Thomas Spencer CRAGO, Congress, PA (1866-1925)

CRAGO, Thomas Spencer, a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Carmichaels, Greene County, Pa., August 8, 1866; attended Greene Academy and Waynesburg College; was graduated from Princeton College in 1893; studied law; was admitted to the bar of Greene County in 1894 and commenced practice in Waynesburg, Pa.; served as captain of Company K in the Tenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection; after the war helped to reorganize the Pennsylvania National Guard and was elected major and later lieutenant colonel of the Tenth Infantry; resigned his commission while in Congress but was later retired with the rank of colonel; delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1904; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-second Congress (March 4, 1911-March 3, 1913); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1912 to the Sixty-third Congress; commander in chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1914 and 1915; elected to the Sixty-fourth, Sixty-fifth, and Sixty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1915-March 3, 1921); was not a candidate for renomination in 1920, but was subsequently elected to the Sixty-seventh Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mahlon M. Garland and served from September 20, 1921, to March 3, 1923; was not a candidate for renomination in 1922; appointed special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States on March 7, 1923, and assigned to the War Frauds Division, resigned August 15, 1924; vice president of the Union Deposit & Trust Co. of Waynesburg; died in Waynesburg, Pa., September 12, 1925; interment in Green Mount Cemetery.

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