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Senate Years of Service: 1908-1926 Party: Republican
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CUMMINS, Albert Baird, a Senator from Iowa; born near Carmichaels, Greene County, Pa.,
February 15, 1850; attended the public schools, and a preparatory academy;
graduated Waynesburg (Pa.) College in 1869; moved to Iowa; briefly engaged as a
carpenter; clerked in the office of the recorder of Clayton County; moved to
Allen County, Indiana in 1871 where he became deputy county surveyor and
engaged in railroad building; moved to Chicago to study law; admitted to the
Illinois bar in 1875 and commenced practice in Chicago; returned to Des Moines,
Iowa, in 1878, where he continued the practice of law; member, State house of
representatives 1888-1890; unsuccessful candidate for election to the United
States Senate in 1894 and 1900; member of the Republican National Committee
1896-1900; Governor of Iowa 1902-1908, when he resigned, having been elected
Senator; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1908 to fill
the vacancy caused by the death of William B. Allison; reelected in 1909, 1914,
and again in 1920, and served from November 24, 1908, until his death on July
30, 1926; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1926; served as President
pro tempore of the Senate during the Sixty-sixth through the Sixty-ninth
Congresses; chairman, Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment (Sixty-first
and Sixty-second Congresses), Committee on the Mississippi River and its
Tributaries (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses), Committee on
Interstate Commerce (Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Congresses), Committee on
Judiciary (Sixty-eighth and Sixty-ninth Congresses); died in Des Moines, Iowa,
July 30, 1926; interment in Woodland Cemetery.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography; Bray, Thomas James.
The Rebirth of Freedom. Indianola, IA: Record Tribune Press,
1957; Margulies, Herbert F. Senate Moderates in the League of Nations Battle:
The Case of Albert B. Cummins.
Annals of Iowa 50 (Spring 1990): 333-58.
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