Topics in Kansas History: Politics & Government

Essay on Kansans in Congress

Territorial Delegates

The territory of Kansas was created in May 1854 amidst much conflict over the issue of slavery in western lands controlled by the United States government. A territorial governor was appointed and the territory's first election was held in late November-voters chose a lone, non-voting delegate to the U.S. Congress.

Whitfield, John Wilkins (1854-1857)

Kansas's first elected representative was born in Franklin, Williamson County, Tennessee, on March 11, 1818. John W. Whitfield served in the Mexican War and removed to western Missouri in 1853 to serve as agent for the Potawatomi Indians. He was elected Kansas Territory's delegate to the U.S. Congress in November 1854 by the proslavery majority and served from December 20, 1854, to March 3, 1857. Whitfield was register of the land office at Doniphan, Kansas, 1857-1861, and then joined the Twenty-seventh Texas Cavalry at the outbreak of the Civil War. He died in Lavaca County, Texas, on October 27, 1879.

Parrott, Marcus J. (1857-1861)

Born in Hamburg, Aiken County, South Carolina, on October 27, 1828, Parrott attended Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1849, and studied law at Cambridge University. He subsequently was admitted to the bar in Dayton, Ohio, and served as a member of the state house of representatives in 1853 and 1854. The following year he removed to Leavenworth, K.T., where he served as court reporter of the first session of the territorial Supreme Court. Parrott was a Democrat when he first arrived in the territory, but soon he became active in the Free State Party (later Republican Party) and served as delegate to Congress from March 4, 1857, to January 29, 1861. Parrott was in Washington, D.C., when the Kansas bill finally passed, and he transmitted the news to Leavenworth. Subsequently, he ran a very close third to James H. Lane and Samuel C. Pomeroy in the balloting for U.S. Senate, and unsuccessfully sought election to Congress as an Independent and then as a Democratic. He died in Dayton, Ohio, on October 4, 1879.

State of Kansas, Members of Congress, 1861-present

Kansas entered the Union as the 34th state on January 29, 1861, and thereafter its lone representative in the U.S. House of Representatives could caste a vote. But the infant state had only that one representative, elected at large, until 1872 when, due to a substantial increase in its population, Kansas was allotted three seats in the lower house. Two years later, the first congressional districts were drawn and went into effect with the election of November 1874. Congress reapportions its fixed membership ever ten years, and Kansas has enjoyed as many as eight of 435 total seats. The state's population growth has been relatively modest since the 1930s, however, and Kansas opened the twenty-first century with only four seats in the House of Representative, plus two in the U.S. Senate, of course. Since statehood, 109 different men and four women have represented Kansas in the lower house of the U.S. Congress. There average age upon entering the House of Representatives is just under forty-nine years, with the youngest being thirty-one years old (Dudley Doolittle, D., Strong City, 1913-1919) and the oldest almost seventy-four (Howard S. Miller, D., Morrill, 1953-1955). Not surprisingly, most had some previous experience in public service at the state and local levels, and predictably, the vast majority has had a background in the law. Twelve individuals came to the Congress from journalism or publishing, however, and another dozen could be said to have been primarily engaged in agriculture. Republicans have outdone Democrats by a margin of three to one in the number of seats captured: seventy-six Republicans, twenty-six Democrats, and ten members of the People's Party have comprised the state's congressional delegations since 1861. With the exception of Kansas itself, which has been the place of birth for thirty-nine of the 112 Members of Congress, Ohio has been the most prolific supplier of Kansas congressmen with fifteen, followed closely by Illinois (fourteen) and Pennsylvania (eight).

Conway, Martin Franklin (1861-1863), Lawrence, Republican

The first U.S. congressman to represent the state of Kansas, Martin F. Conway was elected in 1859 and commenced his single term when the state was admitted to the Union in 1861. Born in South Carolina on November 19, 1827, Conway lived in Maryland before moving to Kansas in 1854, as a Douglas Democrat and special correspondent for the Baltimore Sun. While living in Baltimore during the 1840s, Conway became a printer, founded the National Typographical Union, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1852. Conway, at first a Kansas-Nebraska Act enthusiast, became disillusioned with the popular or squatter sovereignty solution to the slavery issue as a result of the territory's first, fraudulent election and was transformed, according to a friend, into "a convicted free-state man of the more radical Kansas stripe." Conway held numerous positions while a member of the Free State Party (and later the Republican Party), including delegate to the Big Springs Convention and president of the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention. He lost the Republican nomination to A.C. Wilder on September 17, 1862 and after the war, was appointed consul to Marseille, France. But his short, eventful life had a tragic ending. While living in Washington, he was arrested for firing three shots at and slightly wounding a former Kansas senator, Samuel C. Pomeroy. (Conway claimed Pomeroy "ruined myself and family.") Subsequently institutionalized, Conway died at age 52 on February 15, 1882, while he was confined to the Government Hospital for the Insane at Washington, D.C. (See also, a biography and Territorial Kansas Online.)

Wilder, Abel Carter (1863-1865), Leavenworth, Republican

Born in Mendon, Worcester County, Massachusetts, March 18, 1828, A.C. Wilder entered the mercantile business in his hometown before moving to Rochester, New York, where he continued these pursuits. Wilder moved to Leavenworth, Kansas Territory in 1857 and soon became involved in to politics of the territory, serving as a delegate to the Osawatomie Convention in May 1859 and the Republican National Convention in 1860-Wilder was chairman of the Kansas delegation. After brief service at the White House in Kansas's Frontier Guard in 1861 and back on the Kansas-Missouri border, Wilder was elected to his single term in Congress (March 4, 1863-March 3, 1865) and soon thereafter returned to Rochester where he published the Morning and Evening Express. A. C. Wilder died in San Francisco, California, where he had removed for health reasons on December 22, 1875; his remains were returned to Rochester for burial.

Clarke, Sidney (1865-1871), Lawrence, Republican

A three-term congressman (March 4, 1865 to March 3, 1871) from Lawrence, Kansas, Sidney Clarke was born in Southbridge, Worcester County, Massachusetts, on October 16, 1831, where he attended the public schools. He became publisher of the Southbridge Press in 1854, and removed to Kansas Territory in 1859, settling in Lawrence. Clarke enlisted as a volunteer during the Civil War and was subsequently appointed assistant adjutant general of Volunteers on February 9,1863; he also served as captain and assistant provost marshal general for Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Dakota. (Clarke was in Lawrence on the morning of August 21, 1863, but managed to elude William C. Quantrill's raiders who, no doubt, would have been eager to capture and kill him--[see an article]) In the Forty-first Congress, Clarke chaired the Committee on Indian Affairs, but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1870 to the Forty-second Congress. Clarke returned to Kansas and was a member of the state house of representatives in 1879. Clarke moved to Oklahoma City in 1889, where he engaged in railroad building and politics, and where he died on June 18, 1909.

Lowe, David Perley (1871-1875), Fort Scott, Republican

David Lowe, who was born near Utica, Oneida County, New York, on August 22, 1823, served Kansans as an at large representative in the U.S. Congress for two terms, March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1875. Prior to his 1861 move to Kansas, Lowe had attended the Ohio common schools and graduated from the Cincinnati Law College in 1851. He was admitted to the bar and practiced in Cincinnati, Ohio, before moving to Mound City, Kansas, where he continued the practice of law. A member of the state senate in 1863 and 1864, Lowe served as judge of the sixth judicial district (1867-1871), moved to Fort Scott in 1870, and captured a seat in Congress in 1870. Congressman Lowe declined to be a candidate for the nomination in 1874 but accepted appointed as chief justice of Utah Territory in 1875. Subsequently he returned to Kansas, settled in Fort Scott, Bourbon County, and was again elected judge of the sixth judicial district of Kansas in 1879, serving in this capacity until his death in Fort Scott, Kansas, on April 10, 1882.

Cobb, Stephen Alonzo (1873-1875), Wyandotte, Republican

A native of Somerset County, Maine, Stephen A. Cobb was born on June 17, 1833, and attended the common schools there before moving to Minnesota with his father in 1850. Cobb attended Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin, for two years beginning in 1854 but finished his college education at Brown University, Providence, R.I., graduating in 1858. He settled in Wyandotte, Kansas Territory, in 1859, commenced the practice of law, and entered the Union Army in 1862. Cobb was brevetted major on August 16, 1865, and honorably discharged on September 23, 1865. Having served the city of Wyandotte as mayor in 1862 (as well as a term in the state senate), Cobb remained politically active after the war, serving another term as mayor in 1868 and returning to the state senate in 1869 and 1870; after a term in the state house of representatives in 1872, Cobb was elected to the U.S. Congress for the term beginning on March 4, 1873. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1874 and died in Wyandotte (now a part of Kansas City), Kansas, on August 24, 1878; he was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, Kansas City, Kansas.

Phillips, William Addison (1873-1875; 1875-1879, 1st Dist.), Salina, Republican

William A. Phillips was born in Paisley, Scotland, on January 14, 1824, and immigrated with his parents to the United States in the 1830s. The family settled on a farm in Randolph County, Illinois, where Phillips engaged in agricultural pursuits but soon, as editor for the Chester Herald, launched a career in journalism-a career that would soon bring him to prominence in the hotly contest territory of Kansas. In 1855 Phillips decided to travel to Kansas and report upon the state of affairs in the territory. As a special correspondent to Horace Greeley's New York Tribune newspaper, he penned several articles decrying the evils of slavery and the outrages committed by Missouri border ruffians against the free-state men of Kansas. Phillips's anti-slavery views were fully set forth in an 1856 publication entitled The Conquest of Kansas by Missouri and her Allies that became a popular Republican campaign document in John C. Fremont's unsuccessful bid for the presidency that autumn. Phillips remained active in the free-state movement, and in the spring of 1858 Phillips-with four associates-founded the town of Salina. Commissioned as a major in the First Indian Home Guards in 1861, Phillips later was promoted to the rank of colonel and commanded the Third Indian Home Guards and for a time the First Indian Brigade. After the war he returned to Kansas where he acted for a time as attorney to the Cherokee Indians, served in the state legislature, and won three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (March 4, 1873-March 3, 1879). Phillips failed in his bid for a fourth nomination and subsequently retired from political life. He died on Thanksgiving Day, November 30, 1893, at the home of a friend, W.P. Ross, in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, but was returned to Salina for burial in the Gypsum Hill Cemetery. (For more information, see Territorial Kansas Online.)

Goodin, John Randolph (1875-1877, 2nd Dist.), Humboldt, Democrat

Born in Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio, on December 14, 1836, Goodin moved to Kenton, Ohio, as a boy of eight and later attended the high school there and Geneva College. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1857, and commenced practice in Kenton, before moving to Humboldt, Kansas Territory, in 1859. Goodin immediately became involved in local politics, running for the state senate under the Wyandotte Constitution in December 1859 (apparently as a Democrat), and he remained active in the Kansas Democratic Party, being elected secretary of the state convention in June 1864, and the state house of representatives in 1866. While serving as judge of the seventh judicial district of Kansas (1868-1876), Goodin was elected as a Democrat (really as the nominee of the Independent Reform Party, which included Sidney Clarke and Charles Robinson in 1874) to the Forty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1877). After standing as an unsuccessful candidate for reelection, Goodin returned to Humbolt where he edited the Inter State (he had previously worked as an editor on Humbolt's first newspaper, the Herald, in 1864). He received the Democratic nomination for governor in 1878 (lost to Republican John P. St. John) and moved to Kansas City, Kansas, in 1883, where he died on December 18, 1885.

