Hatch, William Henry, 1833–96, U.S. Congressman (1879–95), b. Scott co., Ky. He was admitted (1854) to the bar and moved to Hannibal, Mo. He became prominent in Democratic politics in Missouri and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Hatch devoted himself to agricultural legislation and became chairman of the Committee on Agriculture. He successfully pushed through Congress the act (1884) that created the Bureau of Animal Industry, the Hatch Act (1887), which provided for direct federal aid for the study of scientific agriculture, and the act (1889) that elevated the Dept. of Agriculture to the status of an executive department in the cabinet.
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