William Gordon

Who was William Gordon?

William Gordon was a lawyer, politician, businessman, and three-term U.S. Representative from Ohio.

Gordon was born on a farm near Oak Harbor in Ottawa County, Ohio. He attended the public schools and Toledo Business College, and then taught school. Entering politics, he was the deputy county treasurer from 1887–1889 and a member of the board of school examiners of Ottawa County 1890-1896.

He graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1893. Gordon was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Oak Harbor. He was the prosecuting attorney for Ottawa County from 1895–1901 and a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1896. He was a member of the Democratic State committee in 1903 and 1904.

Entering private business, he founded the Gordon Lumber Company. In 1906, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and reentered politics shortly afterward. Gordon was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1910 to the Sixty-second Congress, but was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-third, Sixty-fourth, and Sixty-fifth Congresses. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1918 to the Sixty-sixth Congress.