Brown, William Ripley (1875-1877, 3rd Dist.), Hutchinson, Republican

The future congressman from the state of Kansas, William R. Brown, was born in Buffalo, New York, on July 16, 1840, and educated in Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, and graduated from Union College at Schenectady, New York in 1862. Brown then went to Kansas, settling in Emporia where he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1864. He served as judge of the ninth judicial district of Kansas from 1867 to 1877 and was elected to a single term in the U.S. Congress in November 1874 (served, March 4, 1875-March 3, 1877). Unsuccessful in his bid for renomination in 1876, Brown resumed the practice of law in Hutchinson and was register of the United States land office in Larned from 1883-1885. He moved to El Reno, Oklahoma, in 1892 and served as probate judge of Canadian County from 1894-1898. Brown was a resident of Los Molinos, California, at the time of his death, which occurred at the home of his daughter, Mr. Hunt C. Gardner, in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 4, 1916; he was buried in Lawrence, where he had once lived, on March 6, 1916.

Ryan, Thomas (1877-1885, 3rd Dist.; 1885-1889, 4th Dist.), Topeka, Republican

Thomas Ryan was born in Oxford, Chenango County, New York, on November 25, 1837, and moved with his parents to Bradford County, Pennsylvania. He attended Dickson Seminary in Williamsport, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1861, and during the Civil War served in the 141st Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness, Lieutenant Ryan mustered out of the service in August 1864, and removed to Topeka in1865, where he served as county attorney of Shawnee County (1865-1873) and assistant United States attorney for Kansas (1873-1877), before his election as a Republican to the Forty-fifth (Ryan soundly defeated the Independent Greenback candidate, former Governor Samuel J. Crawford, and T. L. Davis the Democrat in the November 1876 election). Successfully elected to the six succeeding Congresses, Ryan served his Kansas district(s) from March 4, 1877, until April 4, 1889, when he resigned to accept appointment as minister to the Republic of Mexico (1889-1893). Ryan was appointed first assistant secretary of the Interior by President William McKinley in 1897 and reappointed by President Theodore Roosevelt, serving in that capacity until 1907 when he was sent to Muskogee, Oklahoma, as the personal resident representative of the Secretary of the Interior. He died in Muskogee, Oklahoma, on April 5, 1914; his remains were returned to Topeka for burial.

Haskell, Dudley Chase (1877-1883, 2nd Dist.), Lawrence, Republican

Moving to Lawrence, Kansas Territory, from North Brookfield, Massachusetts, with his parents at age thirteen, Dudley Haskell, who had been born in Springfield, Windsor County, Vermont, on March 23, 1842, returned to Springfield to attend school in 1857 and 1858. Haskell then engaged in the shoe business and followed the gold rush in 1859 to Pikes Peak, Colorado, where he resided until 1861. Haskell served as assistant to the quartermaster of the Union Army in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and the Indian Territory in 1861 and 1862 but left the service to attend Williston's Seminary, Easthampton, Massachusetts in 1863. He graduated from Yale College in 1865 and returned to Lawrence where he once again entered the shoe business. Haskell served in the state house of representatives in 1872, 1875, and 1876 and was first elected to the U.S. Congress in 1876 for the term beginning March 4, 1877. He was thrice reelected, and served as chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, but died in Washington, D.C., on December 16, 1883, before the end of his fourth term. He was buried in Lawrence's Oak Hill Cemetery.

Anderson, John Alexander (1879-1885, 1st Dist.; 1885-1891, 5th Dist.), Manhattan, Republican

John A. Anderson, who died in Liverpool, England, on May 18, 1892, was born near Pigeon Creek, Washington County, Pennsylvania, on June 26, 1834. He graduated from Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, in 1853, and was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1857. He commenced preaching in Stockton, California, and was elected trustee of the state insane asylum in 1860. In 1862 he was appointed chaplain of the Third Regiment, California Volunteer Infantry and mustered into the Federal service March 1863, but resigned in June to become California correspondent and agent of the United States Sanitary Commission, a position he held until the end of the war. Anderson moved to Junction City, Kansas, in 1868, where he built and pastured the First Presbyterian Church. He served as regent of the University of Kansas in 1872 and 1873, as president of the Kansas State Agricultural College 1873-1879, as a Member of Congress from March 4, 1879, to March 3, 1887. Congressman Anderson failed to get his party's nomination in 1886 but won election as an Independent Republican and returned to Washington for two additional terms (March 4, 1887-March 3, 1891). He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1890, but received an appointment as United States consul general to Cairo, Egypt, on March 4, 1891, and remained there until shortly before his death in a Liverpool hospital. Anderson was buried in Junction City's Highland Cemetery.

Peters, Samuel Ritter (1883-1885, at-large; 1885-1891, 7th Dist.), Newton, Republican

Samuel R. Peters, who was born in near Circleville, Ohio, on August 16, 1842, attended the local public schools and then the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, before enlisting in the Union Army as a private in Company E, Seventy-third Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in October 1861. Peters' service spanned the entire Civil War, during which time he rose through the ranks to become a captain before mustering out in June 1865. Subsequently, he graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor with a law degree in 1867. Peters was admitted and started a practice in Memphis, Missouri, that same year. He edited the Memphis Reveille (1868-1873), was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1872, and served as mayor of the northeast Missouri town, before moving to Marion, Kansas in 1873. In 1874 Peters was elected a member of the state senate but resigned in March 1875 to accept appointment as judge of the ninth judicial district, a position he held for almost a decade. He moved to Newton, Harvey County, in 1876, and resigned his judgeship in 1883 after winning a seat in the Forty-eighth Congress; he won reelection three times, serving from March 4, 1883-March 3, 1891. Peters was not a candidate for renomination in 1890. Instead, he returned to Newton, resumed the practice of law, and continued his public service on the local level: member of the board of managers of the State reformatory (1895-1899), postmaster of Newton (1898-1910). For a time Peters also edited the Newton Daily Kansas-Republican. He died in Newton on April 21, 1910, and was buried in the Greenwood Cemetery.

Morrill, Edmund Needham (1883-1885, at-large; 1885-1891, 1st Dist.), Hiawatha, Republican

A one-term Republican governor of Kansas the mid-1890s, Edmund N. Morrill was born in Westbrook, Cumberland County, Maine, on February 12, 1834, and attended school in his hometown, graduating from Westbrook Seminary in 1855. Morrill then worked as superintendent of the Westbrook schools in 1856 and 1857 before moving to Kansas Territory in 1857. He settled in Brown County, where he erected a sawmill, served as a free-state member of the territorial legislature in 1857 and 1858, and enlisted on October 5, 1861, as a private in Company C, Seventh Regiment, Kansas Volunteer Cavalry-the "notorious" Charles R. Jennison and Daniel R. Anthony commanding. Morrill almost immediately was promoted to sergeant (on October 10, 1861), and within a year (on August 27, 1862) to captain and commissary of subsistence. After mustering out of the service a major in October 1865, Morrill served as clerk of the district court of Brown County (1866-1870) and county clerk (1866-1873), and in 1871 he founded the county's first bank, serving as its president from 1887 until his death. For seven years, Morrill was also president of the First National Bank of Leavenworth; he also served in the state senate from 1872-1874 and 1876-1880 (president pro tempore in 1877) and founded the Morrill Free Public Library at Hiawatha in 1882. Elected as to the Forty-eighth Congress in 1882, Congressman Morrill was reelected three times (served, March 4, 1883-March 3, 1891). He was chairman, Committee on Invalid Pensions during his last term (Fifty-first Congress, 1889-1891) but was not a candidate for renomination in 1890. Instead, Morrill returned to banking and by the early 1890s was considered one of Kansas's wealthiest citizens. Morrill successfully challenged the state's first Populist governor, Lorenzo D. Lewelling, in the 1892 gubernatorial election (served, 1895-1897), but lost in 1894 to Kansas's second successful Populist candidate, John W. Leedy. Morrill subsequently returned to his Hiawatha bank and other business pursuits and died in San Antonio, Texas, on March 14, 1909; he was buried in Hiawatha's Mount Hope Cemetery.

Hanback, Lewis (1883-1885, at-large; 1885-1887, 6th Dist.), Salina, Republican

Born in Winchester, Scott County, Illinois, on March 27, 1839, and educated in the common schools and at Cherry Grove Seminary in Knox County, Illinois, Lewis Hanback taught school in Morgan County, Illinois, in 1860 and 1861 and then enlisted as a private; soon he was captain of Co. K, 27th Illinois Volunteer Infantry regiment. After the war, Hanback, who had studied law in Albany, New York, returned to Illinois and from there removed to Topeka, Kansas, in 1865 and was admitted to the bar. He was elected justice of the peace in 1867, probate judge of Shawnee County (1868-1872), and was assistant chief clerk of the state house of representatives and assistant secretary of the state senate in 1877. Hanback served as assistant United States district attorney of Kansas, 1877-1879, and was first elected to one of Kansas's four at-large seats in the U.S. Congress in November 1882; he subsequently was elected to represent the sixth district in 1884 (served, March 4, 1883-March 3, 1887), but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1886. Thereafter, Hanback resumed his law practice, devoted considerable time to the Grand Army of the Republic and the interests of old veterans, and died in Kansas City (Armourdale), Kansas, September 6, 1897; he was buried in the Topeka Cemetery.

Perkins, Bishop Walden (1883-1885, at-large; 1885-1891, 3rd Dist.), Oswego, Republican

A U.S. representative and senator from Kansas, B. W. Perkins was born at Rochester, Ohio, on October 18, 1841, and attended the local common schools and Knox College at Galesburg, Illinois. From 1860 to 1862 he prospected for gold in California and New Mexico and then served as a Union Army sergeant, adjutant, and captain during the Civil War. After the war Perkins studied law in Ottawa, Illinois, was admitted to the bar in 1867, and practiced law in Princeton, Indiana, before removing to Oswego, Labette County, Kansas, in 1869 where he served as county attorney and district judge (1870-1882). He became editor of the Oswego Register in 1873. Elected to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1882 (served, March 4, 1883-March 3, 1891), Perkins won reelection three times before being defeated by B. H. Clover in the first "Populist" election campaign of 1890. Perkins was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Senator Preston B. Plumb, who had died in office on December 21, 1891. After leaving office on March 3, 1893, Perkins remained in Washington, where he practiced law until his death on June 20, 1894.

Funston, Edward Hogue (1883-1894, 2nd Dist.), Iola, Republican

The father of General "Fighting" Fred Funston was born at Donnelsville, Clark County, Ohio, on September 16, 1836, married Ann Eliza Mitchell in September 1861, and served throughout the Civil War in the Sixteenth Ohio Battery. He moved his family to Kansas in December 1867 where he established a prosperous, diversified farm just north of Iola. E. H. Funston was an officer in the Kansas State Agricultural Society and the State Board of Agriculture, and served in Kansas House of Representatives (1873-1875) and the state Senate (1881-1885), before winning election to the U.S. Congress in 1884. Although Edward "Fog Horn" Funston did not return to public office after leaving the Congress in 1894 (gave up his seat early, after finally losing the contested 1892 election), he did not fade from the public eye. Funston expressed interest in (and made some effort to obtain) the Republican nomination for governor and congressman from the second district and continued to use his powerful voice to speak out on issues of interest to him and many of his Allen county neighbors until his death on September 10, 1911.

