Daniel Lindsay Russell Daniel Lindsay Russell , Jr . ( August 7 , 1845May 14 , 1908 ) was the 49th Governor of North Carolina from 1897 to 1901 , an attorney and judge , and a politician elected as state representative and to the United States Congress . Although he fought with the Confederacy during the Civil War , Rusell and his father were both Unionists . He was the first Republican elected as governor since the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877 and the last until 1973 . After the war , Russell joined the Republican Party in North Carolina , which was an unusual affiliation for one of the planter class . He served as a state judge , as well as in the state and national legislatures . In 1896 , he was elected governor on a Fusionist ticket , a collaboration between Republicans and Populists that was victorious over the Democrats . Early life and education . Born on Winnabow Plantation in Brunswick County near Wilmington , North Carolina , Russell , Jr . was the son of Daniel Lindsay Russell , of a prominent planter family . He was educated privately by tutors before attending the Bingham School in Orange County , North Carolina . He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , but left soon after the outbreak of the American Civil War . He was commissioned as a captain in the Confederate Army and served in the war . Career . Russell was elected as a member of the North Carolina House of Commons , serving 1864 – 1866 . During that time , he studied law , and was admitted to the bar in 1866 ; he set up practice in Wilmington . He and his father had both been Union sympathizers during the war , and Russell joined the Republican Party . In 1868 , Russell was appointed a Superior Court judge in the 4th judicial circuit , a post he held until 1874 . In 1871 he was a delegate to a state constitutional convention . In 1876 , despite the activity of the Red Shirts paramilitary to suppress Republican political activity and voting , and struggle of Democratic white supremacists to regain control in the state , Russell was elected again to the North Carolina House of Representatives . He was a delegate to the 1876 Republican National Convention . On November 5 , 1878 , Russell was elected to the 46th United States Congress , running on the Republican and Greenback tickets ; in a close election , he defeated the Democratic Party incumbent Alfred M . Waddell by 11 , 611 votes to 10 , 730 . Russell served one term ( March 4 , 1879 – March 4 , 1881 ) and did not stand for renomination . In the mid - 1890s , the new Populist Party allied with the Republican Party in North Carolina ; the alliance ran " Fusion " candidates for many offices . In 1896 , the two parties held separate state conventions to allow the Populists to nominate Presidential Electors pledged to William J . Bryan . At the Republican state convention in Raleigh on May 16 , 1896 , Russell was nominated for Governor on the seventh ballot over former U . S . Representative Oliver H . Dockery . Disgruntled , Dockery convinced the Populists to run a separate statewide slate of candidates against the Republicans , with Dockery as the Populist nominee for Lieutenant Governor . On November 3 , 1896 , Russell was elected Governor of North Carolina . He won with 153 , 787 votes ( 46 . 5 % ) to 145 , 266 votes for Democrat Cyrus B . Watson , 31 , 143 for Populist William A . Guthrie , and 809 for others . He served one four - year term . Although he was not up for election in 1898 , Democrats used him as a foil in a white supremacist campaign . Russell had signed new legislation to extend the franchise for the first time since Reconstruction by supporting a reduction in property requirements for voters . On November 8 , 1898 , the voters of Wilmington , then the state ' s largest city and with a black majority , elected a biracial city government : the mayor was white as were 2 / 3 of the city aldermen . Political tensions were so high in 1898 that white agitators , led by the former gubernatorial candidate Waddell , had planned to overthrow the government if the Democrats lost . They engendered mob violence in Wilmington . Their insurrection was a " coup d ' etat " against the mayor and city council . Alfred Waddell , led a mob of white men in attacking the offices and destroying the printing plant for " The Record " , the only African - American newspaper in the state . Russell ordered the Wilmington Light Infantry ( WLI ) to quell the riot , but they became involved and shot some blacks . Together with federal Navy Reserves , they intimidated both blacks and whites . The mob moved through the city ' s African - American neighborhoods , killing some people and chasing hundreds of blacks from the city . Although the number of casualties was uncertain , only blacks were reported as killed ; one white man was critically wounded . The mob installed a new city council that elected Waddell as mayor that same day . After nearly 2100 blacks left the city permanently , its demographics changed to a white majority . After finishing his term , Russell resumed the practice of law and operated his plantation . He died at his Belville Plantation near Wilmington in 1908 . He was interred in the family burying ground in Onslow County , North Carolina .