Frederick Nicholas Zihlman (October 2, 1879 – April 22, 1935) was an American congressman representing

Maryland's 6th congressional district Maryland's 6th congressional district elects a representative to the United States House of Representatives from the northwest part of the state. The district comprises all of Garrett, Allegany, Frederick, and Washington counties as well as a po ...

from 1917 to 1931.

Biography

Born in Carnegie,

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Allegheny County ( ) is a County (United States), county in Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the List of counties in Pennsylvania, state's second-most populous county, after Philadelp ...

, USA, Zihlman moved to Maryland with his parents, who settled in

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

in 1882. He attended the public schools, and entered a glass factory in 1890 as an apprentice glass blower. He was later president of the local flint-glass workers' union from 1904 to 1909 and was a member of the national executive board in 1905 and 1906. He served as president of the Allegany Trades Council from 1904 to 1909, and as president of the Maryland State Federation of Labor in 1906 and 1907. He engaged in the real estate and insurance business in Cumberland in 1912.

Politics

Zihlman served as a member of the

Maryland State Senate The Maryland Senate, sometimes referred to as the Maryland State Senate, is the upper house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. Composed of 47 senators elected from an equal number of constituent single ...

from 1909 to 1917, serving as Republican floor leader in 1914 and 1916. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1914 to the Sixty-fourth US Congress, but was elected two years later as a Republican to the Sixty-fifth and to the six succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1917, to March 3, 1931. In Congress, Zihlman was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department (Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Congresses). Zihlman was the only Representative from Maryland to vote for the

Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill (1918) was first introduced in the 65th United States Congress by Representative Leonidas C. Dyer, a Republican Party (United States), Republican from St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States House of Representatives ...

. He was also a member of the Committee on the District of Columbia (Sixty-seventh Congress and Sixty-ninth through Seventy-first Congresses) and the Committee on Labor (Sixty-seventh and Sixty-eighth Congresses). Zihlman was accused of corruption and bribery in 1929. When the inquiry produced no evidence, he was acquitted. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1930 and again in 1934 to the Seventy-fourth Congress. After his tenure in Congress, he resumed his former business pursuits in Cumberland, until his death there. He is interred in St. John's Cemetery in

Forest Glen, Maryland Forest Glen is a census-designated place (CDP) in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Its population was 6,897 as of the 2020 census. Geography Forest Glen is recognized by the United States Census Bureau and the United States Geologi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zihlman, Frederick Nicholas 1879 births 1935 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople American businesspeople in insurance American businesspeople in real estate Businesspeople from Cumberland, Maryland American trade union leaders Republican Party Maryland state senators People from Carnegie, Pennsylvania Politicians from Cumberland, Maryland Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Maryland 20th-century Maryland politicians 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives Candidates in the 1914 United States House of Representatives elections 20th-century members of the Maryland General Assembly