Harry E. Hull

Who was Harry E. Hull?

Harry Edward Hull was a five-term Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's 2nd congressional district, and Commissioner General of Immigration in the Coolidge and Hoover administrations.

Born near Belvidere, New York, Hull moved with his parents to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1873. He attended the grammar and high schools. He was employed as a clerk and bookkeeper for a grain company. He moved to Palo, Iowa, in 1883, and to Williamsburg, Iowa, in 1884 and engaged in the grain business. He also engaged in the manufacture of brick and tile. He was president of the Williamsburg Telephone Co.. He served as one of Williamsburg's aldermen from 1887 to 1889, as its mayor from 1889 to 1901, and as its postmaster from 1901 to 1914. He also served as president of the Williamsburg Fair Association from 1900 to 1915.

In 1914, Hull was elected as a Republican to represent Iowa's 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House, defeating Democrat W.J. McDonald. He served in the Sixty-fourth Congress and in the four succeeding Congresses. He was one of only fifty representatives who voted against the resolution authorizing the United States' entry into World War I, and one of the few of those fifty to stave off challengers in the wartime primary and general elections in 1918.