Walter Marcus PIERCE, Congress, OR (1861-1954)

PIERCE Walter Marcus , A Representative from Oregon; born on a farm near Morris, Grundy County, Ill., May 30, 1861; attended the common schools, Morris (Ill.) Academy, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; taught school in Grundy County, Ill., 1877-1880, and in Franklin County, Kans., in 1881; moved to Oregon and taught school in Milton and Weston, Umatilla County, 1883-1890; superintendent of schools of Umatilla County, Oreg., 1886-1890; county clerk of Umatilla County 1890-1894; was graduated from the law department of Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., in 1896; was admitted to the bar and practiced in Pendleton, Oreg., 1895-1907; engaged in banking and in the power and light business 1898-1907; operated stock and wheat farms 1907-1937; served in the Oregon senate 1903-1907 and 1917-1921; Governor of Oregon 1923-1927; member of the board of regents of Oregon State College 1905-1927; delegate to all Democratic State conventions from 1890 to 1908; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1920, 1932, and 1936; Democratic National committeeman from Oregon 1932-1936; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1933-January 3, 1943); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1942 to the Seventy-eighth Congress; died at his home in Eola Hills, west of Salem, Oreg., March 27, 1954; remains were cremated and the ashes deposited in Mount Crest Abbey Mausoleum, Salem, Oreg.

Bibliography

Pierce, Walter M. Oregon Cattleman-Governor-Congressman: Memoirs and Times of Walter M. Pierce. Edited by Arthur H. Bone. Portland: Oregon Historical Society, 1981; Schwartz, Gerald. ``Walter M. Pierce and the Tradition of Progressive Reform: A Study of Eastern Oregon's Great Democrat.'' Ph.D. dissertation, Washington State University, 1969.

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