1/20/2012:
North Dakotans elected Porter McCumber to the U.S. Senate on this date in 1899. An attorney from Wahpeton, McCumber had served in both the Dakota Territory House and Senate. After his election to the U-S Senate in 1899, he would go on to become one of the state’s best-known and longest-serving U-S Senators.
McCumber began his life in Crete, Illinois, born on February 3, 1858. Less than a year later, however, his parents relocated to Rochester, Minnesota, where McCumber spent most of his childhood. After finishing school, McCumber worked as a teacher for a few years before attending the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He graduated with his law degree in 1880, and was afterward admitted to the bar. In 1881, McCumber moved to Wahpeton, Dakota Territory, and opened his own private law practice. In 1885, he served as a member of the Dakota Territorial House of Representatives, and two years later as a member of the Territorial Senate. After North Dakota became a state, McCumber was asked to serve as State’s Attorney for Richland County, which he did until 1891. His knowledge and relations of neighboring Native American groups made McCumber an excellent asset for the state government, and in 1892 he was asked to serve as a commissioner in peace negotiations with the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. The resultant peace agreement became known as the McCumber Agreement.
It was eight years later that McCumber ran as a Republican in the statewide Senate race and won. He repeatedly won re-election over the next twenty-four years. He served on a number of committees while in Washington, including the Committees on Pensions, Finance, Indian Affairs, and Transportation Routes. As chairman of the Committee on Manufacturing, his greatest achievement was the passage of the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act of 1922, which protected American factories and farms and encouraged American exports by granting loans to Europe and raising taxes on imported goods. The Tariff is believed to have played a crucial role in ending the Depression of 1920 and ushering in the economic prosperity of the Roaring Twenties.
After losing re-election in 1923, McCumber remained in Washington to practice law. In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge appointed him to an International Joint Commission on U.S. boundary waters with Canada. He served on the commission until his death in 1933.
Dakota Datebook written by Jayme L. Job
Sources:
Lounsberry, Clement Augustus. 1919 Early History of North Dakota: Essential Outlines of American History: pp. 442-445. Washington, DC: Liberty Press.
“Milestones”, Time Magazine. May 29, 1933.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=M000397
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_J._McCumber
http://www.ndstudies.org/resources/IndianStudies/turtlemountain/docs_6_mccumber.html
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8253608