James COUZENS, Congress, MI (1872-1936)

COUZENS, James, a Senator from Michigan; born in Chatham, Province of Ontario, Canada, August 26, 1872; attended the public schools of Chatham; moved to Detroit, Mich., in 1890; railroad car checker 1890-1897; clerk in the coal business 1897-1903; was associated with the Ford Motor Co. in the manufacture of automobiles 1903-1919; president of the Bank of Detroit and director of the Detroit Trust Co.; commissioner of street railways 1913-1915; commissioner of the metropolitan police department 1916-1918; mayor of Detroit 1919-1922; appointed November 29, 1922, as a Republican to the United States Senate and elected on November 4, 1924, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Truman H. Newberry; on the same day was elected for the term commencing March 4, 1925; reelected in 1930 and served from November 29, 1922, until his death on October 22, 1936; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1936; chairman, Committee on Civil Service (Sixty-ninth Congress), Committee on Education and Labor (Sixty-ninth and Seventieth Congresses), Committee on Interstate Commerce (Seventy-first and Seventy-second Congresses); philanthropist; died in Detroit, Mich.; interment in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Barnard, Harry. Independent Man: The Life of James Couzens. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958; U.S. Congress. Memorial Services. 75th Cong., 1st sess., 1937. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1938.

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