Wyatt Aiken was born near Macon, Georgia on December 14, 1863.[1] He was the son of David Wyatt Aiken,[2] who was the 3rd district's representative from 1877 to 1887. He was reared in Cokesbury, Abbeville County (now Greenwood County). After attending the Cokesbury public schools and of Washington, D.C., he served as the official court reporter for the second South Carolina judicial circuit and, later, for the eighth circuit.
During the Spanish American War
During the Spanish–American War, he volunteered as a private in Company A, First South Carolina Regiment of Infantry. He was appointed battalion adjutant by Governor Ellerbe and acted as regimental quartermaster during the greater portion of his service. On November 10, 1898, he was mustered out in Columbia, South Carolina.[1]
Political career
Aiken was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-eighth and to the six succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1903 to March 3, 1917). He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1916 and again in 1918.