United States House of Representatives: History, Art, & Archives
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ABERNETHY, Charles Laban

ABERNETHY, Charles Laban
Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives
ABERNETHY, Charles Laban
1872–1955

Office

Representative

State/Territory

North Carolina

Party

Democrat

Congress(es)

67th (1921–1923), 68th (1923–1925), 69th (1925–1927), 70th (1927–1929), 71st (1929–1931), 72nd (1931–1933), 73rd (1933–1935)

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Biography

ABERNETHY, Charles Laban, A Representative from North Carolina; born in Rutherford College, Burke County, N.C., March 18, 1872; attended the public schools, Mount Olive (N.C.) High School, and Rutherford College; moved to Beaufort, Carteret County, N.C., in 1893; founded the Beaufort Herald in 1893; studied law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; was admitted to the bar in 1895 and commenced practice in Beaufort, N.C.; solicitor of the third (later the fifth) judicial circuit for twelve years; member of the State Democratic executive committee 1898-1900; moved to New Bern, N.C., in 1913 and continued the practice of law; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-seventh Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Samuel M. Brinson; reelected to the Sixty-eighth and to the five succeeding Congresses and served from November 7, 1922, to January 3, 1935; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1934; resumed the practice of law until his retirement in 1938; died in New Bern, N.C., February 23, 1955; interment in Cedar Grove Cemetery.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

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External Research Collections

Duke University
William R. Perkins Library Special Collections Department

Durham, NC
Papers: ca. 1713-1972, approximately 60,855 items. The collection contains the papers of both the elder Charles L. Abernethy and his son, but principally comprises the files accumulated by the senior Charles L. Abernethy during his tenure as U.S. Congressman. There are papers relating to the senior Charles L. Abernethy's law practice and business dealings (including legal papers concerning land development in Carteret County, Cape Lookout, and Horse Island maintained by both father and son), as well as letters, speeches, newspaper clippings, a diary, photographs, the Abernethy coat-of-arms, a volume of poems written by the younger Charles L. Abernethy, and other materials. There is a photograph album containing snapshots the elder Charles L. Abernethy took during a congressional trip to Alaska for three months of 1923 (including photographs of President and Mrs. Harding), as well as a typescript of his diary from the trip; and an album containing postcards of Beaufort, N.C, in 1907, featuring a celebration of either the 200th anniversary of the town's founding or the opening of passenger and rail service to the town (or both events).

Library of Congress
Manuscript Division

Washington, DC
Papers: In the Reed Smoot Papers, 1896-1928, 27 items. Correspondents include Charles L. Abernethy.
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Bibliography / Further Reading

Abernethy, Charles L. North Carolina: Its history, its glories, its material progress in relation to the tates [sic] and territories of the United States, and its position in relation to the Southern States. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1924.

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Office of the Historian: history@mail.house.gov
Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk: art@mail.house.gov, archives@mail.house.gov