Joseph A. Scranton

Joseph A. Scranton, 1880

Joseph Augustine Scranton (born July 26, 1838 in Madison , Connecticut , †  October 12, 1908 in Scranton , Pennsylvania ) was an American politician . Between 1881 and 1897 he represented the state of Pennsylvania in the US House of Representatives several times .

Career

Joseph Scranton was a second cousin of Congressman George W. Scranton (1811–1861). In 1847 he came to Pennsylvania with his parents. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover and graduated from Yale College between 1857 and 1861 . Between 1862 and 1866 he worked for the tax authorities. He also got into the newspaper business. In 1867 he founded the Scranton Daily Republican newspaper . From 1874 to 1881 he was also a postman in Scranton. Politically, he became a member of the Republican Party . In June 1872 he took part as a delegate at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia , at which President Ulysses S. Grant was nominated for re-election.

In the congressional elections of 1880 Scranton was elected in the twelfth constituency of Pennsylvania to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , where he succeeded the Democrat Hendrick Bradley Wright on March 4, 1881 . Since he missed re-election in 1882, he was initially only able to complete one legislative period in Congress until March 3, 1883 . In 1884 he was re-elected to Congress in the twelfth district of his state, where he replaced Daniel W. Connolly on March 4, 1885 , who had succeeded him two years earlier. In 1886 he was not confirmed in this mandate. Therefore, he could only spend one legislative period in the US House of Representatives until March 3, 1887.

A year later he was re-elected to Parliament in Washington in the eleventh district of Pennsylvania, where he was able to exercise his mandate in the successor of Charles R. Buckalew between March 4, 1889 and March 3, 1891 . During this time he was chairman of the Foreign Ministry's Expenditure Control Committee. In 1890 he was not re-elected again. In the elections of 1892 Scranton managed to get back into Congress in the eleventh district. After being re-elected, he was able to complete two legislative terms there between March 4, 1893 and March 3, 1897. From 1895 he headed the committee that dealt with the administration of the American territories. In 1896 he renounced another congressional candidacy.

After his tenure in the US House of Representatives, Joseph Scranton returned to the newspaper industry. He was also a chamberlain in Lackawanna County from 1901 to 1903 . He died in Scranton on October 12, 1908. His grandson William Scranton (1917–2013) became Governor of Pennsylvania and American Ambassador to the UN ; his great-grandson, William Worthington Scranton , born in 1947, was Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania.

Web links

• Joseph A. Scranton in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Joseph A. Scranton in the database of Find a Grave (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Hendrick Bradley Wright	United States House Representative for Pennsylvania (12th constituency) March 4, 1881 - March 3, 1883	Daniel W. Connolly
Daniel W. Connolly	United States House of Representatives for Pennsylvania (12th constituency) March 4, 1885 - March 3, 1887	John Lynch
Charles R. Buckalew	United States House Representative for Pennsylvania (11th constituency) March 4, 1889 - March 3, 1891	Lemuel Amerman
Lemuel Amerman	United States House Representative for Pennsylvania (11th constituency) March 4, 1893 - March 3, 1897	William Connell