Campaign button, 1904-1908, Collection of U.S. House of Representatives

DAWSON, Albert Foster, a Representative from Iowa; born in Spragueville, Jackson County, Iowa, January 26, 1872; attended the public schools and the University of Wisconsin at Madison; engaged in newspaper work at Preston, Iowa, in 1891 and 1892 and at Clinton, Iowa, from 1892 to 1894; secretary to Representative George M. Curtis and Senator William B. Allison of Iowa 1895-1905; studied finance at George Washington University, Washington, D.C.; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-ninth, Sixtieth, and Sixty-first Congresses (March 4, 1905-March 3, 1911); declined the candidacy for renomination in 1910 and also an appointment as private secretary to President William H. Taft tendered in 1910; president of the First National Bank of Davenport, Iowa, 1911-1929; executive secretary of the Republican National Senatorial Committee in 1930; public utility executive 1931-1945; retired from business activities and resided in Highland Park, Ill., until his death March 9, 1949, on a train as it neared Cincinnati, Ohio; interment in Preston Cemetery, Preston, Iowa.