John Ignatius Nolan (January 14, 1874 – November 18, 1922) was an American iron molder and politician who represented

California's 5th congressional district California's 5th congressional district is a List of United States congressional districts, U.S. congressional district in California. The district is located in the northern San Joaquin Valley and central Sierra Nevada. The district includes ...

in 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 ...

for five terms from 1913 to 1922. He was elected to a sixth consecutive term but died before the start of the new

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

Background

Nolan was born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, on January 14, 1874. He attended the

public schools Public school may refer to: *Public school (government-funded), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government *Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging private schools in England and Wales *Great Public Schools, ...

there until the age of 14, when he became an apprentice iron molder. He worked in that

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. Traders generally negotiate through a medium of cr ...

until 1907, when he was elected secretary of the San Francisco Iron Molder's Union. Later that year, he was elected to the international union's executive board. He was the San Francisco Labor Council's legislative agent to the

California Legislature The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...

from 1909 to 1911. An active member of the

Union Labor Party The Union Labor Party or United Labor Party (ULP) was a labor party created in 1884 by labor activists in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was moderately successful, and key organizers within the party helped create the People's Party, into which the ULP ...

, Nolan was appointed to the

San Francisco Board of Supervisors The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the board of supervisors, legislative body within the government of San Francisco, government of the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco in the U.S. state of California. Government and polit ...

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

P. H. McCarthy Patrick Henry McCarthy (March 17, 1863 – July 1, 1933), nicknamed "Pinhead", was an influential labor leader in San Francisco and the 29th Mayor of the City from 1910 to 1912. Born in County Limerick, Ireland, he apprenticed as a carpenter ...

in 1911. He was a member of the Board's Finance Committee and chairman of its Street Committee. He ran for re-election that year, but was narrowly defeated. In 1912, he was elected secretary of the San Francisco Labor Council.

Congress

1912 This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15. In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...

, Nolan was elected as a Bull Moose Republican to the

63rd United States Congress The 63rd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1913, t ...

. San Francisco's first

labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

congressman in eight years, he was a staunch progressive reelected to the four succeeding Congresses. He served from March 4, 1913, until his death. During the

66th United States Congress The 66th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, comprising the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C., from March 4, 1919, to ...

, he was the chairman of the

United States House Committee on Patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

, and during the

67th United States Congress The 67th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch 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, 19 ...

, he was the chairman of the United States House Committee on Labor. Nolan voted for the

Immigration Act of 1917 The Immigration Act of 1917 (also known as the Literacy Act or the Burnett Act and less often as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act) was a United States Act that aimed to restrict immigration by imposing literacy tests on immigrants, creating new cate ...

(which barred immigration from most of the

Asia–Pacific The Asia–Pacific (APAC) also Known as Indo-Pacific is the region of the world adjoining the western Pacific Ocean. The region's precise boundaries vary depending on context, but countries and territories in Australasia, East Asia, and Southea ...

region), and against 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 ...

of 1922. Although he initially opposed

American entry into World War I The United States entered into World War I on 6 April 1917, more than two and a half years after the war began in Europe. Apart from an Anglophile element urging early support for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British and an a ...

, Nolan ultimately voted to declare war on the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

and after the war strongly supported American membership in the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

. He voted against the

Volstead Act The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was an act of the 66th United States Congress designed to execute the 18th Amendment (ratified January 1919) which established the prohibition of alcoholic drinks. The Anti- ...

, which established

Prohibition in the United States The Prohibition era was the period from 1920 to 1933 when the United States prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, an ...

. In 1920, he received a 100% "labor record" from the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual ...

. In 1916, Nolan introduced H.R. 7625, which would have established a $3 per day

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...

for federal employees. It was endorsed by the AFL and the

National Federation of Federal Employees The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) is an American labor union which represents about 100,000 public employees in the federal government. NFFE has about 200 local unions, most of them agency-wide bargaining units. Its members wo ...

, but the bill's opponents in the House kept it from coming to a vote. In 1918,

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

Hiram Johnson Hiram Warren Johnson (September 2, 1866August 6, 1945) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 23rd governor of California from 1911 to 1917 and represented California in the U.S. Senate for five terms from 1917 to 1945. Johns ...

co-sponsored the legislation, and it became known as the Johnson-Nolan Minimum Wage Bill. It passed the House that September, but was stalled in the Senate

Committee on Education and Labor The Committee on Education and Workforce is a Standing committee (United States Congress), standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. There are 45 members of this committee. Since 2025, the chair of the Education and Work ...

. It was reintroduced two years later and passed in both the House and Senate, but when it went to conference it was

filibustered A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent a decision. It is sometimes referred to as "talking a bill to death" or "talking ...

Southern Democrats Southern Democrats are members of the U.S. Democratic Party who reside in the Southern United States. Before the American Civil War, Southern Democrats mostly believed in Jacksonian democracy. In the 19th century, they defended slavery in the ...

who opposed it because it would have paid

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

employees the same as white employees.

Death and burial

Nolan was re-elected in

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

to the

68th United States Congress The 68th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch 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, 192 ...

before he died in San Francisco, California, on November 18, 1922. He was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in

Colma, California Colma (Ohlone for "Springs") is a small incorporated List of municipalities in California, town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 1,507 at the 2020 U ...

. After he died, he was succeeded in Congress by his wife,

Mae Nolan Mae Ella Nolan (née Hunt; September 20, 1886 – July 9, 1973) was an American politician who became the fourth woman to serve in the United States Congress, the first woman elected to Congress from California, the first woman to chair a Con ...

. She was the first woman elected to her husband's seat in Congress, which is sometimes known as "

widow's succession Widow's succession was a political practice prominent in some countries in the early part of the 20th century, by which a politician who died in office was directly succeeded by his widow, either through election or direct appointment to the seat ...

Electoral history

References

External links