John A. Elston

Who was John A. Elston?

John Arthur Elston was a U.S. Representative from California.

Born in Woodland, California, Elston attended public schools. He graduated from Hesperian College, Woodland, 1892. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, California, 1897. He was a teacher. He was admitted to the California state bar, 1901. He was a lawyer in private practice. He served as executive secretary to the Governor of California from 1903 to 1907. He served as member of the board of trustees of the State Institution for the Deaf and Blind from 1911 to 1914.

Elston was elected as a Progressive to the Sixty-fourth Congress and reelected as a Republican to the three succeeding Congresses. He served as chairman of the Committee on Mileage.

Elston committed suicide in Washington, D.C. on December 15, 1921. He was cremated and the ashes placed in the California Crematorium, now the Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland, California.