145–.

External links

• William Wyatt Bibb's An inquiry into the modus operandi of medicines upon the human body (Philadelphia, 1801).
• Alabama Department of Archives and History

• United States Congress. "William Wyatt Bibb (id: B000434)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Political Graveyard
• Image of "Voucher for the salary to be paid to Governor William Wyatt Bibb"
• Library of Congress - Letter from "William Wyatt Bibb to Andrew Jackson, October 1, 1818"

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Thomas Spalding	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's at-large congressional district January 26, 1807 – November 6, 1813	Succeeded by Alfred Cuthbert
U.S. Senate
Preceded by William B. Bulloch	U.S. senator (Class 2) from Georgia November 6, 1813 – November 9, 1816 Served alongside: Charles Tait	Succeeded by George Troup
Political offices
Preceded by (none)	Territorial Governor of Alabama 1817–1819	Succeeded by Governor of Alabama
Preceded by Position established	Governor of Alabama 1819–1820	Succeeded by Thomas Bibb