Porter J. McCumber

Who was Porter J. McCumber?

Porter James McCumber was a United States Senator from North Dakota. Born in Crete, Illinois, he moved with his parents to Rochester, Minnesota the same year. He attended the common schools and taught school for a few years, and graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1880. He was admitted to the bar and commenced practice at Wahpeton, Dakota Territory in 1881. He was a member of the Territorial House of Representatives in 1885 and a member of the Territorial Senate in 1887. He served as State's attorney of Richland County from 1889 to 1891 and was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 1899. McCumber won reelection in 1905, 1911, and 1916 and served from March 4, 1899, to March 4, 1923; he was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1922. While in the Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Manufactures and a member of the Committee on Pensions, the Committee on Indian Affairs, the Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard, and the Committee on Finance. One of his main legislative accomplishments was the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act of 1922.