Stephen M. Sparkman

Stephen M. Sparkman

Stephen Milancthon Sparkman (born July 29, 1849 in Hernando County , Florida , †  September 26, 1929 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician . Between 1895 and 1917 he represented the state of Florida in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Stephen Sparkman attended the public schools in his home country and then worked as a teacher himself between 1867 and 1870. After a subsequent law degree and his license to practice law in 1872, he began to work in Tampa in his new profession. Between 1878 and 1887 he was a prosecutor in the Florida Sixth Judicial District. In 1888 he declined an appointment as a judge in this district as well as an appeal as a judge to the Supreme Court of Florida in 1891 . Politically, Sparkman was a member of the Democratic Party . From 1890 to 1894 he was a member of their district board, where he was also district chairman from 1890 to 1891. From 1892 to 1896, Sparkman was chairman of the Florida Democrats. In 1892 he took part as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago , at which the former incumbent Grover Cleveland was nominated again as a presidential candidate.

In the congressional elections of 1894 he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington in the first constituency of Florida, where he succeeded Stephen Mallory on March 4, 1895 . After ten re-elections, he was able to complete eleven legislative terms in Congress by March 3, 1917 . During this time, the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the adoption of the 16th and 17th amendments to the Constitution took place . Between 1911 and 1917 Sparkman was chairman of the Committee on Rivers and Harbors .

In 1916 Sparkman renounced another candidacy. In the following years he worked again as a lawyer in Tampa. Until 1920 he was also chairman of the Association of Port Commissioners ( Board of Port Commissioners ). He died on September 26, 1929 in the federal capital Washington.

Web links

Commons : Stephen M. Sparkman  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Stephen M. Sparkman in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Stephen M. Sparkman in the database of Find a Grave (English)