William Kent, U.S. Representative

US Representative William Kent

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• US Rep. William Kent's Wikipedia Page
• The Kent Family and Conservation
• William Kent’s Key Role in Creating the National Park Service
• William Kent family Papers

Born: March 29, 1864, in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois
Died: March 13, 1928, in Kentfield, Marin County, California

Father, Albert Emmett Kent (B.A. 1853), a merchant, banker and founder of the packing industry in Chicago; son of Albert and Lucinda (Gillette) Kent; descendant of Thomas Kent, who came to America from England about 1643 and settled in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Mother, Adaline Elizabeth (Dutton) Kent; daughter of Alvah and Elizabeth (Holt) Dutton; ancestors came from Wales to Vermont before 1700.

Yale Relatives Include: four cousins Norton A. Kent, '95 Albert Emmett Kent, '97, Sherman Kent Morris, ex-'19 S., and Edward L. Burke, Jr., '26.

Hopkins Grammar School. First and third prizes in English composition Sophomore year; Freshman member of Yale Courant board; an editor of Yale Literary Magazine; Class historian; member Eta Phi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Chi Delta Theta, and Skull and Bones.

Upon graduation became engaged in the management of his father's estate as member of firm of A.E. Kent & Son; in 1903 entered into partnership with his classmate, Edward L. Burke, under name of Kent & Burke (later Kent & Burke Company), dealers in live stock, grain, and land (in Genoa, Nebraska, until 1012 and since then in Omaha), and remained in that connection until his death, becoming president of the company upon the death of Mr. Burke in 1926; president of Golconda (Nevada) Cattle Company 1895-1920; director of American Trust & Savings Bank of Chicago 1890-1907 of Genoa National Bank 1904-1915, and of International Company (mining) since 1902; member Chicago City Council 1895-1897; president of Municipal Voters' League 1898-1900 (a founder of the league in 1897 and member of executive committee 1897-1904); vice president of the Old Age Pension Association; had lived in California since 1907; represented 2nd District of California in 62d Congress (1911-1913) and reelected as an Independent to 63d and 64th U.S. Congresses for the new 1st District; member U.S. Tariff Commission 1917-1921; resigned to become candidate for Senator from California (defeated for nomination); honorary M.A. 1908; elected a governor of Yale Publishing Association in 1925, for a four year term; in 1924 appointed by Governor Pinchot of Pennsylvania member of Giant Power Advisory Board, which was formed to pass on final report of Giant Power Survey before it was submitted to Pennsylvania Legislature; donor of three hundred acres of land on Mount Tamalpais to the United States Government as a national monument to be known as the Muir Woods; vice president of National Parks Association (representing California) since 1920; author: Practical Politics, A Lay Sermon (1896); had contributed numerous articles on politics to Yale Review, Survey, American Magazine, Collier's Weekly; and other magazines; member American Economic Association, National Municipal League, Civil Service Reform League, and Illinois Civil Service Association; trustee of All Souls' Church (undenominational), Chicago 1891-1895; donor with his father in 1885 of Kent Hall, Yale University (known as Kent Chemical Laboratory until 1922).

Married: February 23, 1890, in Ojai Valley, California, Elizabeth Sherman, daughter of Thomas Anthony Thacher (B.A. 1835, LL.D. Western Reserve 1869), assistant professor and professor of the Latin language and literature at Yale College, 1838-1886, and Elizabeth Baldwin (Sherman) Thacher, granddaughter of Roger Sherman (B.A. 1787), great-granddaughter of Roger Sherman (honorary M.A. 1768), treasurer of Yale 1754-1776 and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a sister of Sherman Day Thacher, '83, and William Larned Thacher, '87, and half-sister of James Kingsley Thacher, '68, Thomas Thacher, '71, Edward Stanley Thacher, '72, Alfred Beaumont Thacher, '74, and John Seymour Thacher, '77. Children: Albert Emmett, '13; Thomas Thacher, '15; William, Jr., '17; Elizabeth Sherman, the wife of George Stanleigh Arnold, '03; Adaline Dutton (B.A. Vassar 1923); Sherman, '26 and Roger, '28.

Death due to pneumonia. His ashes lie in California. Survived by wife, five sons, two daughters and ten grandchildren.

Yale College Obituary Record, 1927-1928, pp. 106-108
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William Kent, a U.S. Representative from California; born in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, March 29, 1864; moved to California in 1871 with his parents, who settled in Marin County; attended private schools in California and Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven, Connecticut, 1881-1883; was graduated from Yale University in 1887; Skull and Bones, returned to Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, in 1887 and engaged in the real estate and livestock business; member of the city council 1895-1897; president of the Municipal Voters’ League of Chicago in 1899 and 1900; returned to Marin County, California, in 1907; elected as a Progressive Republican to the Sixty-second Congress; reelected as an Independent to the Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth U.S. Congresses and served from March 4, 1911-March 3, 1917; was not a candidate for renomination in 1916; appointed a member of the United States Tariff Commission March 21, 1917, and served until his resignation March 31, 1920; writer on political subjects and natural science; died in Kentfield, Marin County, California, March 13, 1928; remains were cremated in Oakland, Alameda County, California and the ashes returned to family.

Kent's Congressional Biography