Albert F. Dawson

Albert Foster Dawson (January 26, 1872 – March 9, 1949) was a three-term Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's 2nd congressional district.

Born in Spragueville, Iowa, Dawson attended the public schools and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He engaged in newspaper work at Preston, Iowa, in 1891 and 1892, and was the city editor for the Clinton Herald from 1892 to 1894.^[1] He was secretary to Representative George M. Curtis and Senator William B. Allison of Iowa from 1895 to 1905. He studied finance at George Washington University.

In 1904, Dawson challenged incumbent Democratic Congressman Martin J. Wade for the U.S. House seat for Iowa's 2nd congressional district. Riding the coattails of President Theodore Roosevelt's re-election, Dawson, like every other Republican congressional candidate in Iowa, defeated his Democratic opponent.^[2] After serving in the Fifty-ninth Congress, Dawson was re-elected in 1906 (to serve in the Sixtieth Congress), and in 1908 (to serve in the Sixty-first Congress). In 1910 he declined to run for a fourth term, citing business and family reasons.^[1] In all, he served in Congress from March 4, 1905 to March 3, 1911.

In 1911, he also declined an offer to serve as private secretary to President William Howard Taft.^[3] Returning to Iowa at age thirty-eight, he served as president of the First National Bank of Davenport, Iowa from 1911 to 1929. He was executive secretary of the Republican National Senatorial Committee in 1930, and he was a public utility executive from 1931 to 1945.

He retired from business activities and resided in Highland Park, Illinois, until his death on March 9, 1949, on a train as it neared Cincinnati, Ohio. He was interred in Preston Cemetery.

References

External links

• The Albert Foster Dawson Papers are housed at the University of Iowa Special Collections & University Archives.

• United States Congress. "Albert F. Dawson (id: D000150)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. 

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa
1st	W. Thompson Miller Henn A. Hall S. Curtis J. F. Wilson McCrary Stone McCoid B. Hall Gear Seerley Gear S. Clark Hedge Kennedy Kopp Eicher Martin Schwengel Schmidhauser Schwengel Mezvinsky Leach Nussle Braley Blum
2nd	Leffler L. Clark J. P. Cook Thorington Davis Vandever Price Smyth W. Wolf Cotton Tufts Price Farwell Murphy Hayes G. Curtis Lane Rumple Wade Dawson Pepper Vollmer Hull Letts B. Jacobsen W. Jacobsen Talle L. Wolf Bromwell Culver Blouin Tauke Nussle Leach Loebsack
3rd	Allison Donnan Ainsworth Burdick Updegraff Henderson Birdsall Pickett Connolly Sweet Robinson Willford Gwynne Gross Grassley Evans Nagle Lightfoot Boswell Latham Young
4th	Grinnell Loughridge Walden Pratt Deering Weller Fuller Sweney Butler Updegraff Haugen Biermann Talle Le Compte Carter Kyl Bandstra Kyl N. Smith Ganske Latham King
5th	Kasson G. Dodge Palmer J. Wilson R. Clark W. G. Thompson J. Wilson Frederick Kerr J. Hamilton Cousins Good Cole Thurston Le Compte Cunningham N. Smith Scherle Harkin Lightfoot Grandy Latham King
6th	A. Hubbard Pomeroy Orr Loughridge Sampson Weaver Cutts J. C. Cook Cutts J. C. Cook Weaver Lacey White Lacey D. Hamilton Kendall Kirkpatrick Ramseyer Dowell Utterback Dowell Goodwin Cunningham Gilchrist J. I. Dolliver Coad Hoeven Greigg Mayne Bedell Grandy
7th	Kasson Cummings E. Gillette Kasson H. Smith Conger Hays Hull Prouty Dowell Wearin Jensen Hansen Scherle
8th	McDill Sapp Hepburn Anderson Flick Hepburn Jamieson Towner Evans Thurston Gilchrist Hoeven
9th	Orr Oliver Carpenter Pusey Lyman Reed Bowman Hager McPherson W. Smith Green Vincent Swanson G. Gillette Harrington Narey
10th	Holmes J. P. Dolliver Conner Woods Dickinson Gilchrist
11th	Struble Perkins Thomas E. Hubbard Scott Steele Scott Boies Campbell
AL	Hastings and Leffler
Terr	Chapman A. Dodge

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov.