Willard Duncan VANDIVER, Congress, MO (1854-1932)

VANDIVER Willard Duncan , a Representative from Missouri; born near Moorefield, Hardy County, Va. (now West Virginia), March 30, 1854; moved to Missouri with his parents, who settled on a farm in Boone County in 1857, and to Fayette in 1872; attended the common schools, and was graduated from Central College, Fayette, Mo., in 1877; studied law; professor of natural science in Bellevue Institute, Caledonia, Mo., 1877-1880, and served as its president 1880-1889; accepted the chair of science in the State normal school at Cape Girardeau, Mo., in 1889, and became its president in 1893 and served until 1897; delegate to the Democratic State conventions in 1896, 1898, 1918, and 1920 and served as chairman in 1918; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-fifth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1897-March 3, 1905); was not a candidate for renomination in 1904; chairman of the State executive committee in 1904; State insurance commissioner of Missouri 1905-1909; vice president of the Central States Life Insurance Co. 1910-1912; Assistant Treasurer of the United States 1913-1921; settled on a farm near Columbia, Mo., and engaged in agricultural pursuits and lecturing; is credited with the authorship of the famous expression ``I'm from Missouri, you've got to show me''; died in Columbia, Mo., May 30, 1932; interment in the Columbia Cemetery.

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