Ernest Lundeen

Who was Ernest Lundeen?

Ernest Lundeen was an American lawyer and politician.

Lundeen was born and raised on his father's homestead in Brooklyn Township of Lincoln County near Beresford, South Dakota. His father, C. H. Lundeen, was an early pioneer who was credited with the naming of Brooklyn Township as well as with helping to establish the school and other institutions located there. Most of Ernest Lundeen's brothers and sisters died during a diphtheria epidemic during the 1880s. In 1896, Lundeen and his family moved to Harcourt, Iowa and then to Minnesota. He graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1901 and then studied law at the University of Minnesota Law School. In 1906, he was admitted to the bar.

Lundeen served in the United States Army during the Spanish-American War. He served in the Minnesota House of Representatives 1911-1914. He then served as a Republican from Minnesota in the United States House of Representatives, from March 4, 1917 to March 3, 1919 in the 65th congress. As representative, he was one of 50 Congressman to vote against the declaration of war against Germany on April 6, 1917.