Jacob Thorkelson (September 24, 1876 – November 20, 1945) was a Norwegian-born American politician who served as the representative from

Montana's 1st congressional district Montana's 1st congressional district is a congressional district in the United States House of Representatives that was apportioned after the 2020 United States census. The first candidates ran in the 2022 United States House of Representatives ...

from January 3, 1939 to January 3, 1941.

Biography

Thorkelson was born in

Egersund Egersund is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Eigersund municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The town is located along the southwestern coast of Norway, about south of the city of Stavanger (city), Stavanger. The town is situat ...

, a coastal town in the county of

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. As of 1 January 2024, it had a population of 49 ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Thorkelson immigrated to the United States in 1892; he studied nautical navigation, and later worked as navigator and sailing master on ocean-going ships. He graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at the

University of Maryland, Baltimore The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) is a public university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1807, it is the second oldest college in Maryland and comprises some of the oldest professional schools of dentistry, law, me ...

in 1911, and served as a member of the faculty from 1911 until 1913. In 1913, Thorkelson moved to

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

. He practiced medicine while residing successively in

Dillon Dillon may refer to: People *Dillon (surname) * Dillon (given name) *Dillon (singer) (born 1988), Brazilian singer * J. J. Dillon, primary ring name of American professional wrestler James Morrison (born 1942) Places Canada * Dillon, Saskatchewa ...

Warm Springs Warm Springs may refer to: *Warm Springs Apache, a subdivision of the Chiricahua Apache *Warm Springs, California, in Riverside County *Warm Springs, Fremont, California **Warm Springs Elementary School, elementary school in Fremont, California **W ...

, and

Butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

Military service

Thorkelson served with the Virginia Naval Reserve, a militia organization, from 1897 to 1899. He was also in the

United States Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2004, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called reservists, are categorized as being in either the S ...

from 1936 until 1939, and attained the rank of lieutenant commander.

Political career

1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...

, he was elected to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

from

as a Republican, defeating incumbent Democratic Congressman

Jerry J. O'Connell Jerry Joseph O'Connell (June 14, 1909 – January 16, 1956) was an American attorney and politician. He is most notable for his service as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Montana. A native of Butte, Montana, he gr ...

in the general election. Thorkelson was labeled as "rabidly pro-fascist and antisemitic" and "Jew-baiting, fascist-minded" by contemporary journalists for his use of the ''

Congressional Record The ''Congressional Record'' is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Publishing Office and issued when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record Ind ...

'' to reprint anti-British and anti-Jewish propaganda and his support for retired General George Van Horn Moseley. Thorkelson was opposed to the United States accepting more Jewish refugees. He claimed that Jewish migrants were part of an "invisible government" which was tied to the "communistic Jew" and "Jewish international financiers." Commentator

Walter Winchell Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and c ...

called Thorkelson "the mouthpiece of the Nazi movement in congress". Thorkelson later sued Winchell for $1.8 million after being included by Winchell as one of a list of "Americans We Can Do Without". During his time in Congress, Thorkelson mailed out 5,000 copies of a friendly, sympathetic interview with

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

in collaboration with Nazi agent

George Sylvester Viereck George Sylvester Viereck (December 31, 1884 – March 18, 1962) was an American poet and journalist. After enjoying early success for his poetry, novels, and journalistic work, he achieved notoriety in the United States as a pro-German propagandi ...

. Modern historians have described Thorkelson as "best known for his diatribes against Jews and the New Deal and for his calls to revise the United States Constitution" and "a raging anti-Semite and pro-fascist". Thorkelson inserted into the ''Congressional Record'' quotations from the ''

Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated text purporting to detail a Jewish plot for global domination. Largely plagiarized from several earlier sources, it was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903, translated into multip ...

'', from ''

World Hoax The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

'' by

Ernest Fredrick Elmhurst Ernest is a given name derived from the Germanic word ''ernst'', meaning "serious", often shortened to Ernie. Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People *Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595), son of Maximilian ...

, from

blackshirt The Voluntary Militia for National Security (, MVSN), commonly called the Blackshirts (, CCNN, singular: ) or (singular: ), was originally the paramilitary wing of the National Fascist Party, known as the Squadrismo, and after 1923 an all-vo ...

Sir

Oswald Mosley Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980), was a British aristocrat and politician who rose to fame during the 1920s and 1930s when he, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, turned to fascism. ...

's ''Action'', from Los Angeles based Nazi-leaning publication ''Christian Free Press''; and defended himself by saying: When he ran for re-election in

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, events related to World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *Janu ...

, he was defeated in the Republican primary by former United States Congresswoman

Jeannette Rankin Jeannette Pickering Rankin (June 11, 1880 – May 18, 1973) was an American politician and women's rights advocate who became the first woman to hold federal office in the United States. She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as ...

. Following his defeat, he ran for the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

1942 The Uppsala Conflict Data Program project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 4.62 million. However, the Correlates of War estimates that the prior year, 1941, was th ...

, but came third in the primary to

Wellington D. Rankin Wellington D. Rankin (September 16, 1884 – June 4, 1966) was a Republican public official from the state of Montana. He was born Wellington Duncan Rankin on September 16, 1884 in Missoula, Montana, the son of John and Olive (née Pickeri ...

and Charles R. Dawley. He sought the Republican nomination for

Governor of Montana A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free France, Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command First Army (France), French Army B, part of the Sixt ...

, challenging incumbent Governor

Sam C. Ford Samuel Clarence Ford (November 7, 1882November 25, 1961) was an American politician who served as the 12th Governor of Montana from 1941 to 1949. Biography Ford was born on November 7, 1882, in Albany, Kentucky. His early education was in the ...

in the primary, but lost to Ford by a landslide.

Death and burial

Thorkelson died from heart ailments in Butte on November 20, 1945, and was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Butte.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorkelson, Jacob 1876 births 1945 deaths American collaborators with Nazi Germany American Eugenics Society members American Nazis Physicians from Montana Norwegian collaborators with Nazi Germany Norwegian fascists Norwegian emigrants to the United States People from Egersund Politicians from Butte, Montana Fascist politicians Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Montana United States Navy officers United States Navy reservists University of Maryland School of Medicine alumni 20th-century American far-right politicians Old Right (United States) 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives