”Around the Capital” (detail), engraving, Thomas Fleming, 1902, Collection of U.S. House of Representatives

ROBBINS, William McKendree, a Representative from North Carolina; born in the old homestead near Trinity, Randolph County, N.C., October 26, 1828; pursued classical studies; attended Old Trinity College and was graduated from Randolph-Macon College, Virginia, about 1850; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1854 and commenced practice the same year in Eufaula, Ala.; served four years as major in the Fourth Alabama Regiment of the Confederate Army during the Civil War; member of the State senate in 1868 and 1872; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-third, Forty-fourth, and Forty-fifth Congresses (March 4, 1873-March 3, 1879); chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of War (Forty-fourth Congress); appointed by President Cleveland as the southern commissioner on the Gettysburg Battle Field Commission in 1894, which position he held until his death in Salisbury, Rowan County, N.C., on May 5, 1905; interment in Oakwood Cemetery, Statesville, N.C.