Turner, Erastus Johnson (1887-1891, 6th Dist.), Hoxie, Republican

Born in Lockport, Erie County, Pennsylvania, on December 26, 1846, E. J. Turner attended college in Henry, Illinois, in 1859 and 1860 and removed to Bloomfield, Iowa, in 1860. He enlisted in Company E, Thirteenth Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, in 1864 and served until the end of the war. Turner attended Adrian (Mich.) College from 1866-1868, was admitted to the bar in 1871, and commenced practice at Bloomfield, Iowa. In 1879 he removed to Hoxie, Sheridan County, Kansas, where he practiced law, served two terms in the state legislature (representative, 1881-1885), and was secretary of the Kansas Board of Railroad Commissioners from April 1, 1883, to August 1, 1886. He was elected in 1886 to the Fiftieth and reelected to the Fifty-first Congresses (served, March 4, 1887-March 3, 1891) but chose not to be a candidate for renomination in 1890. The former congressman from western Kansas practiced law for several years in Washington, D.C., before moving to Seattle, Washington, in 1905. Turner retired in 1916 and moved to Los Angeles, California, where he died February 10, 1933.

Kelley, Harrison (1889-1891, 4th Dist.), Burlington, Republican

Harrison Kelley, who was elected May 21, 1889, to fill the seat vacated by the resignation of Thomas Ryan of Topeka, was born in Wood County, Ohio, on May 12, 1836, where he attended the common schools. He moved to Coffey County, Kansas, in March 1858, and during the Civil War enlisted in the Fifth Regiment, Kansas Volunteer Cavalry-he served as captain of Company B for over two years. Kelley returned to Burlington in 1865 and was appointed brigadier general of Kansas State Militia. He was member of the State house of representatives (1868-1870), director of the State penitentiary (1868-1873), and receiver of the United States land office at Topeka (1877 and 1878). He served in the State senate (1880-1884), was deputy collector of internal revenue, chairman of the state's livestock sanitary commission, and treasurer of the State board of charities in 1889, before his election to Congress in 1889 (served, December 2, 1889, to March 3, 1891). Turner died in Burlington on July 24, 1897, and was buried in Bowman Cemetery at Ottumwa.

Otis, John Grant (1891-1893, 4th Dist.), Topeka, Populist

One of the Alliance (or People's) Party's five successful congressional candidates in its first election contest, John G. Otis was born in Rutland County, Vermont, on February 10, 1838. He received his early education in the county's rural schools and then attended the Burr Seminary at Manchester, Vermont, and Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, before studying for a year in the law department at Harvard University. Otis was admitted to the bar of Rutland County in 1859 and in May of that same year removed to Topeka, Kansas, where he commenced his practice. In 1862 he helped recruit the first black infantry regiment in Kansas and subsequently (February 19, 1863) received appointment as paymaster general at the rank of colonel on the governor's military staff. After the war, Otis became involved in a farming and dairying operation near Topeka, served as state agent for the Grange, 1873-1875, and was state lecturer for the organization, 1889-1891. He was also a member of the Farmers Alliance and elected by the People's Party to Congress in 1890. Congressman Otis, wrote Populist historian Gene Clanton, exhibited "a nativist streak," and he "was defeated for reelection in 1892, and was ultimately isolated within the party itself." He died at Topeka on February 22, 1916.

Broderick, Case (1891-1899, 1st Dist.), Holton, Republican

The younger cousin of a U.S. senator from California and a U.S. representative from Indiana, Case Broderick was born near Marion in Grant County, Indiana, on September 23, 1839. There he received his early education and then removed to Holton, Jackson County, Kansas Territory, in 1858, where he took up farming. Broderick enlisted as a private in the Second Kansas Battery on May 27, 1863, and was mustered out at Leavenworth on August 11,1865. After the Civil War, Broderick studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1870, and commenced practice in Holton. He served that town as mayor in 1874 and 1875, was elected prosecuting attorney of Jackson County in 1876-1880, and served a term in the state senate, 1881-1884. Appointed an associate justice of the supreme court of the Territory of Idaho by President Chester Arthur on March 18, 1884, took up his residence in Boise City, Idaho, where he served until the fall of 1888. He then returned to Holton, resumed the practice of law, and was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-second in November 1890; Congressman Broderick successfully stood for reelection three times (served, March 4, 1891-March 3, 1899), but was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1898. Once again he engaged in the practice of law in Holton for several years, when he retired and devoted himself to farming and livestock interests until his death at his home in Holton on April 1, 1920.

Baker, William (1891-1897, 6th Dist.), Lincoln, Populist

Born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, on April 29, 1831, Baker graduated from Waynesboro College in 1856 and subsequently taught in the common schools. He removed to Iowa in 1859 and served as principal of the Council Bluffs public schools. Baker studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1860 but did not practice, and returned to Bealsville in Washington County, Pennsylvania, in 1865 to engage in mercantile pursuits. He removed to Lincoln County, Kansas, in 1878, where he engaged in agriculture and stock raising. A leader of the Farmers' Alliance movement, Baker was elected to Congress in the Populist (People's Party) tidal wave of 1890 and served three terms (served, March 4, 1891-March 3, 1897); he was not a candidate for renomination in 1896. After leaving office in March 1897, Baker returned to Lincoln and his agricultural pursuits until his death on February 1, 1910.

Clover, Benjamin Hutchinson (1891-1893, 3rd Dist.), Cambridge, Populist

Another one of the five successful People's Party candidate for Congress in 1890, Ben Clover was born in Franklin County, Ohio, on December 22, 1837, and removed to Kansas in 1871, locating at Cambridge, Cowley County, where he was involved with agriculture and served as a member of the board of school commissioners (1873-1888). A leader of the Kansas Farmers' Alliance, of which he was the first state president and later a vice-president of the national (elected twice to both positions), Clover announced prior to the first Populist state convention (held at Topeka, August 13, 1890), that he would not be a candidate of governor (July 30, 1890); many, including William A. Peffer, had considered him the logical choice to head the state ticket. The convention chose John F. Willits of Jefferson County instead, and Clover accepted his party's nomination to run for the 3rd District congressional seat-the former lost, the latter won. But Clover served only one term in the U.S. Congress (the Fifty-second, March 4, 1891-March 3, 1893), choosing not to be a candidate for renomination in 1892. On Dec. 30, 1899, he committed suicide at his home near Douglass, Butler County.

Davis, John (1891-1895, 5th Dist.), Populist, Junction City

Born in Sangamon County, Illinois (near Springfield), August 9, 1826, John Davis moved with his family to Macon County in 1830. At age twenty, Davis entered Springfield Academy and then attended Illinois College at Jacksonville; thereafter he engaged in agricultural and horticultural pursuits on his own farm near Decatur, Illinois. He was an anti-slave Republican and believed in the principle of government supported agricultural education. (A post-election biographical sketch in The Kansas Commoner, Wichita, Kansas, on September 11, 1890, reported that Davis, who had been "a neighbor and intimate acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln, early imbibed some of the best of that great man's views, and during the last twenty years he has been a constant student of political history.") In 1872 Davis located his family on a farm two miles northwest of Junction City, Kansas, where he also established a nursery-"Junction Heights Farm and Nursery! John Davis & Sons." For many years the secretary of the Central Kansas Horticultural Society, Davis was elected president in 1873 of "the first distinctive farmers' convention" held in Kansas; out of this meeting emerged the Farmers' Cooperative Association, established at the convention with Davis as president and J.K. Hudson as vice president. Davis was also president of the Grange Convention in 1874, editor and proprietor of the Junction City Tribune (1875-1895), and a Greenback candidate for U.S. Congress in 1880 and 1882-he was actually one of that party's Kansas founders. Successful as a Populist candidate in November 1890, defeating the incumbent Republican, William A. Phillips, Congressman Davis served two terms (March 4, 1891-March 3, 1895) but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1894. John Davis remained active, however, and among other things authored Napoleon Bonaparte: A Sketch; Written For A Purpose (Boston: Arena Publishing Co., 1896), a 97-page book on the French emperor, which served as forum for commentary on the contemporary American political scene. David, who married Martha Powell (the sister of Major John Wesley Powell, director of U.S. Geological Survey) in 1851, died in Topeka, at his daughter's home, on August 1, 1901.

Simpson, Jeremiah (1891-1895, 1897-1899, 7th Dist.), Medicine Lodge, Populist

"Sockless" Jerry Simpson, who became one of the nation's most recognized late nineteenth century congressmen, was born in New Brunswick, Canada, on March 31, 1842, and moved to New York with his parents when he was six. He received limited formal education and as a teenager began working as a Great Lake's sailor. Simpson married in 1870, spent a brief time on a farm in Indiana, and moved to Holton, Jackson County, Kansas, in 1878, where he ran a farm and a sawmill. Soon after an accident took the life of their small daughter, the Simpsons moved to a ranch near Medicine Lodge, and shortly he became involved in third party politics. Simpson ran unsuccessfully for Congress on the Greenback ticket in 1886 and the Union Labor Party ticket in 1888 before winning as a Populist in 1890. His famous moniker originated, according to Simpson himself, during a debate with Colonel James R. "Prince Hal" Hallowell, a Republican. "When my turn came I tried to get hold of the crowd. I referred to the fact that my opponent was known as a 'Prince.' Princes, I said, wear silk socks. I dont wear any." According to historian O. Gene Clanton, Simpson "won the respect and admiration of his colleagues in the House, regardless of party," and his performance in Congress "was, from beginning to end, principled, consistent, and commendable." The congressman won reelection in 1892, lost to Chester Long in 1894, defeated Long in 1896, and lost the seat for the last time, again to Long, in 1898. Simpson died in Wichita on October 23, 1905, at the age of 63. (For more on Simpson and the People's Party generally, see a bibliography, and an essay.)

Harris, William Alexander (1893-95, at-large), Linwood, Populist

Born on October 29, 1841, in Loudon County, Virginia, Harris graduated from Columbia College (later George Washington University) in Washington, D.C., in 1859, and Virginia Military Institute (VMI) at Lexington, Virginia, in 1861. He served three years in the Confederate army (Army of Northern Virginia) and then came to Kansas in 1865 as a civil engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad, a position he held for three years. Harris settled in Lawrence in 1868 and was appointed railroad agent for the sale of Delaware Reservation and other lands. In 1884 he moved to Linwood where he established a prosperous farm and stock raising operation-Harris became well know for developing a herd of Scotch Cruickshank Shorthorns and as a founder of the American Shorthorn Association. Harris was elected to an at-large seat in the Congress as a Populist in 1892 (served, March 4, 1893-March 3, 1895) but was unsuccessful in a bid for reelection two years later. Back in Kansas he was elected to replace Lucien Baker in the state senate in 1896, after Baker was elevated to the U.S. Senate on March 4, 1895, and was elected to the U.S. Senate himself as a Democrat (actually, a fusionists-Populist/Democrat) in 1897. Harris served in the upper chamber until 1903, having made an unsuccessful bid for reelection. He was a candidate for governor in 1906 and died December 20, 1909, at Chicago; he was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Lawrence.

