Porter James McCUMBER, Congress, ND (1858-1933)

McCUMBER Porter James , a Senator from North Dakota; born in Crete, Will County, Ill., February 3, 1858; moved with his parents to Rochester, Minn., the same year; attended the common schools; taught school for a few years; graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1880; admitted to the bar and commenced practice at Wahpeton, Dak. (now North Dakota) in 1881; member, Territorial house of representatives 1885; member, Territorial senate 1887; served as State's attorney of Richland County 1889-1891; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1899; reelected in 1905, 1911, and 1916 and served from March 4, 1899, to March 3, 1923; unsuccessful candidate for renomination; chairman, Committee on Manufactures (Fifty-seventh Congress), Committee on Pensions (Fifty-eighth through Sixty-second and Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Congresses), Committee on Indian Affairs (Fifty-ninth Congress), Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses), Committee on Finance (Sixty-seventh Congress); resumed the practice of law in Washington, D.C.; appointed by President Calvin Coolidge in 1925 as a member of the International Joint Commission to pass upon all cases involving the use of the boundary waters between the United States and Canada, in which capacity he served until his death in Washington, D.C., May 18, 1933; original interment in the Abbey Mausoleum, adjoining Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.; remains removed and reinterred in unknown location.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Schlup, Leonard. "Philosophical Conservative: Porter James McCumber and Political Reform." North Dakota History 45 (Summer 1978): 16-21; Wilkins, Robert P. "Tory Isolationist: Porter J. McCumber and World War I, 1914-1917." North Dakota History 34 (Summer 1967): 192-207.

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