MLK Library

DIETERICH, William Henry, a Representative and a Senator from Illinois; born on a farm near Cooperstown, Brown County, Ill., March 31, 1876; attended the rural schools; graduated from Kennedy Normal and Business College, Rushville, Ill., in 1897, and from Northern Indiana Law School, Valparaiso, Ind., in 1901; admitted to the bar in 1901 and commenced practice in Rushville, Schuyler County, Ill., the same year; during the Spanish-American War served as a corporal in Company K, Anderson’s Provisional Regiment; city attorney of Rushville, Ill. 1903-1907; treasurer of Rushville Union Schools 1906-1908; county judge of Schuyler County, Ill. 1906-1910; moved to Chicago, Ill., in 1911 and to Beardstown, Ill., in 1912, and continued the practice of law; special inheritance-tax attorney of Illinois 1913-1917; member, State house of representatives 1917-1921; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-second Congress (March 4, 1931-March 3, 1933); did not seek renomination, having become a candidate for the United States Senate; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1933, to January 3, 1939; was not a candidate for renomination in 1938; resumed the practice of law; died in Springfield, Ill., on October 12, 1940, while on a business trip; interment in Rushville City Cemetery, Rushville, Ill.