Richard Bartholdt (November 2, 1855 – March 19, 1932) 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 ...

. Born in

Schleiz Schleiz () is a town in the Districts of Germany, district of Saale-Orla-Kreis in Thuringia, Germany. The former municipality Crispendorf was merged into Schleiz in January 2019, and Burgk in December 2019. Location Schleiz is in the Thuring ...

Principality of Reuss-Gera The Principality of Reuss-Gera (), officially called the Principality of the Reuss Junior Line () after 1848, was a sovereign state in modern Germany, ruled by members of the House of Reuss. It was one of the successor states of the Imperial C ...

y, Bartholdt attended the public schools and Schleiz College (Gymnasium). He emigrated to the United States in April 1872 and settled in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York. He learned the printing trade and became a newspaper writer and publisher. He moved to Missouri and settled in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

in 1877. He was connected with several papers as a reporter, legislative correspondent, and editor, and at the time of his election to Congress was editor in chief of the '' St. Louis Tribune.'' He served as member of the St. Louis Board of Education from 1888 to 1892, serving as president from 1890 to 1892. Bartholdt was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-third and to the ten succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1893 – March 3, 1915). He served as chairman of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization (Fifty-fourth Congress), Committee on Levees and Improvements of the Mississippi River (Fifty-fifth through Fifty-eighth Congresses), Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds (Fifty-ninth through Sixty-first Congresses). In 1911 he was appointed by President Taft as a special envoy to the

German Emperor The German Emperor (, ) was the official title of the head of state and Hereditary monarchy, hereditary ruler of the German Empire. A specifically chosen term, it was introduced with the 1 January 1871 constitution and lasted until the abdicati ...

to present a statue of

Baron von Steuben Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand Freiherr von Steuben ( , ; born Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin Louis Freiherr von Steuben; September 17, 1730 – November 28, 1794), also referred to as Baron von Steuben, was a German-b ...

as a gift from Congress and the American people. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1914. He served as chairman of the Republican State convention at St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1896. Bartholdt was elected president of the

Interparliamentary Union The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU; , UIP) is an international organization of national parliaments. Its primary purpose is to promote democratic governance, accountability, and cooperation among its members; other initiatives include advancing g ...

at the conference held in St. Louis in 1904, wherein the following year he proposed "the most interesting recent suggestion for federating nations into a League of Peace". He also founded the arbitration group in Congress in 1903, and was its president for many years. Bartholdt was an

Esperantist An Esperantist () is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperanto and uses it for ...

, and in 1914 he proposed a resolution to have Esperanto taught in American schools. During World War I, he was president of the American Independence Union, which campaigned for an embargo on munitions sales by United States companies to belligerent countries. He wrote an autobiography entitled ''From Steerage to Congress'' (Philadelphia: Dorrance, 1930). He died in St. Louis, Missouri, on March 19, 1932. His body was cremated and the ashes interred in Concordia Cemetery.

References

External links

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Richard Bartholdt Scrapbooks
at St. Louis Public Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Bartholdt, Richard 1855 births 1932 deaths People from Schleiz People from the Principality of Reuss-Gera Emigrants from the German Empire to the United States Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri 19th-century American newspaper editors American newspaper reporters and correspondents School board members in Missouri American Esperantists Politicians from St. Louis 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives