John F. Shafroth
John Franklin Shafroth (June 9, 1854-February 20, 1922) was a United States Representative and Senator from Colorado. Born in Fayette, Missouri, he attended the common schools and graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1875. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1876 and commenced practice in Fayette. He moved to Denver, Colorado in 1879 and continued the practice of law. He was city attorney from 1887 to 1891 and was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth Congress as a Representative. He was reelected as a Silver Republican to the Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth, and Fifty-seventh Congresses; he presented credentials as a Democratic Member-elect to the Fifty-eighth Congress and served from March 4, 1895, until his resignation on February 15, 1904, when he declared his conviction that his opponent, Robert W. Bonynge, had been duly elected -- after which he was often referred to (sometimes admiringly, sometimes sarcastically) as "Honest John."
Shafroth was Governor of Colorado from 1908 to 1912 and was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate and served from March 4, 1913, to March 3, 1919; he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection. While a Senator, he was chairman of the Committee on Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses), the leading Senate sponsor of the Jones-Shafroth Act of 1917, and a member of the Committee on the Philippines (Sixty-fifth Congress). He was also chairman of the War Minerals Relief Commission from 1919-1921.
John F. Shafroth died in Denver and was interred in Fairmount Cemetery. His personal and official papers are archived at several locations including the Colorado State Archives (gubernatorial papers), the Colorado Historical Society Library, and the Denver Public Library's Western History and Genealogy Department.
References
Stephen J. Leonard, Thomas J. Noel & Donald L. Walker, Jr., Honest John Shafroth: A Colorado Reformer (Colorado Historical Society 2003)
This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress