Willis Gratz SEARS, Congress, NE (1860-1949)

SEARS, Willis Gratz, a Representative from Nebraska; born in Willoughby, Lake County, Ohio, August 16, 1860; attended the common schools; moved to Nebraska in 1879 and studied law at the University of Kansas at Lawrence; was admitted to the bar in 1884 and commenced the practice of his profession in Tekamah, Burt County, Nebr.; prosecuting attorney for Burt County 1895-1901; member of the State house of representatives 1901-1904, serving as speaker in 1901; elected as judge of the fourth judicial district of Nebraska, November 6, 1903, and served until March 10, 1923, when he resigned, having been elected to Congress; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-eighth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1923-March 3, 1931); chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Justice (Sixty-ninth Congress), Committee on Elections No. 3 (Seventy-first Congress); was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1930 to the Seventy-second Congress; resumed the practice of law; again elected judge of the fourth judicial district of Nebraska and served from 1932 to 1948; died in Omaha, Nebr., on June 1, 1949; interment in Tekamah Cemetery, Tekamah, Nebr.

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