Charles E. Townsend

Charles E. Townsend
Charles E. Townsend
United States Senator; from Michigan
	In office; March 4, 1911 – March 3, 1923
Preceded by	Julius C. Burrows
Succeeded by	Woodbridge N. Ferris
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives; from Michigan's 2nd district
	In office; March 4, 1903 – March 3, 1911
Preceded by	Henry C. Smith
Succeeded by	William Wedemeyer
Personal details
Born	August 15, 1856; Concord, Michigan
Died	August 3, 1924 (aged 67); Jackson, Michigan
Political party	Republican
Alma mater	University of Michigan

Charles Elroy Townsend (August 15, 1856 – August 3, 1924) was an American lawyer who served as both a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan. He served in the United States Congress from 1903 to 1923.

Early life and career

Townsend was born near Concord, Michigan and attended the common schools in Concord and Jackson and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He taught school at Concord 1881-1886 and was Jackson County Register of Deeds 1886–1897. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1895 and commenced practice in Jackson.

Tenure in Congress

Townsend was elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives for the Fifty-eighth and for the three succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1903, to March 3, 1911.^[1]

He was elected to the United States Senate in 1910 and was reelected in 1916, serving from March 4, 1911, to March 3, 1923. In 1914 and while holding the office of Senator, he was on the Central Committee of the First National Conference on Race Betterment, a conference on eugenics held at the Battle Creek Sanatorium.^[2] He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1922. He was chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Coast and Insular Survey in the Sixty-second Congress, the U.S. Senate Committee on Expenditures in the War Department in the Sixty-fifth Congress, and the U.S. Senate Committee on Post Office and Post Roads in the Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Congresses.

Career after Congress

Townsend was appointed in 1923 as a member of the International Joint Commission created to regulate the use of the boundary waters between the United States and Canada, in which capacity he served until his death in Jackson. He is interred in Maple Grove Cemetery, in Concord.

References

^ "S. Doc. 58-1 - Fifty-eighth Congress. (Extraordinary session -- beginning November 9, 1903.) Official Congressional Directory for the use of the United States Congress. Compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing by A.J. Halford. Special edition. Corrections made to November 5, 1903". GovInfo.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. 9 November 1903. p. 53. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
^ "Proceedings of the first National Conference on Race Betterment, January 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1914. Battle Creek, Michigan". [Battle Creek, Mich., Gage Printing Company. 1914.

Bibliography

Schlup, Peonard. "Party Loyalist: Charles E. Townsend and the Vice-Presidential Election of 1912." Research Journal of Philosophy & Social Sciences (1992): 61–70.

United States Congress. "Charles E. Townsend (id: T000330)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

External links

Media related to Charles E. Townsend at Wikimedia Commons

Party political offices
First	Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Michigan (Class 1) 1916, 1922	Succeeded by Arthur Vandenberg
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Henry C. Smith	United States Representative for the 2nd Congressional District of Michigan 1903–1911	Succeeded by William Wedemeyer
U.S. Senate
Preceded by Julius C. Burrows	U.S. Senator (Class 1) from Michigan 1911–1923	Succeeded by Woodbridge N. Ferris

[cd-1] "S. Doc. 58-1 - Fifty-eighth Congress. (Extraordinary session -- beginning November 9, 1903.) Official Congressional Directory for the use of the United States Congress. Compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing by A.J. Halford. Special edition. Corrections made to November 5, 1903". GovInfo.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. 9 November 1903. p. 53. Retrieved 2 July 2023.

[2] "Proceedings of the first National Conference on Race Betterment, January 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1914. Battle Creek, Michigan". [Battle Creek, Mich., Gage Printing Company. 1914.

[1]

[2]

v t e United States senators from Michigan
Class 1	Lyon Porter Cass Fitzgerald Cass Chandler Christiancy Chandler Baldwin Conger Stockbridge Patton Burrows Townsend Ferris Vandenberg Moody Potter Hart Riegle Abraham Stabenow
Class 2	Norvell Woodbridge Felch Stuart Bingham Howard Ferry Palmer McMillan Alger Smith Newberry Couzens Brown Ferguson McNamara Griffin Levin Peters

v t e Chairmen of the United States Senate Committee on Post Office and Civil Service
Post Office and Post Roads (1816–1947)	Wilson Stokes Lanman Johnson Bibb Grundy Robinson Henderson Merrick Niles Rusk Yulee Gwin Collamer Dixon Ramsey Hamlin Ferry Maxey Ferry Hill Conger Sawyer Vilas Wolcott Mason Penrose Bourne Bankhead Townsend Sterling Moses Phipps Oddie McKellar Chávez
Civil Service and Retrenchment (1873–1921)	Wright Clayton Blaine Teller Butler Hawley Chace Wolcott Call Jarvis Pritchard Baker Perkins Cummins Pomerene McKellar Sterling
Civil Service (1921–1947)	Sterling Stanfield Couzens Dale Bulow Downey
Post Office and Civil Service (1947–1977)	Langer Johnston Carlson Johnston Monroney McGee

Authority control databases
International	VIAF WorldCat
National	United States
People	US Congress
Other	SNAC