Leonidas Lafayette Polk, or L.L. Polk, was an American farmer, journalist and political figure. He was a leader of the Farmers' Alliance and helped found the Populist Party.
Biography
He was born in Anson County, North Carolina. L.L. Polk fought in the American Civil War for the Confederate States of America, and was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg. Returning to North Carolinaafter the war, he founded the town of Polkton, incorporated in 1875, where he started a weekly newspaper called The Ansonian. Through it he advocated for farmers and for the Grange movement. Polk, a distant relative of President James K. Polk, became active in state politics, serving in the North Carolina House of Representatives and as a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1865–66. In 1877, he was appointed the first North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture and served until 1880. An agricultural collection he established as Commissioner was the basis for what became the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. He returned to journalism by founding the Progressive Farmer in 1886 in Winston. The magazine is still published to this day. At first, the paper's primary aim was to teach new agricultural methods, but soon it also focused on politics. Meanwhile, he was also active in the Baptist church, once serving as president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Polk was instrumental in establishing the North Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical College and Baptist Female University. In the late 1880s, he rose to nationwide prominence through his leadership of the state and national Farmers' Alliance, which had begun in Texas. He became its national vice president in 1887 and its president in 1889. These words, spoken in 1887, were typical of Polk's rhetoric: "Our farmers buy everything to raise cotton, and raise cotton to buy everything, and, after going through this treadmill business for years, they lie down and die and leave their families penniless." The Alliance's mixed record using traditional two-party politics paved the way for the Populist Party, or People's Party. Polk presided over the meeting in February 1892 that formally created the party. The Populists likely would have nominated Polk for president in 1892, but he died unexpectedly from a hemorrhaging bladder in Washington, D.C. on June 11, 1892. He was one of the first inductees into the North Carolina Agricultural Hall of Fame. His home in Raleigh, NC is today owned by the state of North Carolina. It was moved on Nov. 12, 2000, to its new location on Blount Street in Raleigh. The Leonidas LaFayette Polk House Foundation plans to use part of the house for the Polk Museum. The rest will be used for state offices. The Leonidas L. Polk House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Polk Hall at North Carolina State University was named in his honor.
