Milton Andrew Romjue (December 5, 1874 – January 23, 1968) was a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the 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 Article One of th ...

from

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

Personal life and education

Congressman Romjue was born to Andrew Jackson Romjue (1840–1904) and Susan E. (Roan) Romjue (1843–1931) on December 5, 1874, near Love Lake,

Macon County, Missouri Macon County is a county located in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the population was 15,209. Its county seat is Macon. The county was organized January 6, 1837, and named for Nathaniel Macon, a R ...

. He attended Macon County rural schools and the Missouri State Normal School in Kirksville (now known as

Truman State University Truman State University (TSU or Truman) is a Public university, public Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Kirksville, Missouri, United States. It had 3,664 enrolled students in the fall of 2024 pursuing degrees in 55 undergraduate ...

) before being admitted to the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

, where he graduated from the law department in 1904. He married Maude Nickell Thompson on July 11, 1900. They had one child, a son, Lawson, born in 1907. Lawson followed in his father's footsteps to the University of Missouri to become an attorney and served in private practice for many decades.

Career

Mr. Romjue was admitted to the Missouri

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar * Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...

in 1904 and immediately began a practice in

Macon, Missouri Macon is a city in and the county seat of Macon County, Missouri, United States. The population was 5,457 at the 2020 census. History Macon was platted in 1856. Like the county, Macon was named for Nathaniel Macon. A post office called "Macon C ...

. Early work included serving as city attorney for Higbee, Missouri, in 1904 and 1905, then judge of the Macon County probate court from 1907 to 1915. Active in Missouri politics since his college years, Romjue won his party's nomination, then the general election in 1916 as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

to the Sixty-fifth and

Sixty-sixth 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 ...

es (March 4, 1917 – March 3, 1921). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1920 to the

Sixty-seventh 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 ...

. Congressman Romjue returned to private practice for the next two years until being elected to the Sixty-eighth and to the nine succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1923 – January 3, 1943). Congressional career highlights include serving as chairman of the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads ( Seventy-sixth and Seventy-seventh Congresses) where he was able to help shape needed reforms and modernization to the U.S. Postal Service. While serving as a delegate to the 1928 Democratic National Convention, Congressman Romjue became friends with future President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

, and could always be counted on as a strong supporter of FDR's

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

legislation in the 1930s—especially Social Security, help for farmers, and wounded military veterans. The congressman also worked closely with other Missouri politicians to secure for the state military bases like

Fort Leonard Wood Fort Leonard Wood is a United States Army, U.S. Army training installation located in the Missouri The Ozarks, Ozarks. The main gate is located on the southern boundary of the city of St. Robert, Missouri, St. Robert. The post was created in De ...

and

Camp Crowder Fort Crowder was a U.S. Army post located in Newton County, Missouri, Newton and McDonald County, Missouri, McDonald counties in southwest Missouri, constructed and used during World War II. Establishment and purpose Camp Crowder was a military ...

as America geared up for World War II. Failing to win re-election in 1942 to the Seventy-eighth Congress, Romjue returned to Macon County where he resumed the practice of law and also engaged in farming and livestock production. Congressman Romjue died January 23, 1968, in

, and was interred in that city's Oakwood Cemetery.

References

External links

Milton Andrew Romjue entry
at

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 Politics of the United States, American political figures and List of United States political families, political families, along with other informa ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Romjue, Milton Andrew 1874 births 1968 deaths Missouri lawyers Truman State University alumni University of Missouri alumni Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri Baptists from Missouri People from Macon County, Missouri People from Macon, Missouri 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives