William KENT, Congress, CA (1864-1928)

KENT, William, a Representative from California; born in Chicago, Ill., March 29, 1864; moved to California in 1871 with his parents, who settled in Marin County; attended private schools in California and Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven, Conn., 1881-1883; was graduated from Yale University in 1887; returned to Chicago, Ill., in 1887 and engaged in the real estate and livestock business; member of the city council 1895-1897; president of the Municipal Voters’ League of Chicago in 1899 and 1900; returned to Marin County, Calif., in 1907; elected as a Progressive Republican to the Sixty-second Congress; reelected as an Independent to the Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses and served from March 4, 1911, to March 3, 1917; was not a candidate for renomination in 1916; appointed a member of the United States Tariff Commission March 21, 1917, and served until his resignation March 31, 1920; writer on political subjects and natural science; died in Kentfield, Calif., March 13, 1928; remains were cremated in Oakland, Calif., and the ashes returned to the family.

Bibliography

Nash, Roderick. “John Muir, William Kent, and the Conservative Schism.” Pacific Historical Review 36 (November 1967): 423-33; Woodbury, Robert L. “William Kent: Progressive Gadfly, 1864-1928.” Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1967.

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