Biography
Representative from Illinois; born in Carrollton, Greene County, Ill., on August 20, 1860; attended the public schools and Knox Academy and Knox College, Galesburg, Ill.; graduated from Amherst (Mass.) College in 1883 and from the Union College of Law, Chicago, Ill., in 1885; was admitted to the bar in 1885 and commenced practice in Carrollton, Ill.; master in chancery for Greene County, Ill., 1887-1895, when he resigned; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-eighth and to the eight succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1903-March 3, 1921); unsuccessfully contested the election of Guy L. Shaw to the Sixty-seventh Congress; engaged in agricultural pursuits; elected to the Sixty-eighth and to the five succeeding Congresses and served until his death (March 4, 1923-August 19, 1934); majority leader (Seventy-second Congress), Speaker of the House (Seventy-third Congress); died in St. Louis, Mo., on August 19, 1934; interment in the Carrollton Cemetery, Carrollton, Ill.
Courtesy of Biographical Directory of the United States Congress