Hudson, Thomas Jefferson (1893-1895, 3rd Dist.), Fredonia, Demo-Populist

Born in Boone Co., Indiana, October 30, 1839, Hudson attended Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, and then removed to Nodaway, Missouri, in 1854. He went to Kansas, settling first at Coyville, Wilson County, in 1866, and taught at a country school; subsequently, Hudson studied law and was admitted to the bar at Iola in June 1869. That same year, he moved to Fredonia where he worked for the adoption of the 15th Amendment, served on the school board and as mayor, was a member of the 1870 state legislature, and organized the Wilson County Bank in 1871; he also graduated from the law department of the University of Cincinnati in 1874. Hudson served as prosecuting attorney of Wilson County during the mid-1880s and was active in the Democratic Party, severing as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1884 and 1888, as well as 1896. He was elected to Congress in 1892 (member of the Fifty-third Congress, March 4, 1893-March 3, 1895) as a Populist but was not a candidate for renomination in 1894. He resumed his law practice in Fredonia and served as a regent of KSAC from 1897-1898. Hudson died at Wichita on Jan. 4, 1923.

Curtis, Charles (1893-1899, 4th Dist.; 1899-1907, 1st Dist.), Topeka, Republican

A U.S. representative and senator before he became the first person of American Indian decent to served as vice president of the United States, Charles Curtis was born near Topeka, Kansas, on January 25, 1860. He attended the common schools, studied law, and was admitted to the Kansas bar in 1881. Curtis practiced law in Topeka and soon became Shawnee County's prosecuting attorney (1885-1889); he was first elected to the U.S. Congress in 1892 and was reelected to five succeeding Congresses (served, March 4, 1893, to January 28, 1907). Curtis had been reelected in 1906, but was elected by the Kansas legislature to the U.S. Senate on January 23, 1907, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Joseph R. Burton. Senator Curtis served almost continuously in this capacity until resigning on March 3, 1929, in order to assume the office of vice president of the United States. The Herbert Hoover-Charles Curtis ticket was unsuccessful in its bid for reelection in 1932, of course, and Curtis resumed the practice of law, this time in Washington, D.C., where he died on February 8, 1936. His body was returned to Topeka for interment. Curtis, the first native-born Kansan to represent the state in the U.S. Congress, was also the first person of Native American (American Indian) ancestry elected to the nation's second highest office. See a brief biography and a vice president biography.

Moore, Horace Ladd (1894-1895, 2nd Dist.), Lawrence, Democrat

A Lawrence Democratic and People's Party candidate for Congress in 1892, H. L. Moore was a native of Portage County, Ohio, where he had been born on February 25, 1837. He attended the common schools there and the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, Hiram, Ohio, before moved to Lawrence, Kansas Territory, in 1858. Moore subsequently studied law and one month after his admission to the bar enlisted in Company D, Second Kansas Regiment, Volunteer Infantry (later, cavalry), on May 14, 1861. Moore was promoted to lieutenant in December 1861 and served continuously until June 30, 1865, when he was mustered out of the service as lieutenant colonel of the Fourth Regiment, Arkansas Volunteer Cavalry; he had transferred to the Fourth Arkansas in May 1864. As major of the Eighteenth and colonel of the Nineteenth regiments of Kansas Cavalry, Moore served against the Indians on the Plains in 1867 and 1868. After the Civil War, he also practiced law and from 1886 to 1892 engaged in the wholesale grocery business in Trinidad, Colorado. Moore also was treasurer of Douglas County, Kansas, and captured the Democrat/Populist nomination for 2nd District congressman in 1892; the contested result was finally settled in favor of Moore almost two years after the balloting, and he replaced the incumbent Republican, Edward H. Funston, on August 2, 1894, serving until March 3, 1895. Moore was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1894. Moore returned to Lawrence and served as vice president of a national bank until his death on May 1, 1914.

Blue, Richard Whiting (1895-1897, at-large), Pleasanton, Republican

Born near Parkersburg in Wood County, Virginia (now West Virginia), on September 8, 1841, Richard W. Blue worked on a farm in the summertime and, when time allowed during the winter months, studied in the local schools before attending Monongalia Academy, Morgantown, Virginia in 1859 and Washington College in Pennsylvania. Blue's study at the latter was interrupted by his enlistment, on June 29, 1863, as a private in Company A, Third Regiment, West Virginia Volunteer Infantry-subsequently promoted to second and then first lieutenant of the company. Honorably discharged on May 22, 1866, at Leavenworth, Kansas, Blue returned to Grafton, West Virginia, taught school, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Virginia. By 1871, he had removed Linn County, Kansas, where he commenced practicing law, served as county probate judge (1872-1876), county attorney (1876-1880), and as a member of the State senate for two terms, 1881-1889. Elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth Congress in November 1894, Blue was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1896 (served, March 4, 1895-March 3, 1897), and subsequently engaged in the practice of law until his death on January 29, 1907, at Bartlesville, Oklahoma; interment was in Pleasanton Cemetery, Pleasanton, Linn County, Kansas.

Miller, Orrin Larabee (1895-1897, 2nd Dist.), Kansas City, Republican

A one-term congressman from Kansas City, Orrin L. Miller was born in Newburg, Penobscot County, Maine, on January 11, 1856. He attended the local public schools and was graduated from the Maine Central Institute at Pittsfield. Miller studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1880, and commenced practice in Bangor, but soon moved to Kansas City, Kansas, where he engaged in the practice of law, was in 1887 appointed and subsequently elected district judge for the twenty-ninth judicial district of Kansas. He resigned the judgeship in 1891, and in subsequent years worked as counsel for several large railroad corporations. Mill was elected to a seat in the Fifty-fourth Congress (served, March 4, 1895-March 3, 1897), but declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1896, and returned to practice law in Kansas City until his death there on September 11, 1926.

Kirkpatrick, Snyder Solomon (1895-1897, 3rd Dist.), Ferdonia, Republican

Born in Franklin County, Illinois, on February 21, 1847, Sidney Kirkpatrick attended the common schools before enlisting in 1864 in the 136th Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. After the war Kirkpatrick engaged in the mercantile business and then in 1867 entered law school at Ann Arbor, Michigan. The following year he returned to Illinois where he was admitted to the bar and commenced practicing at Cairo. Kirkpatrick moved to Kansas in September of 1873 and settled in Fredonia, Wilson County, where he engaged in the practice of law, was elected county attorney in 1880, and as a member of the state senate in 1888; after one four-year term, 1889-1893, he unsuccessfully sought election to the Fifty-third Congress in 1892, but was elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress two years later (served, March 4, 1895-March 3, 1897). Congressman S. S. Kirkpatrick, however, was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1896 and again in 1898, losing out to the Democratic/People's Party candidate, E. R. Ridgely, in both elections. Kirkpatrick served a term in Kansas house of representatives, 1903-1905, and died in Fredonia, on April 5, 1909.

Long, Chester Isaiah (1895-1897 & 1899-1903, 7th Dist.), Medicine Lodge, Republican

Chester I. Long, the future representative and senator from Kansas, was born in near Millerstown in Perry County, Pennsylvania, on October 12, 1860, and moved with his parents to Daviess County, Missouri, in 1865. Long moved to Paola, Kansas, in 1879, and graduated from the normal school there in 1880; he subsequently taught school for several years, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1885, and decided to start his practice in Medicine Lodge. In 1888 Long launched his career in public office with a successful race for the state senate, a position he held for one term (1889-1893) before making an unsuccessful bid for election to Congress in 1892. Undaunted, Long came back two years later and won the seat as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth Congress by defeating the two-term incumbent, Populist Jerry Simpson. Two years later, Long lost a rematch to Simpson, but was victorious in the congressional elections of 1898, 1900, and 1902; this time Congressman Long served from March 4, 1899, until his resignation, effective March 4, 1903, before the commencement of the Fifty-eighth Congress, to become U.S. senator from Kansas. Long's service in the Senate was limited to one term (March 4, 1903, to March 3, 1909), he was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1908. In 1911 the former senator moved to Wichita where he practiced law and chaired the commission to revise the general statutes of Kansas, 1921-1923, before moving back in 1925 to Washington, D.C., where he served as president of the American Bar Association (1925-1926) and died on July 1, 1934. (For more information on Long, see finding aids.)

Calderhead, William Alexander (1895-1897, 1899-1911, 5th Dist.), Marysville, Republican

Born on a farm near New Lexington, Perry County, Ohio, on September 26, 1844, William A. Calderhead received a private and public school education and attended Franklin College in New Athens, Ohio, for one year. He then enlisted as a private in Company H, 126th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in August 1862, later transferred to Company D, Ninth Veteran Reserves, and was discharged June 27, 1865. He removed first to Bates County, Missouri, in 1868, and then to a farm near Newton in Harvey County, Kansas, before moving to Newton in 1872 to teach school and study law. Calderhead was admitted to the bar in 1875, moved to Atchison, and eventually settled in Marysville, Marshall County, in 1879 where he set up a private practice and served as county attorney (1889-1891). He was first elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress in 1894 (served, March 4, 1895-March 3, 1897), but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1896; two years later, however, he was more fortunate and was elected to the Fifty-sixth and to the five succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1899-March 3, 1911). Congressman Calderhead failed to capture the nomination in 1910, however, and returned to his Marysville law practice until his retirement in 1920, when he moved to Enid, Oklahoma, where he died on December 18, 1928-interment was in the Marysville Cemetery.

Ridgely, Edwin Reed (1897-1901, 3rd Dist.), Pittsburg, Democrat/Populist

Edwin R. Ridgely was born in Wabash County, Illinois, on May 9, 1844. He served as a volunteer in 115th Illinois Infantry regiment during the Civil war (1862-65), and moved with his brother to Girard, Kansas, in 1869, where he engaged in the general merchandising business (Ridgely Bros.) and agriculture. Ridgely abandoned the GOP in 1876 because of the party's financial policy. He lived in Ogden, Utah, 1889-93, and then moved back to Kansas. Elected to Congress as a Fusion candidate, he was reelected in 1898, but declined renomination for a third term in 1900. Thereafter, he returned to his business in Girard, where he died on April 23, 1927.

Peters, Mason Summers (1897-1899, 2nd Dist.), Kansas City, Demo-Populist

A one-term Populist congressman from the Kansas Second District, Mason S. Peters weas born near Kearney, Clay County, Missouri, on September 3, 1844, and attended the William Jewell College at Liberty. Peters taught grammar school in Clay County from 1867 to 1870 when he became clerk of the court, as position he held until 1874 while he studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1875 and first practiced in Plattsburg, Missouri, before moving in 1886 to Wyandotte County, Kansas. Peters organized the Union Live Stock Commission Company in 1895 and was elected as a Populist to the Fifty-fifth Congress (served, March 4, 1897-March 3, 1899); he was unsuccessful for reelection in 1898 and subsequently resumed his business and professional pursuits in Kansas City, Kansas; he died at home in Kansas City, Missouri, on February 14, 1914.

