John Franklin SHAFROTH, Congress, CO (1854-1922)

SHAFROTH, John Franklin, a Representative and a Senator from Colorado; born in Fayette, Mo., June 9, 1854; attended the common schools and graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1875; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1876 and commenced practice in Fayette, Mo.; moved to Denver, Colo., in 1879 and continued the practice of law; city attorney 1887-1891; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth Congress; reelected as a Silver Republican to the Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth, and Fifty-seventh Congresses; presented credentials as a Democratic Member-elect to the Fifty-eighth Congress and served from March 4, 1895, until his resignation on February 15, 1904, when he declared his conviction that his opponent, Robert W. Bonynge, had been duly elected; Governor of Colorado 1908-1912; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1913, to March 3, 1919; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses); Committee on the Philippines (Sixty-fifth Congress); chairman of the War Minerals Relief Commission 1919-1921; died in Denver, Colo., February 20, 1922; interment in Fairmount Cemetery.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Leonard, Stephen J., et al. “Honest John Shafroth: A Colorado Reformer.” Colorado History 8 (2003): i-187.

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