Charles Spalding THOMAS, Congress, CO (1849-1934)

THOMAS, Charles Spalding, a Senator from Colorado; born in Darien, McIntosh County, Ga., December 6, 1849; attended private schools in Georgia and Connecticut; served briefly in the Confederate Army; graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1871; admitted to the bar in 1871; moved to Colorado and commenced practice in Denver, Colo.; Denver city attorney in 1875 and 1876; member of the Democratic National Committee 1884-1896; unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States House of Representatives in 1884, to the Senate in 1888 and 1895, and to the governorship in 1894; Governor of Colorado 1899-1901; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1913 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Charles J. Hughes, Jr.; reelected in 1914, and served from January 15, 1913, to March 3, 1921; unsuccessful candidate on the Nationalist ticket for reelection in 1920; chairman, Committee on Woman Suffrage (Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses), Committee on Coast Defenses (Sixty-fifth Congress), Committee on Pacific Railroads (Sixty-sixth Congress); resumed the practice of law; died in Denver, Colo., June 24, 1934; the remains were cremated and the ashes interred in Fairmount Cemetery.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Leonard, Stephen J. “Swimming Against the Current: A Biography of Charles S. Thomas, Senator and Governor.” Colorado Heritage (Autumn 1994): 29-34; Thomas, Sewell. Silhouettes of Charles S. Thomas, Colorado Governor and United States Senator. Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers, 1959.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present