William Woodward Brandon (June 5, 1868December 7, 1934) was an American Democratic politician who was the 37th governor of Alabama from 1923 to 1927. Biography Born June 5, 1868, in Talladega, Alabama, the son of a minister, Rev. Frank T. J. Brandon, and his wife Carrie (Woodward) Brandon, Brandon grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He attended Cedar Bluff Institute and Tuscaloosa High School and studied law at the University of Alabama from 1891 to 1892. While still a law student, the colorful Brandon was elected City Clerk of Tuscaloosa. He set up a law practice in Tuscaloosa in 1892 and was appointed a justice of the peace the same year. Brandon was a Methodist. He believed that the United States should maintain a "warm and close relationship" with the United Kingdom. He was known as one of the most "eloquent and brilliant campaign speakers in" Alabama. In 1892 he published a military journal titled The Citizen Soldier in Tuscaloosa. As a member of the Warrior National Guard from 1886, Brandon eventually led the unit as a major of the U.S. Army in the Spanish–American War. Appointed Adjutant General of the Alabama National Guard in 1899 by Governor William J. Samford, he was later reappointed by Governor William D. Jelks. Brandon was a member of the Alabama House of Representatives from 1896 to 1901. In 1906 he was elected State Auditor of Alabama. From 1911 until 1923, he was a probate judge in Tuscaloosa County. Judge Brandon was a candidate for governor twice, losing in 1918 to Thomas E. Kilby but defeating Bibb Graves (who later succeeded him) in 1922 with a platform calling for an economy in government and no new taxes. As governor, he kept his campaign promise to levy no new taxes but was instrumental in rescinding the tax exemption of the Alabama Power Company. On leaving office, he left the state treasury with a surplus. Brandon was a much less activist governor than the energetic Kilby (he did little for education). Still, he continued Kilby's ambitious road construction and improvement program of Mobile's dock facilities, funding the latter with a $10 million bond issue. He also strengthened child labor laws and created the Alabama Forestry Commission. Brandon left the state for 21 days in 1924; under the 1901 state constitution, the lieutenant governor becomes acting governor if a governor is out of the state for more than