Charles Laceille Gifford (March 15, 1871 – August 23, 1947) was a

United States representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

He was born in

Cotuit Cotuit ( ) is one of the villages of the Town of Barnstable on Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. Located on a peninsula on the south side of Barnstable about midway between Falmouth and Hyannis, Cotuit is bounded by t ...

on March 15, 1871. Through his father he was a descendant of Robert Pike, George Phillips,

Richard Saltonstall Sir Richard Saltonstall (baptised Halifax, England 4 April 1586 – October 1661) led a group of English settlers up the Charles River to settle in what is now Watertown, Massachusetts in 1630. He was a nephew of the Lord Mayor of London R ...

and William Phelps, through his mother he was a descendant of John Humphrey,

Thomas Hastings (colonist) Thomas Hastings ( – c. September 15, 1685) was a prominent English immigrant to New England, one of the approximately 20,000 immigrants who came as part of the Great Migration. A deacon of the church, among his many public offices he served ...

and the Quaker

Christopher Holder Christopher Holder (1631–1688), was an early Quaker evangelist who was imprisoned and whipped, had an ear cut off, and was threatened with death for his religious activism in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and in England. A native of Gloucesters ...

. Gifford attended the common schools and taught in Massachusetts and

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the ...

from 1890 to 1900. He later engaged in the real estate business on

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

as the owner of several summer cottages rented by vacationers and the operator of the Cotuit Inn. Gifford then became interested in

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not ...

raising as president of the Cotuit Oyster Company and in

cranberry Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus ''Oxycoccus'' of the genus '' Vaccinium''. In Britain, cranberry may refer to the native species '' Vaccinium oxycoccos'', while in North America, cranberry ...

farming. He was elected a member of the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

(1912–1913) and served in the

Massachusetts State Senate The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the st ...

(1914–1919). He was elected as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

to the Sixty-seventh Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Joseph Walsh and, the same day, was elected to the Sixty-eighth Congress. He was reelected to the Sixty-ninth and to the eleven succeeding Congresses and served from November 7, 1922, to his death. He was chairman of the Committee on Elections No. 3 (Sixty-ninth and Seventieth Congresses) and the Committee on Election of President, Vice President, and Representatives (

Seventy-first Congress The 71st United States Congress was a meeting of the legislature of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1929, to Ma ...

). He was in favor of helping Great Britain during World War II before American entry into the war. This was the issue on which he ran in the 1940 House election, his opponent was isolationist Democrat George F. Backus who was outspokenly antisemitic and anti-British. Gifford countered by being outspokenly pro-British and denouncing antisemitism. Gifford voted in favor of the 1941 Lend Lease Act. Gifford died in Cotuit on August 23, 1947, and was buried in Cotuit's Mosswood Cemetery.

References

1871 births 1947 deaths Republican Party Massachusetts state senators Republican Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts People from Cotuit, Massachusetts {{Massachusetts-MARepresentative-stub

See also

References