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Senate Years of Service: 1923-1929; 1931-1941; 1949-1958 Party: Democrat; Democrat; Democrat
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NEELY, Matthew Mansfield, a Representative and a Senator from West Virginia; born near Groves, Doddridge
County, W.Va., November 9, 1874; attended the public schools and Salem College at Salem,
W.Va.; served as a private in the infantry during the Spanish-American War; graduated from the
University of West Virginia at Morgantown in 1901 and from the law department of the same
university in 1902; admitted to the bar in 1902 and commenced practice in Fairmont, Marion County;
mayor of Fairmont 1908-1910; clerk of the State house of delegates 1911-1913; elected as a
Democrat to the Sixty-third Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John W. Davis;
reelected to the Sixty-fourth, Sixty-fifth, and Sixty-sixth Congresses and served from October 14,
1913, to March 3, 1921; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1920 to the Sixty-seventh Congress;
elected in 1922 as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1923, to March
3, 1929; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1928; elected to the United States Senate in 1930;
reelected in 1936 and served from March 4, 1931, until his resignation on January 12, 1941, having
been elected Governor; chairman, Committee on Rules (Seventy-fourth through Seventy-sixth
Congresses), Committee on the Judiciary (Seventy-seventh Congress); Governor of West Virginia
1941-1945; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-ninth Congress (January 3, 1945-January 3,
1947); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1946 to the Eightieth Congress; elected as a
Democrat to the United States Senate in 1948; reelected in 1954 and served from January 3, 1949,
until his death in the naval hospital, Bethesda, Md., January 18, 1958; chairman, Committee on the
District of Columbia (Eighty-first, Eighty-second, Eighty-fourth and Eighty-fifth Congresses); interment
in Woodlawn Cemetery, Fairmont, W.Va.
BibliographyDictionary of American Biography;
Neely, Matthew M. State Papers and Public Addresses. Charleston, WV: n.p.,
1948; U.S. Congress. Memorial Services. 85th Cong., 2nd sess., 1958. Washington,
D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1958.
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