Compton Ignatius WHITE, Congress, ID (1877-1956)

WHITE, Compton Ignatius, (father of Compton Ignatius White, Jr.), a Representative from Idaho; born in Baton Rouge, La., July 31, 1877; at an early age moved with his parents to Rankin County, Miss., and to Clark Fork, Bonner County, Idaho, in 1890; attended the public schools, Metropolitan Business College, Chicago, Ill., and Gonzaga University, Spokane, Wash.; railway telegraph operator 1897-1903, trainman 1903-1906, and conductor 1906-1910; engaged in agricultural, lumbering, and mining work in Clark Fork; also engaged in stock raising; member of the board of trustees of Clark Fork; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1928, 1932, and 1936; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1930 to the Seventy-second Congress; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third and to the six succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1933-January 3, 1947); chairman, Committee on Irrigation (Seventy-fourth through Seventy-eighth Congresses), Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures (Seventy-ninth Congress); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1946 to the Eightieth Congress; elected to the Eighty-first Congress (January 3, 1949-January 3, 1951); was not a candidate for renomination in 1950 but was unsuccessful for the Democratic nomination for United States Senator; defeated for the Democratic nomination for Congress in 1952; resumed stock raising and mining interest at Clark Fork, Idaho; died in Spokane, Wash., March 31, 1956; interment in the family cemetery, east of Clark Fork, Idaho.

Bibliography

Doyle, Randall Jordan. A Political Dynasty in North Idaho, 1933-1967: Compton White, Sr. & Compton White, Jr.: Two Men, Two Visions, Two Fates. Foreword by Howard Zinn. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2004.

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