Harold Sumner TOLLEY, Congress, NY (1894-1956)

TOLLEY Harold Sumner , a Representative from New York; born in Honesdale, Wayne County, Pa., January 16, 1894; moved with his parents to Binghamton, N.Y., in 1903; attended the public schools; was graduated from Syracuse University, New York, in 1916; studied for the ministry and took a postgraduate course at Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, N.J.; director of religious education at the Metropolitan (Methodist Episcopal) Temple, New York City, in 1916 and 1917; abandoned the ministry to enlist in the military forces of the United States during the First World War and served from May 13, 1917, to July 25, 1919, attaining the rank of captain of Infantry; was commissioned a captain in the United States Officers' Reserve Corps; engaged in the retail shoe business; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-ninth Congress (March 4, 1925-March 3, 1927); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1926; delegate to the Republican State convention in 1926; resumed his former business pursuits; commissioner of public welfare, city of Binghamton, from January 1932 to April 1937; in 1937 was appointed area director for New York State Department of Social Welfare, assigned to the western New York area, and served until his death; died in Kenmore, N.Y., May 20, 1956; interment in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, N.Y.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present