Botkin, Jeremiah Dunham (1897-1899, at-large), Winfield, Populist

Labeled an "old hoopskirt of a man" who had failed in business, journalism, and as a preacher in William Allen White's editorial, "What's the Matter With Kansas?", the future Kansas Populist, Jeremiah D. Botkin, was born in Logan County, Illinois, on April 24, 1849. He entered the Methodist ministry in 1870 but was more often involved in politics after his move to Kansas. Although initially a Republican, he ran for governor as a Prohibitionist in 1888 and soon took up the Populist cause. Botkin ran unsuccessfully as a Populist candidate for the U. S. Congress in 1894, but two years later he was elected congressman-at-large on a combined Democrat-Populist ticket (the Fusionist candidate). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1898. In the first statewide primary, August 4, 1908, the former congressman was nominated the Democratic candidate for governor but lost the general election to Walter R. Stubbs. Appointed state penitentiary warden by the new Democratic governor in 1913, Botkin was suspended by Republican Governor Arthur Capper for misconduct on July 7, 1915, pending investigation. He was charged with inefficiency and misconduct in office and on September 16, 1915, was found guilty on eleven counts, and replaced by J. K. Codding of Wamego. Botkin resumed his ministerial duties and was a Chautauqua lecturer in 1921, but died on December 29 of that year in Liberal.

McCormick, Nelson B. (1897-1899, 6th Dist.), Phillipsburg, Populist

Congressman Nelson B. McCormick was born on November 20, 1847, in Greene County, Pennsylvania. In 1867 he moved to Marion County, Iowa, where he engaged in crop and livestock production, and removed to Phillips County, Kansas, to take a homestead in 1877. There he also studied law and in 1882 was admitted to the bar and commenced a practice in Phillipsburg. He was deputy prosecuting attorney for two years, 1887-1889, and Phillips County Attorney for four, 1891-1895 (declined renomination in 1894), before his election to Congress on the People's Party ticket in 1896 (served, March 4, 1897-March 3, 1899); he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1898. Thereafter, McCormick resumed his law practice, was a delegate to the Democratic State Convention in 1904 and 1908, and served again as country prosecutor from 1911 until his death on April 10, 1914, at Phillipsburg.

Vincent, William Davis (1897-1899, 5th Dist.), Clay Center, Populist

Born in Weakley County, Tennessee, on October 11, 1852, William moved to Riley County, Kansas Territory, with his parents in 1858 and to Manhattan in 1864. Vincent attended the Kansas State Agricultural College, engaged in business in Manhattan from 1872 to 1876, and then in 1878 moved to Clay Center where he operated a mercantile business. In Clay Center, Vincent was elected to the city council (1880), was a Greenback Party nominee for presidential elector (1884), served on the state board of railroad commissioners in 1893 and 1894, and was elected to the U.S. Congress as a Populist in 1896. After a single term, he resumed his business career in Clay Center. He died on February 28, 1922, in St. Louis, and is buried at Clay Center.

Reeder, William Augustus (1899-1911, 6th Dist.), Logan, Republican

On August 28, 1849, William A. Reeder was born near Shippensburg, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and moved with his parents to Ipava, Fulton County, Illinois, in 1853. There he attended the public schools, taught school in Illinois from 1863-1871, and then moved to Beloit, Mitchell County, Kansas, where he served as principal of the town's public schools from 1871 to 1879. Reeder moved to Logan in Phillips County in 1880 and engaged in banking, as well as in irrigation farming, which occupied much of his attentions during the 1890s. Reeder was elected to the first of six terms in the U.S. Congress (served, March 4, 1899-March 3, 1911), during which time he chaired the Committee on Mileage and the Committee on the Irrigation of Arid Lands. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1910, moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1911, and to Beverly Hills in 1913, where he engaged in banking and in the real estate business until 1926. Reeder died in Beverly Hills on November 7, 1929, and was buried Hollywood Cemetery, Hollywood, California.

Bailey, Willis Joshua (1899-1901, at-large), Baileyville, Republican

The one-term congressman from Baileyville, Willis Bailey, was born near Mount Carroll, Carroll County, Illinois, on October 12, 1854, and attended the common schools, Mount Carroll High School, and the University of Illinois at Urbana. He removed to Nemaha County, Kansas, in 1879, engaged in farming, stock raising, and banking, and with his father in 1880 founded the town that took their name. A member of the Kansas House of Representatives in1889, W. J. Bailey served as president of the Republican State League in 1893, as a member of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture from 1895-1899, and, after a successful election campaign in 1898, as a member of Congress from March 4, 1899, to March 3, 1901. Bailey was not a candidate for renomination in 1900 but two years later he sought and won the Republican gubernatorial nomination and the general election, and served as governor of Kansas from1903 to 1905. In the face of the progressive insurgency that was challenging the Old Guard for control of the Republican Party, Bailey was denied the party's nomination in 1904. The former governor moved to Atchison, Kansas in 1907, where he engaged in banking until 1914 when he was elected as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Missouri; Bailey became governor of the bank in 1922, and served in this capacity until his death in Mission Hills, Johnson County, Kansas, on May 19, 1932.

Bowersock, Justin De Witt (1899-1907, 2nd Dist.), Lawrence, Republican

J. D. Bowersock, who for many years greatly influenced the economic development of his adopted hometown and Kansas and served nearly a decade in the U.S. Congress, was born near Columbiana, Columbiana County, Ohio, on September 19, 1842. He removed first to Iowa City, Iowa, in 1860, where he engaged grain shipping and pursued other business opportunities, and then moved to Lawrence, Kansas, in 1877. Bowersock took up banking in Lawrence and engaged in the manufacture of flour, paper, and barbed wire. He built and maintained the dam across the Kansas River, which powered many of the city's manufactures, and he served as president of the Lawrence National Bank, the Lawrence Iron Works, Griffin Ice Company, and Lawrence Paper Manufacturing, among others business establishment. Politically, Bowersock was a Republican, and, like many prominent citizens of the era, held a number of elective offices: he was mayor of Lawrence 1881 and in 1885, and a member of the Kansas house of representatives in 1887 and the state senate in 1895; in 1898 Bowersock was elected to the first of four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from March 4, 1899, to March 3, 1907. He chose not to seek the party's nomination in 1906 and turned his full attention again to his banking and manufacturing interests in Lawrence, where he died on October 27, 1922.

Miller, James Monroe (1899-1911, 4th Dist.), Council Grove, Republican

Born on May 6, 1852, at Three Springs, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, James M. Miller attended the district school and was graduated from Dickinson Seminary at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in 1875, the same year he removed to Kansas, settling at Skiddy in Morris County. Miller served superintendent of schools in Council Grove for two terms, and while holding this position studied law; he was admitted to the bar in 1879, commenced practice in Council Grove, and was elected county attorney in 1880, and again in 1884 and 1886. A member of the state house of representatives in 1895, Miller sought and won election to the U.S. Congress in 1898 and was reelected five times (served, March 4, 1899-March 3, 1911). He failed to capture the party nomination in 1910, however, and returned to his Morris County law practice in 1911. The former congressman died at Council Grove on January 20, 1926.

Jackson, Alfred Metcalf (1901-1903, 3rd Dist.), Winfield, Democrat

A one-term Democratic congressman from Winfield, A. M. Jackson had been born in South Carrollton, Muhlenburg County, Kentucky, on July 14, 1860, where he received his early schooling. He then attended West Kentucky College, studied law, and was admitted to the bar, before removing to Howard, Elk County, Kansas, in 1881. There Jackson engaged in the practice of law, won election as county attorney in 1890 and as judge of the thirteenth judicial district of Kansas in 1892. He moved to Winfield in 1898 and was elected in 1900 to a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives (served, March 4, 1901-March 3, 1903). Reelection, however, was problematic at best for Kansas Democrats, and Jackson lost in the general election of 1902 to Phillip P. Campbell of Pittsburg. Jackson resumed the practice of law in Winfield, and died there at his home on June 11, 1924.

Scott, Charles Frederick (1901-1907, at-large; 1907-1911, 2nd Dist.), Iola, Republican

The man who became one of Kansas's leading late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century journalists, Charles F. Scott, was also a native Kansan, born near Iola, Allen County, on September 7, 1860. Scott attended the local schools and graduated from the University of Kansas in 1881. He spent about a year in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, engaged chiefly in clerical work but returned to his hometown to edit the Iola Register. During the 1890s, Scott served on the board of regents for the University of Kansas and was elected to a four-year term in the state senate in 1892, before winning a seat in the U.S. Congress in 1900 (served, March 4, 1901-March 3, 1911). Scott was unsuccessful in a bid for a sixth term in 1910 but received appointment to a five-member delegation to the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome in 1911 and lectured on the Chautauqua platform during the 1910s. A delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1916 and 1932, Scott unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate in 1918 and again in 1928. Thus, he remained interested in politics and his newspaper until his death in Iola on September 18, 1938.

Campbell, Phillip Pitt (1903-1923, 3rd Dist.), Pittsburg, Republican

Born on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, on April 25, 1862, the Campbell family--parents, four sons and a daughter--moved to Kansas via Boston and Illinois in 1867. They took up farming in Neosho County near the town of Walnut where Phil Campbell spent his youth. He attended local schools and then went to Baldwin, graduating from Baker University in 1888. Campbell was admitted to the bar the following year and soon gained quite a reputation for oratory. First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican in 1902, Campbell spent the next twenty years representing the people of southeast Kansas. Congressman Campbell spoke out forcefully against "Jim Crow," and as a result was praised in the pages of the Plaindealer, March 6, 1908, which added, editorially, "Kansas has never had a better set of representatives in either house and we say keep them there, but if a time comes when nothing will suit her but a change in the Senate, Phil. Campbell, of Pittsburg, is the man." Years later the congressman clashed with Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard William J. Simmons. Although he rose to a leadership position in the Congress, Campbell was unable to capture the nomination for himself in 1922. He subsequently left elective politics, established a law office in Washington, D.C., and practiced there until his death on May 26, 1941.

Murdock, Victor (1903-1907, 7th Dist.; 1907-1915, 8th Dist.), Wichita, Republican

Victor Murdock was born March 18, 1871, in Burlingame, Kansas, where his father, Marshall Murdock, edited the Osage County Chronicle; his mother was Victoria Mayberry Murdock. The following year, the family moved to Wichita, where Victor Murdock received his common school education, began learning the printing trade, and at age fifteen became a reporter. He married Mary Pearl Allen in 1890, spent some time in Chicago where he worked on the Inter-Ocean, and then in 1894 became managing editor of the Wichita Eagle (1894-1903). Murdock was covering the Kansas legislature for the paper when he decided to run for a vacancy in the U. S. Congress and was elected to follow Chester I. Long on May 26, 1903 (Long had resigned to take seat in the U. S. Senate), taking office on November 9, 1903. An early and active member of the "Insurgents," Murdock served in Congress until March 3, 1915. In 1916, when Theodore Roosevelt refused to run, the Progressive Party nominated Murdock for president-apparently, he did not appear on the ballot, however. Murdock worked as a war correspondent in 1916, was a member of the Federal Trade Commission from 1917-1924, and then edited the Eagle until his death in Wichita on July 8,1945.

