James Francis BURKE, Congress, PA (1867-1932)

BURKE, James Francis, a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Petroleum Center, Venango County, Pa., October 21, 1867; attended the public schools, and was graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1892; was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Pittsburgh, Pa.; secretary of the Republican National Committee in 1892, resigning during the same year to devote his entire time to his duties as president of the American Republican College League; appointed by President Harrison to codify the navigation laws of the United States; officer of, or a delegate to, the Republican National Conventions from 1892 to 1924, with the exception of the year 1912; appointed a delegate to the Parliamentary Peace Conference at Brussels in 1905; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-ninth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1905-March 3, 1915); chairman, Committee on Education (Sixty-first Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1914; United States Government director of War Savings during the First World War; resumed the practice of law; elected general counsel of the Republican National Committee in December 1927 and served until his death; parliamentarian of the Republican National Convention at Kansas City, Mo., in 1928; died in Washington, D.C., August 8, 1932; interment in Calvary Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pa.

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