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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] William Peffer Biography PEFFER,
William Alfred (1831-1912). An American journalist, legislator, and
author, born in Cumberland Co., Pa. In 1853 he settled in
Indiana, in 1859 in Missouri, and later in Illinois. He enlisted in the
Eighty-third Illinois Regiment in 1862, was mustered out as lieutenant in 1865,
and, removing to Kansas, established the Fredonia Journal
and the Coffeyville Journal. He had
studied law while in the army, was admitted to the bar in 1865, and thereafter
he was both journalist and lawyer. In 1874 he was elected to the State Senate,
in 1880 was a Republican presidential elector, and in 1881 assumed the
editorship of the Kansas Farmer. From
1891 to 1897 he represented the People's party in the United States Senate,
being elected over John J. Ingalls, and in 1898 was nominated by the
Prohibitionists for-Governor of Kansas. After the expiration of his term he
engaged in statistical and compilation work for Congress. As Senator and writer
he maintained that "the farmers by virtue of their vocation ought to
control the politics of this country." Among his publications are: Peffer's
Tariff Manual (1888); The Way Out
(1890); The Farmer's Side (1891) Americanism
and the Philippines (1900) Rise and
Fall of Populism in the United States (1900). The New International
Encyclopaedia, Vol. XVIII
(New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920)
253-254.
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