Howard Sutherland

Howard Sutherland

Howard Sutherland (born September 8, 1865 in Kirkwood , Missouri , †  March 12, 1950 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician ( Republican Party ) who represented the state of West Virginia in both chambers of Congress .

Howard Sutherland lived in Missouri until he was 25, where he attended the public schools in St. Louis and Westminster College in Fulton . From 1889 to 1890 he worked in Fulton as a newspaper editor before moving to Washington. There he studied at the Columbian University Law and worked for the precursor to the United States Census Bureau .

In 1893, Sutherland settled in Elkins , West Virginia. He worked as a businessman in the mining industry, as a partner in a railroad company and in the timber industry. Eventually he also became politically active. From 1908 to 1912 he was a member of the West Virginia Senate ; then he was elected to the US House of Representatives, where he remained until 1917. He then moved to the Senate within Congress . After a six-year term he missed re-election in 1922 when he was defeated by the Democrat Matthew M. Neely . During his tenure in the Senate, he chaired several committees.

In the run-up to the 1920 presidential election , Sutherland applied for his party's nomination for the highest office in the state. At the Republican National Convention in Chicago , he received 17 delegate votes in the first ballot; in the three subsequent polls, this number was each lower, whereupon Sutherland finally withdrew his candidacy. The Republicans eventually nominated Warren G. Harding . After retiring from the Senate, Howard Sutherland returned to Elkins, where he resumed business. He served as vice president of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce and chaired a commission to upgrade state roads. Eventually he retired in Washington, where he died in 1950.

Sutherland was the father of six children. His only son Richard served as a Lieutenant General in the US Army during World War II and was on Douglas MacArthur's staff .

Web links

• Howard Sutherland in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Howard Sutherland in the database of Find a Grave (English)