Anthony, Daniel R. Jr. (1907-1915, 8th Dist., 1915-1929, 1st Dist.), Leavenworth, Republican

First elected on May 23, 1907, for the congressional seat vacated by the election of Charles Curtis to the U.S. Senate, Daniel R. Anthony, Jr., was born on August 22, 1870, in Leavenworth, Kansas, where is father had been a leading but controversial leader in politics and journalism since the 1850s. Junior, who was also the nephew of suffragist Susan B. Anthony, attended the public schools, the Michigan Military Academy at Orchard Lake, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, before studying law and being admitted to the bar. Instead of practicing law (at least not extensively), however, Anthony followed his father into the newspaper business. He was appointed postmaster of Leavenworth on June 22, 1898, and served until June 30, 1902; he was mayor of Leavenworth, 1903-1905; and became manager and editor of the Leavenworth Daily Times in 1904. Elected as a Republican to the Sixtieth Congress, Anthony was reelected ten times, serving from May 23, 1907 (actually, December 2, 1907), to March 3, 1929; he was not a candidate for renomination in 1928. Thereafter Anthony resumed his business pursuits in Leavenworth, where he died on August 4, 1931

Madison, Edmond Haggard (1907-1911), Dodge City, Republican

Born at Plymouth, Hancock County, Illinois, on December 18, 1865, E. H. Madison received his early education locally and then taught school. He moved to Wichita, Kansas, in 1885, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1888, moving to Dodge City to begin a practice. Madison was elected county attorney of Ford County in 1888, serving from 1889-1893, and was appointed judge of the thirty-first judicial district of Kansas on January 1, 1900; he held that position until September 17, 1906, when he resigned to become a candidate for the U.S. Congress. Elected as a Republican to the Sixtieth, Sixty-first, and Sixty-second Congresses, Madison served from March 4, 1907, until his death in Dodge City on September 18, 1911.

Mitchell, Alexander Clark (1911-1911), Lawrence, Republican

The man who holds the record for the shortest term of service of any Kansan in the U.S. House of Representatives (four months), Alexander C. Mitchell, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on October 11, 1860 and moved to Kansas in 1867 with his parents. The family settled in Douglas County, near Lawrence, and there Mitchell attended the public schools and was graduated from the law department of the University of Kansas in 1889. He was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Lawrence, later serving as county attorney of Douglas County (1895-1899), and as a member of the Kansas University board of regents (1904-1910), the state board of law examiners (1907-1910), and the state house of representatives (1907-1911). Elected in November 1910 as a Republican to the Sixty-second Congress, Madison served from March 4, 1911, until his death in Lawrence on July 7, 1911.

Taggart, Joseph (1911-1917, 2nd Dist.), Kansas City, Democrat

A three-term Democratic congressman from Kansas, Joseph Taggart was born near Waukon, Allamakee County, Iowa, on June 15, 1867, where he attended the district school before moving to Salina, Kansas in 1885. There he attended and in 1890 graduated from the Salina Normal University and taught school at Bavaria in Saline County while studying law; Taggart was admitted to the bar in 1893 and set up his practice in Salina. Soon, however, he moved to Kansas City, Kansas, where he served as Wyandotte County Attorney from 1907 to 1911. He was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-second Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Alexander C. Mitchell and reelected in 1912 and 1914, serving from November 7, 1911, to March 3, 1917. After losing a bid for reelection in 1916 to Republican Edward C. Little, Taggart served in the U.S. Army as a captain in the Quartermaster Corps during the First World War and subsequently resumed the practice of law in Kansas City, accepting appointment to the Kansas Court of Industrial Relations in 1924. Taggart died at Wadsworth, Kansas, on December 3, 1938, and was buried in Mount Vernon Cemetery at Atchison.

Jackson, Fred Schuyler (1911-1913, 4th Dist.), Eureka, Republican

Born in Stanton, Miami County, Kansas, on April 19, 1868, Fred Jackson moved to Greenwood County with his parents in 1881, and thus attended the public schools of Miami and Greenwood Counties. He taught school in Kansas from 1885-1890 and graduated in law from the University of Kansas at Lawrence in 1892. After being admitted to the bar, Jackson set up shop in Eureka and served as county attorney of Greenwood County from 1893-1897; he was assistant state attorney general in 1906 and attorney general himself for two terms (1907-1911) and was then elected as a Republican to the Sixty-second Congress in November 1910 (served, March 4, 1911-March 3, 1913). Congressman Jackson lost his reelection bid in 1912, however, to the Democrat, Dudley Doolittle, and resumed the practice of law in Eureka and Topeka. He moved to Topeka in 1915, having been appointed attorney for the Public Utilities Commission of Kansas, a position he held until 1924; thereafter he engaged in agriculture and stock raising in Greenwood, Wabaunsee, and Jefferson Counties and practiced law in Topeka, where he died on November 21, 1931.

Rees, Rollin R. (1911-1913, 5th Dist.), Minneapolis, Republican

A one-term Republican congressman who fell victim of the Democrat's Woodrow Wilson serge of 1912, Rollin Rees was born in Camden, Preble County, Ohio, on January 10, 1865. He moved in 1867 with his parents to Ottawa County, Kansas, where he attended the public schools; Rees graduated from the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan in 1885, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1887. Rees commenced practice in Minneapolis, Kansas, served as county attorney of Ottawa County (1895-1899), as a member of the state house of representatives (1899-1903), and as a judge of the thirtieth judicial district (1903-1910). Resigning the latter position to become a candidate for Congress in 1910, Rees ran a successful campaign and served in the Sixty-second Congress, March 4, 1911-March 3, 1913. After his single term, Rees resumed the practice of law in Minneapolis and then moved to California where he engaged in banking and ranching. He died in Anaheim, California, on May 30, 1935.

Young, Isaac Daniel (1911-1913, 6th Dist.), Beloit, Republican

Born near Pleasantville, Marion County, Iowa, on March 29, 1849, Young attended high school and Oskaloosa College in Iowa, and began teaching at the age of fifteen. He moved to Mitchell County, Kansas, in 1874 and settled on a homestead in Turkey Creek Township, where he farmed for eleven years. He also served as county superintendent of public instruction for four years after 1876 and was elected to a term in the state senate in 1884. Young moved to Beloit in 1885, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1889, and began a second four-year term in state senate in 1905. Elected as a Republican to the Sixty-second Congress in November 1910, Young served from March 4, 1911, to March 3, 1913, having been unsuccessful in his bid for reelection in 1912. Young returned to his Beloit practice in 1913, and died there on December 10, 1927.

Neeley, George Arthur (1912-1915, 7th Dist.), Hutchinson, Democrat

On January 9, 1912, Geoge Neeley, who had been born in Detroit, Pike County, Illinois, on August 1, 1879, won a special election to fill the vacant seat left by the death of E. H. Madison. Neeley had attended public schools in Joplin, Missouri, and Wellston, Oklahoma, and received a bachelor's degree from Southwestern Baptist University, Jackson, Tennessee, in1902. Two years later he earned a J.D. from the University of Kansas and thereafter farmed, taught, and practice law in and near Hutchinson. Neeley, a Democrat, was an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives to in 1910 but won the special election in 1912 and the subsequent general election for a full term in the Sixty-third Congress (served, January 9, 1912- March 3, 1915). He was not a candidate for reelection in 1914, but was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the U.S. Senate. The former congressman died on January 1, 1919, in Hutchinson.

Doolittle, Dudley (1913-1919, 4th Dist.), Strong City, Democrat

Born at Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, on June 21, 1881, Doolittle attended public school and the University of Kansas, and he graduated from the university law department in 1903. He was admitted to the bar that same year and in 1904 commenced practice at Cottonwood Falls. Doolittle served as prosecuting attorney of Chase County (1908-1912), mayor of Strong City (1912), and was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Congresses in 1912 (served, March 4, 1913-March 3, 1919). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1918 but subsequently served the nation as representative of the U.S. Treasury Department to Italy in 1919 and Federal Prohibition Director for Kansas in 1920. Doolittle again took up the practice of law in Strong City, as well as Kansas City, Missouri, and Washington, D.C., from 1921-1934, and was elected a member of the Democratic National Committee in 1925. He served as general agent of the ninth district, Farm Credit Administration, 1934-1938, and as a member of the board of directors of the College of Emporia, an institution he served as president from 1938 to1940. Doolittle was also president of the Strong City State Bank and a director of the Exchange National Bank of Cottonwood Falls at the time of death in Emporia on November 14, 1957.

Helvering, Guy Tresillian (1913-1919, 5th Dist.), Marysville, Democrat

Guy Helvering, who became a leading state and national Democrat during the first half of the twentieth century, was born at Felicity, Clermont County, Ohio, on January 10, 1878. He moved to Kansas in 1887 with his parents, who settled in Beattie, Marshall County where the young Helvering attended the public schools. During the Spanish-American War enlisted as a corporal in Company M, Twenty-second Kansas Infantry Regiment, and served from May 12 to November 3, 1898. Subsequently he attended the University of Kansas at Lawrence and was graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1906. That same year he was admitted to the bar, commenced practice in Marysville, Kansas, and was elected county attorney of Marshall County, serving from 1907-1911. In 1910 Helvering unsuccessfully sought a seat in Congress but was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-third Congress (served, March 4, 1913-March 3, 1919) and was reelected twice. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1918, however, moved to Salina, Kansas, and took up banking. Helvering served as Democratic state chairman (1930-1934), mayor of Salina, from February 15, 1926, until his resignation on December 8, 1930, and state highway director during the Democratic administration of Harry Woodring, 1931-1933. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Helvering commissioner of Internal Revenue in 1933 and served until his appointment as a Federal district judge for Kansas in 1943, in which capacity he was serving at the time of his death in Washington, D.C., on July 4, 1946.

Connelly, John Robert (1913-1919, 6th Dist.), Colby, Democrat

John R. Connelly was born at Mount Sterling, Illinois, on February 27, 1870, the son of Arthur Connelly, an Indiana-born farmer, who died in Colby, Kansas, on January 2, 1912. The younger Connelly attended public schools in Illinois, Nebraska, and Kansas, and studied at the Salina Normal School (he married Lillian Souders on June 17, 1896). Connelly first came to Thomas County in 1888, began teaching there at age nineteen, and took a homesteaded claim in 1892. At various times Connelly served as superintendent of schools for Thomas County, mayor of Colby, and president of the school board; he also was involved professionally in real estate and rentals. He first ran for Congress in 1908 but was defeated by his Republican opponent by just 277 votes; four years later he won the first of three terms in the House of Representatives (served, March 4, 1913-March 3, 1919), but was unsuccessful in his 1918 bid for a fourth term. From November 1897 to November 1918, Connelly was owner and editor of the Free Press, a Populist (through 1909) and then Democratic weekly. When the paper was sold (to J. P. Phillips), Connelly said "GOOD-BYE" to his readers; he explained, on November 21, 1918, that he had quite the business "this week selling the plant" and "the building" to Phillips. He had made the Free Press a Democratic paper during his years as editor, he wrote, and "We leave the Free Press in the hands of a democrat." Connelly engaged in the real-estate business at Colby thereafter and remained active in politics, unsuccessfully seeking election to Congress in 1924. He died in Concordia on September 9, 1940, but was buried in Colby's Beulah Cemetery.

