Biography
Representative from Kansas; born near Iola, Allen County, Kans., on September 7, 1860; attended the common schools; was graduated from the University of Kansas at Lawrence in 1881; went to Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, and was engaged chiefly in clerical work; returned to Iola, Kans., in 1882 and edited the Iola Register; appointed regent of the University in 1891-1900; member of the State senate 1892-1896; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-seventh and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1901-March 3, 1911); chairman, Committee on Agriculture (Sixtieth and Sixty-first Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1910 to the Sixty-second Congress; appointed one of five delegates to the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome in 1911; lectured on Chautauqua platform in 1913, 1915, and 1916; delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1916 and 1932; unsuccessful candidate for nomination to the United States Senate in 1918 and again in 1928; resumed newspaper work until his death in Iola, Kans., on September 18, 1938; interment in Iola Cemetery.
Courtesy of Biographical Directory of the United States Congress