The San Francisco call., 1906-11-14
War Hero of New York
Served Longest as
Representative.
By M. e. Crane

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13.-An inter-
esting character has been removad
from the National House of Represen-
tatfves by the death of General .Joh,
H ketcham of New York. He had the
distinction OF having served longer in
the House tnan any other of its mem
bers, although his service was NOT CON
tinuous. He had filed several other
offices of Importance, and had been in
public life for fifty years. when ba
was % years old he was chosen Suner-
visor Of his native town, Dover Plains
n. T., where he resided until his
death last week at the age of
in the Assembly and the senate
of New York and during the Civil War
he organized a volunteer regiment in
the Union Army, resigning from tho
military service early in 1865 with the
rank of brigadier general to take his
seat in Congress, to which he had been
elected while serving in the field the
year before. He was elected in all sew
enteen times to the House of Repre-
sentatives. and had been nominated
for the eighteenth time this fall. OF
the forty-two years that had passed
since his first election to Congress-.
thfrty-four years had been spent by
him in the House Of Representatives.
Speaker Cannon has been a member
tering in the Forty third Congress. and
serving In every Congress since except
ing the Fifty-second. He was defeated
for election to that Congress In the
Democratic tidal wave of 1890. The
oldest member of the House in point
of continuous service is General H.
H. Bingham of Pennsylvania, who has
a record Of fourteen terms. or twenty
eight years, and who, by reason of the
continuity and length of his service is
called ''the Father of the House"
General Ketcham had never ranked
with the conspicuously able and brill
liant men who were his fellow mem
bers of the House during his long sery-
ice- He had a constituency of thrifty,
prosperous farmers and business men,
whose interests he looked after faith
fully and to whom he was almost gen.
orally personally known. These men
stood by him almost always when he
was candidate for Congress. and he
usually received generous support from
members OF other parties as we'll as
the solid vote of the Republican party.
of which he had been lifelong leader
He had not served on many of the i'm
portant committees of the House, his
chief work for many years - having
been confined to membership of the
committee on military affairs, for
which he was especially fitted. Gen.
erai Ketcham was defeated for Con-
gress only once-in 1872. Several times
he declined to be candidate, and in
those years he filled various Offices to
which he was appointed by the Presi-
dent or by the Governor OF his native
State At the last election, in 1904, he
received more votes In his dictrict than
President Roosevelt The most i'm
portant office held by General Ketcham
outside of his service In Congress was
~ -
of Columbia to which he was appoint
ed by President Grant In 1874. He was
one OF the ablest end most aggressive
heads Of the local government that
ever served the people of this district
He put the affairs Of the city of Wash
ington and the district on a sound
financial and business basis, and the
good results of his administration are
evident In the organization and condi-
tion of district business at the pres
ent day. An associate of General
Ketcham on the Board of Commission
ers at that time was the distinguished
Governor William Denison of Ohio
General Ketcham always kept up his
interest In the public affairs of the
Capital City. and was jealous ad-
yocate of the movement for the beauti-
fication and development of Washing
ton.
It is an interesting fact that General
Ketcham's service in the House COW
cred a period exactly as long as that
of William B. Allison Of Iowa in the
Senate-thirty- years. Allison en-
tered the Senate in 1873 and has served
longer there than any other Senator
now q member OF that body. Previous
to becoming Senator, Allison had been
a member OF the House for eight years,
so that his total CongressionalNser
amounts to forty-two years-or will
have reached that figure on March 4
next This service of Allison, however,