Shouse, Jouett (1915-1919, 7th Dist.) Kinsley, Democrat

One of several Progressive-era Democrats to break into the predominantly Republican Kansas congressional delegation, Jouett Shouse was born in Midway, Woodford County, Kentucky, on December 10, 1879, and removed with his parents to Mexico, Missouri, in 1892. There he attended the public schools and the University of Missouri at Columbia, before moving to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1898 to pursue newspaper work. In 1911 he left Lexington and journalism in Lexington for Kinsley, Kansas, where he farmed and raised livestock. Shouse was also vice president and treasurer of the Mexican lines of the Kansas, Mexico & Orient Railroad and director of the Kinsley Bank. A member of the state senate from 1913-1915, Shouse was elected to the Sixty-fourth Congresses in November 1914 and reelected in 1916 (served, March 4, 1915-March 3, 1919), but was unsuccessful in his bid for a third term-he lost the 1918 election to Jasper Napoleon Tincher of Medicine Lodge. With the Democrats in control of the national executive, however, Shouse was offered and accepted a position as assistant secretary of the treasury and thus remained in Washington in that position from March 5, 1919, to November 15, 1920. Shouse became a nationally prominent Democrat during the 1920s, serving as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1920, 1924, and 1932, and as chairman, Democratic National Executive Committee from 1929-1932, while engaged in the practice of law in Kansas City, Missouri, and Washington, D.C. He was instrumental in Al Smith's 1928 campaign and remained in the Smith, as opposed to the Roosevelt wing of the Democratic Party. (Harry Woodring and Guy Helvering, on the other hand, led the successful Roosevelt faction to victory in two Kansas elections). "Jouett Shouse, afterwards a member of the Liberty League," explained historian Francis W. Schruben, "was to battle Roosevelt and the New Deal for the next several years." In 1953 he became chairman of the board of Anton Smith and Co., Inc., of New York, retired in 1965, and died in Washington, D.C., on June 2, 1968.

Ayres, William Augustus (1915-21, 1923-33, 8th Dist.; 1933-34, 5th Dist.), Wichita, Democrat

Born in Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Illinois, on April 19, 1867, Ayres moved with his parents (William W. and stepmother Maria Baldwin Ayres) to a farm in Sedgwick County, Kansas, in 1881, where he completed his public school education and then attended Garfield (now Friends) University in Wichita. Ayres was admitted to the bar in 1893, practiced in Wichita, and served as clerk of the Court of Appeals of Kansas from 1897-1901. Prior to his 1914 election to the U.S. Congress, he was also county attorney of Sedgwick County (1907-1911). First elected in November 1914, Congressman Ayres first served three terms in the House of Representatives (March 4, 1915-March 3, 1921) but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1920. Two years later, however, he returned, being elected this time to the Sixty-eighth Congress and to the five succeeding Congresses. Congressman Ayres resigned on August 21, 1934, to accept appointment on the federal trade commission and served in that capacity until his death in Washington, D.C., on February 17, 1952. He was buried in Old Mission Cemetery, Wichita, Kansas.

Little, Edward Campbell (1917-1924, 2nd Dist.), Kansas City, Republican

Edward Little, who moved to Olathe, Kansas, in 1866 with his parents, was born in Newark, Licking County, Ohio, on December 14, 1858, and attended the public schools of Abilene, Kansas. He graduated from the University of Kansas in 1883 and subsequently worked for several years for the Santa Fe Railroad. Little studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1886, and started a practice in Lawrence. Chairman of the Republican State Convention in 1888, Little served as city attorney of Ness City in 1889, prosecuting attorney of Dickinson County from 1891-1893, delegate at large to the Republican National Convention in 1892, U.S. diplomatic agent and consul general to Egypt in 1892 and 1893, and private secretary to Gov. John W. Leedy in 1896 and 1897. During the Spanish-American War and subsequent Philippine Insurrection, 1898-1899, Little served as lieutenant colonel of the "Fighting" Twentieth Kansas Volunteer Regiment and received Congressional Medal of Honor as well as the Spanish War and Philippine Campaign Medals for services in the Philippines. By 1908, Little, who first sought election to the U.S. Congress in 1897 (unsuccessful candidate senate candidate) had settled in Kansas City, Kansas, and in less than a decade had been elected as a Republican to the Sixty-fifth Congresses; reelected three times, Little served from March 4, 1917, until is death in Washington, D.C., June 27, 1924.

Tincher, Jasper Napoleon (1919-1927, 7th Dist.), Medicine Lodge, Republican

First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1918 when he defeated the incumbent Democrat, Jouett Shouse, J. N. Tincher was born near Browning, Sullivan County, Missouri, on November 2,1878, and moved with his parents to Medicine Lodge, Barber County, Kansas, in 1892. He attended the common and high schools, taught school himself at Hardtner, Kans., and worked and studied in a law office; he was admitted to the bar in May 1899 and commenced the practice of law in Medicine Lodge. Tincher was reelected to Congress in 1920, 1922, and 1924 (served, March 4, 1919-March 3, 1927) but was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1926, losing the primary contest the Clifford R. Hope, Sr., of Garden City. Subsequently, Tincher moved to Hutchinson, where he practiced law until his death there on November 6, 1951.

Hoch, Homer (1919-1933, 4th Dist.), Marion, Republican

Born in Marion, Kansas, on July 4, 1879, Homer Hoch attended the public schools and graduated from Baker University in 1902. He then attended George Washington Law School, Washington, D.C., and Washburn Law School, Topeka, graduating from the latter in 1909. Hoch had worked as a clerk and chief of the Appointment Division for the U.S. Post Office Department in Washington from 1903 to 1905 and as private secretary to his father, the Kansas governor, Edward W. Hoch, in 1907 and 1908. Thereafter, for the next decade, he engaged in the practice of law in Marion while editing his father's newspaper, the Marion Record. Elected in 1918 as a Republican to the Sixty-sixth Congress, Representative Hoch won six subsequent terms, serving from March 4, 1919, to March 3, 1933, but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1932. He had been a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1928 and after returning to Kansas in 1933 served as a member and chairman of the State Corporation Commission (1933-1939) and was elected a member of the supreme court of Kansas in 1938. Hoch was reelected in 1944 and served on the state's high court until his death in Topeka on January 30, 1949.

Strong, James George (1919-1933, 5th Dist.), Blue Rapids, Republican

Born in Dwight, Livingston County, Illinois, on April 23, 1870, Strong attended the public schools of Dwight, the Episcopal Mission of Greenwood Agency, South Dakota (1879-1880), and the public schools at St. Marys, Kansas (1882-1887). Strong attended Baker University, before moving to Blue Rapids, Kansas, in 1891. There he engaged in the real estate, loan, and insurance businesses, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1895. In 1905 Strong organized the Blue Rapids Telephone Company and developed the Marshall County Power & Light Company in 1912. Strong served as city attorney of Blue Rapids from 1896 to 1911, as assistant attorney general of Marshall County in 1911 and 1912, as a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1912 (and again in 1928), as a member of the school board from 1913-1916, and as prosecuting attorney of Marshall County in 1916 and 1917. He was first elected to Congress in 1918, and reelected six times, serving from March 4, 1919 to March 3, 1933. Despite his past electoral successes, Congressman Strong was unsuccessful in his bid for renomination in 1932. When he left Congress in 1933, Strong was appointed the first assistant treasurer of the Home Owners' Loan Corporation and served in this position until his death in Washington, D.C., on January 11, 1938.

White, Hays Baxter (1919-1929, 6th Dist.), Mankato, Republican

Born near Fairfield, Iowa, on September 21, 1855, Hays White was raised on a farm and attended the rural schools of his native Jefferson County, as well as one term at Fairfield's Atchison Academy. White engaged in agriculture before removing to a farm near Mankato in Jewell County, Kansas, with his young wife, Diana Parsons White, in March 1876. To supplement their income from agriculture and stock raising, White taught at a rural school near Mankato and was subsequently a member of the state house of representatives (1888-1890) and the state senate (1900-1904), mayor of Mankato in 1914 and 1915, and a member of the state tax commission in 1915-1918. Throughout this period and his decade in Congress, White actively pursued his interests in agriculture, particularly cattle breeding. Elected as a Republican to the Sixty-sixth Congress in 1918, White was reelected four times and chose not to seek the party's nomination in 1928 (served, March 4, 1919-March 3, 1929). The former congressman then returned to Mankato where he died on September 29, 1930.

Bird, Richard Ely (1921-1923, 8th Dist.), Wichita, Republican

On November 4, 1878, Richard Ely Bird, who would serve one term in the U.S. Congress representing the 8th District, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and moved with his parents in 1887 to Wichita, Kansas. There he attended the public schools, graduating from Wichita High School in 1898. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1901, and commenced practice in Wichita. Bird served as judge of the district court of the eighteenth judicial district of Kansas (1916-1921) and was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-seventh Congress in November 1920 (served, March 4, 1921-March 3, 1923) but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1922. He subsequently resumed the practice of law and served as the United States referee in bankruptcy in Wichita from 1925-1927. Bird retired to Long Beach, California, in 1937 where he died January 10, 1955.

Sproul, William Henry (1923-1931, 3rd Dist.), Sedan, Republican

William H. Sproul was born on a farm near Livingston, Overton County, Tennessee, on October 14, 1867. He attended the public schools and Alpine Academy in Overton County before removing to Kansas in 1883 with his parents, who settled in Cherokee County. Sproul worked on a farm and in the mines, attended high school at Columbus and the Kansas Normal College at Fort Scott, and taught school at Columbus from 1888 to 1892. He graduated from the Kansas University Law School in 1894, was admitted to the bar that same year, and started a practice in Sedan, Chautauqua County, Kansas, where he served as county attorney (1897-1901) and mayor (1921-1923). Sproul also engaged in farming and stock raising and had an interest in the oil and gas business. In 1922 Sprould won election to the U.S. Congress and was subsequently reelected three times, serving as representative of the Third Congressional District from March 4, 1923, to March 3, 1931. Congressman Sproul chose not to seek his party's nomination for a fifth term, but instead unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for a seat in the U.S. Senate. In 1931 he resumed his former business pursuits but died in a Kansas City, Missouri, hospital on December 27, 1932.

Little, Chauncey Bundy (1925-1927, 2nd Dist.), Olathe, Democrat

An 1898 graduate of the University of Kansas law school, Chauncey Little was born in Olathe, Kansas, on February 10, 1877. He attended the public schools of Johnson County and the Kansas State College at Manhattan prior to entering law school and was admitted to the bar in 1898. Little then started a practice in Olathe, and he served as city attorney, 1901-1906 and county attorney of Johnson County, 1909-1913. Elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-ninth Congress in November 1924, Little served a single term (March 4, 1925-March 3, 1927), being unsuccessful in his bid for reelection in 1926. Two years later, the former congressman failed to win the gubernatorial election and continued practicing law in Olathe until his death in that city on September 29, 1952.

Guyer, Ulysses Samuel (1927-1943, 2nd Dist.), Kansas City, Republican

Congressman U. S. Guyer was born near Pawpaw, Lee County, Illinois, on December 13, 1868, attended the public schools, and then Lane University at Lecompton, Kansas, and the University of Kansas School of Law. He was admitted to the bar in 1902, commenced practice in Kansas City, Kansas, and served as judge of the first division city court of Kansas City, 1907-1909, and mayor of Kansas City, 1909-1910, before his election to the U.S. Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Edward C. Little. But Guyer, who served only from November 4, 1924, to March 3, 1925, did not stand for election for the full term, and instead he resumed the practice of law in Kansas City. Guyer was again elected to Congress in 1926, however, and this time served from March 4, 1927, until his death on June 5, 1943.

