John Quillin TILSON, Congress, CT (1866-1958)

TILSON, John Quillin, a Representative from Connecticut; born in Clearbranch, Unicoi County, Tenn., April 5, 1866; attended public and private schools at Flag Pond, in his native county, and also at Mars Hill, Madison County, N.C.; was graduated from Carson-Newman College, Jefferson City, Tenn., in 1888, from Yale University, New Haven, Conn., in 1891, and from the law department of the same university in 1893; was admitted to the bar in 1897 and commenced practice in New Haven, Conn.; enlisted as a volunteer during the war with Spain and served as second lieutenant in the Sixth Regiment, United States Volunteer Infantry; member of the State house of representatives 1904-1908, serving as speaker the last two years; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-first and Sixty-second Congresses (March 4, 1909-March 3, 1913); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1912 to the Sixty-third Congress; served on the Mexican border as lieutenant colonel of the Second Infantry, Connecticut National Guard, in 1916; elected to the Sixty-fourth and to the eight succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1915, until his resignation on December 3, 1932; majority leader (Sixty-ninth, Seventieth, and Seventy-first Congresses); was not a candidate for renomination in 1932; delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1932; resumed practice of law in Washington, D.C., and New Haven, Conn.; special lecturer at Yale University on parliamentary law and procedure; died in New London, N.H., August 14, 1958; interment in private burial grounds on the family farm, Clearbranch, Tenn.

Bibliography

Sweeting, Orville J. “John Q. Tilson and the Re-Apportionment Act of 1929.” Western Political Quarterly 9 (June 1956): 434-53.

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