Denis J. Driscoll

Who was Denis J. Driscoll?

Denis Joseph Driscoll was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.

Denis J. Driscoll was born in North Lawrence, New York. He attended the Lawrenceville Academy, and State Teachers’ College in Potsdam, New York. He taught school in Potsdam in 1888 and 1889 and in St. Marys, Pennsylvania, in 1890 and 1891. He was principal of public schools in St. Marys from 1892 to 1897.

He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1898, and on the same day enlisted as a private in the Sixteenth Regiment, Pennsylvania National Guard, which on that day had been called for service in the Spanish-American War.

After the war he commenced the practice of law in St. Marys. He was a member of the Democratic State committee from 1899 to 1922, serving as chairman in 1905. He was the chief burgess of St. Marys from 1903 to 1906, president of St. Marys School Board from 1911 to 1936, and a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1916 and 1920. He served as United States Attorney for the western district of Pennsylvania in 1920 and 1921.

Driscoll was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-fourth Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1936.