Hope, Clifford Ragsdale (1927- 1943, 7th Dist.; 1943-1957, 5th Dist.), Garden City, Republican

A long-time congressman from western Kansas who worked tirelessly on behalf of the state's farmers, Clifford R. Hope was born in Birmingham, Van Buren County, Iowa, on June 9, 1893. He received his early education in the public schools and at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, Nebraska, and was graduated from Washburn Law School, Topeka, Kansas, in 1917. That same year he was admitted to the bar and began service in the U.S. Army, serving as a second lieutenant with the Thirty-fifth and Eighty-fifth Divisions in the United States and France from 1917 to1919. Thereafter, Hope commenced the practice of law in Garden City, Kansas, and was elected to the Kansas legislature in 1920, serving in the state house of representatives, 1921-1927. Hope was speaker pro tempore in 1923 and speaker of the house in 1925. He ran successfully in 1926 for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and was reelected fourteen times (served, March 4, 1927-January 3, 1957). When Republicans gained control of the 80th Congress as a result of the 1946 election, Congressman Hope became chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, a leadership position he help from 1947-1949, and again from 1953-1955. Hope chose not to seek his party's nomination 1956 but remained active, serving as president of the Great Plains Wheat, Inc., of Garden City, 1959-1963. The former congressman died in Garden City on May 16, 1970. (See a biography and an article.)

Lambertson, William Purnell (1929-1945, 1st Dist.), Fairview, Republican

William Lambertson was born in Fairview, Brown County, Kansas, on March 23,1880, and educated in the public schools there. He then attended Ottawa University and the law school of the University of Chicago, but returned to Kansas to engage in agricultural pursuits. A "self-styled dirt farmer," Lambertson served in the state house of representatives (1909-1911 and 1919-1921), where he was speaker pro tempore during the 1911 and speaker during the 1919 sessions, and the state senate (1913-1915). Lambertson was chairman of Kansas State Efficiency and Economy Commission in 1917, a member of Kansas State Board of Administration from 1923-1925, and an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 1922 and for Congress in 1924 and 1926. Finally, persistence paid off, and Lambertson achieved election to the latter in 1928, serving from March 4, 1929, to January 3, 1945. During his tenure on Capitol Hill, Lambertson earned the ire of organized labor and the New Deal administration, and much criticism from back home. At the dawn of World War II, Emporia editor William Allen White criticized the Brown County congressman for voting against the lend-lease bill contrary to "the public sentiment of his state." Although Lambertson remained White's "favorite congressman because of his great courage and picturesque language," the editor believed that the lawmaker frequently exhibited too many "guts" and not enough "gray matter." In 1944 the controversial, conservative Republican failed to gain renomination and returned to his Brown County farm, but Lambertson remained active to the end. He served as mayor of Fairview and on the county commission, 1953-1956, but he was thwarted in frequent bids for higher office. Lambertson unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination to Congress in 1944, 1946, and 1954, and for governor in 1948. The colorful character that one Topeka paper called "the office-holdingest man in Kansas politics" died in Fairview on October 26, 1957.

Sparks, Charles Isaac (1929-1933, 6th Dist.), Goodland, Republican

A two-term Republican congressman from Goodland, Charles Sparks was born on a farm near Ontario, Boone County, Iowa, on December 20, 1872. He was educated in the rural schools and at Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa, and was graduated from the law department of the State University of Iowa at Iowa City in 1896. Admitted to the bar that same year, Sparks commenced practice in Boone, Iowa, served as county attorney of Boone County from 1899-1902, and was chairman of the Republican county committee in 1898. Sparks moved to Goodland, Sherman County, Kansas, in 1907 where he continued in the practice of law and public service: city attorney, the Goodland School Board, and judge of the thirty-fourth judicial district of Kansas (1915-1929). Elected as a Republican to the Seventy-first Congress in 1928, Sparks was reelected once (served, March 4, 1929-March 3, 1933). Congressman Sparks was one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1933 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against Harold Louderback, judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. After an unsuccessful bid for reelection in 1932, Sparks resumed the practice of law in Goodland until his death there on April 30, 1937.

McGugin, Harold Clement (1931-1935, 3rd Dist.), Coffeyville, Republican

Born on a farm near Liberty, Montgomery County, Kansas, on November 22, 1893, Harold McGugin attended the Liberty public schools and moved to Coffeyville in 1908, where he graduated from high school in 1912. He graduated from the law department of Topeka's Washburn College in 1915 and was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Coffeyville. During the Great War, McGugin served as a second lieutenant, Adjutant General's Department, at Brest, France, and after war's end he took a postgraduate course at the Inns of Court, London, England. A member of the Kansas state house of representatives, 1927-1929, McGugin also served as Coffeyville city attorney in 1929 and was elected to the Seventy-second and Seventy-third Congresses (served, March 4, 1931-January 3, 1935). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1934 and for election in 1936. In 1942 the former congressman enlisted in the U.S. Army, advancing from captain to lieutenant colonel; he served in France, where he contracted an incurable disease and died in the Army and Navy General Hospital at Hot Springs, Arkansas, on March 7, 1946.

Carpenter, William Randolph (1933-1937, 4th Dist.), Marion, Democrat

William R. Carpenter, a two-term Democratic congressman from Marion, was born April 24, 1894, in Marion, Marion County, Kansas, and there received a public school education. He then graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1917 and was admitted to the bar, returning to Marion that same year to start a legal practice and pursue his agricultural interests. But Carpenter's civilian career was interrupted by military service. He organized Company M, Third Infantry Regiment, Kansas National Guard, and served as its second lieutenant. During the World War he was transferred to Company M, One Hundred and Thirty-ninth Infantry, Thirty-fifth Division, and was promoted to first lieutenant during the Argonne offensive, and served until his discharge on May 8, 1919. He served as a member of the Marion Board of Education (1925-1933) and the state house of representatives (1929-1933), before being elected to Congress in 1932 (served, March 4, 1933-January 3, 1937). Carpenter chose not to seek renomination in 1936 and resumed the practice of law. Carpenter was United States attorney for the district of Kansas (1945-1948), an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor in 1948, and a member of the United States Motor Carrier Claims Commission (1950-1952). He died in Topeka, Kansas, on July 26, 1956.

McCarthy, Kathryn O'Loughlin (1933-1935, 6th Dist.), Hays, Democrat

Kathryn O'Loughlin was a native of Ellis County, being born near Hays on April 24, 1894. She graduated from Hays High School in 1913 and from Fort Hays Kansas Normal School in 1917. Three years later she graduated from the University of Chicago Law School and practiced law in that city until returning to Hays in 1928. She was elected to the state legislature in 1930 (served, 1931-1932) and was one of three Kansas Democrats elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1932, benefiting from Franklin D. Roosevelt's visits and the national turn to the Democratic Party. Kathryn O'Loughlin, who married Daniel McCarthy shortly after her election, was the first Kansas woman ever to serve in the U.S. Congress. In 1934 she was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection but remained politically active (delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1940 and 1944) after resuming her law practice in Hays. Former Congresswomen McCarthy died in Hays on January 16, 1952, and was buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery.

Carlson, Frank (1935-1947, 6th Dist.), Concordia, Republican

A life-long Republican farmer from Cloud County, Frank Carlson was born in Concordia on January 23, 1893, the son of a Swedish immigrant farmer who had established himself in north central Kansas in the late nineteenth century. Carlson served as private in the U.S. Army during World War I and then returned home to take up farming and stock raising. He was elected to the first of two terms in the state house of representatives in 1928, spent two years, 1932-1934, as state party chairman, successfully sought election the U.S. Congress in 1934 (serving, January 3, 1935 to January 3, 1947), and chose to seek the Kansas governorship rather than reelection to Congress in 1946. Carlson succeeded in becoming the 30th governor of the state, won reelection in 1948, and captured a seat in the U.S. Senate in November 1950. Senator Darby resigned after the election, as did Governor Carlson, and the latter assumed his new post early so as to gain seniority over others elected that year. Carlson served in the Senate from November 29, 1950, to January 3, 1969, and among other things was a member of the Hoover Commission on Governmental Reorganization. The only Kansan to serve as governor, and in both houses of Congress, returned to his Cloud County farm in 1969, and died in Concordia on May 30, 1987. (For more, see a biography.)

Houston, John Mills (1935-1943, 5th Dist.), Newton, Democrat

Born on a farm near Formosa in Jewell County, Kansas, on September 15, 1890, John M. Houston attended the Wichita public schools, Salina's St. John's Military School, and Fairmount University in Wichita. Prior to the First World War, in which Houston served as a noncommissioned officer in the Marine Corps, he engaged in the theatrical business from 1912-1917. After the war he entered the retail lumber business at Newton (Houston-Doughty Lumber Company, 1919-1934), served as the city's mayor (1927-1931) and secretary of the Democratic State Central Committee (1934-1935), and was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-fourth Congresses in 1934. Jack Houston had been placed on the Democratic ticket after the primary election when incumbent Congressman William Ayres accepted appointment to the Federal Trade Commission. Somewhat unexpectedly, Houston easily defeated his Republican opponent, Ira C. Watson, and his margin of victory was even larger two years later, when he was reelected with 60 percent of the vote over challenger J.B. Patterson; but Houston was reelected in 1938 with a mere 500 vote margin of victory, over Republican Stanley Taylor, 43,990 to 43,480 (served, January 3, 1935-January 3, 1943). Houston was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1942, but his loyalty to the Democratic administration did not go unnoticed, and he received appointment as a member of the National Labor Relations Board on March 15, 1943. Reappointed to the NLRB by President Harry S. Truman to a second five-year term, Houston retired from the board on August 27, 1953. For the last fifteen years of his life, Houston and his wife Rita resided in Laguna Beach, California, where he died on April 29, 1975, after suffering a heart attack.

Patterson, Edward White (1935-1939, 3rd Dist.), Pittsburg, Democrat

On October 4, 1895, Edward Patterson was born in Pittsburg, Crawford County, Kansas. He attended the public schools, and during the First World War, Patterson served as a sergeant in the Thirty-fifth Division, American Expeditionary Forces, from May 1917 to March 1919. Thereafter he attended the University of Chicago and was graduated from the University of Kansas law school in 1922. Patterson was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Pittsburg, Kansas, where he also served as Crawford County attorney (1927-1929). Elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-fourth Congress in 1934, Patterson was reelected in 1936 (served, January 3, 1935-January 3, 1939), but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1938. He returned to Pittsburg and resumed the practice of law until his death in Weir, Kansas, on March 6, 1940.

Rees, Edward Herbert (1937-1961, 4th Dist.), Emporia, Republican

Ed Rees was born on a farm near Emporia on June 3, 1886, and attended the public schools and the Kansas State Teachers College at Emporia. After teaching school in Lyon County from 1909 to 1911, he served six years as clerk of the county court, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1915. Rees was a member of the state house and senate during the 1920s and 1930s before his election to the U.S. Congress in 1936 (served, January 3, 1937-January 3, 1961), where he served for more than a dozen years on the House Post Office and Civil Service Committees. Described by a House colleague as "an able, dedicated statesman who has shown courage and integrity" after he chose not to seek reelection in 1960, Cole resumed the practice of law in Emporia, where he died on October 25, 1969.

Winter, Thomas Daniel (1939-1947, 3rd Dist.), Girard, Republican

Born in Columbus, Cherokee County, Kansas, on July 7, 1896, Thomas D. Winter attended the public and high schools and then served as a private in the U.S. Air Corps during the First World War. After the war he was a court reporter of the district court of Crawford County (1921-1927), studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1926, commencing practice in Girard. Winter was assistant county attorney and county attorney of Crawford County, commissioner of public utilities of Girard, commissioner of finance of Girard, and was first elected to the Congress in 1938. Reelected three times, Winter served the people of the Third Congressional District from January 3, 1939-January 3,1947, but he unsuccessfully sought a fifth term in 1946, returned to Girard, and