James Hardin PETERSON, Congress, FL (1894-1978)

PETERSON, James Hardin, a Representative from Florida; born in Batesburg, Lexington County, S.C., February 11, 1894; moved to Lakeland, Fla., in 1903; attended the public schools; was graduated from the law department of the University of Florida at Gainesville in 1914; admitted to the Florida bar in 1914 and commenced practice in Lakeland in 1915; law clerk in United States General Land Office in 1914; city attorney of Lakeland, Fla., in 1916, 1917, and 1919-1932, of Frostproof, Fla., 1918-1929, of Lake Wales, Fla., 1920-1930, and of Eagle Lake, Fla., 1923-1933; during the First World War served as a chief yeoman in the United States Navy 1917-1919; prosecuting attorney and county solicitor of Polk County, Fla., 1921-1932; special counsel for the State department of agriculture 1930-1932; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third and to the eight succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1933-January 3, 1951); chairman, Committee on Public Lands (Seventy-eighth, Seventy-ninth, and Eighty-first Congresses); was not a candidate for renomination in 1950 to the Eighty-second Congress; resumed the practice of law in Lakeland, Fla.; special counsel for the Territorial Government of Guam; chairman of Commission on Federal Application of Laws to Guam; served as chairman and vice chairman of the board of directors, First State Bank of Lakeland; resided in Lakeland, Fla., where he died March 28, 1978; interment in Roselawn Cemetery.

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