John McSWEENEY, Congress, OH (1890-1969)

1890-1969

McSWEENEY, John, a Representative from Ohio; born in Wooster, Wayne County, Ohio, December 19, 1890; attended the public schools and was graduated from Wooster University in 1912; employed in the engineering corps of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. in 1912 and 1913; taught at Wooster High School 1913-1917; served overseas during the First World War from May 10, 1917, to August 11, 1919, and was promoted to captain and aide-de-camp to General Farnsworth on August 16, 1918; awarded the Purple Heart Medal and received the Croix de Guerre; studied law at the Inns of Court, London, England; returned to the United States in 1919 and resumed teaching; member of the Wooster City Council 1919-1921 and served as president; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1920 to the Sixty-seventh Congress; was admitted to the bar in 1925 and commenced practice in Wooster; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-eighth, Sixty-ninth, and Seventieth Congresses (March 4, 1923-March 3, 1929); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1928 to the Seventy-first Congress; resumed the practice of law in Wooster; State director of public welfare 1931-1935; elected to the Seventy-fifth Congress (January 3, 1937-January 3, 1939); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1938 to the Seventy-sixth Congress; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1940 and for election as Governor of Ohio in 1942; served as a lieutenant colonel with the Military Government in Italy 1943-1946; resumed the practice of law; elected to the Eighty-first Congress (January 3, 1949-January 3, 1951); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1950 to the Eighty-second Congress, for election in 1952 to the Eighty-third Congress, and in 1956 to the Eighty-fifth Congress; resided in Wooster, Ohio, until his death there December 13, 1969; interment in Wooster Cemetery.

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