John A. Elston

John Arthur Elston ( born February 10, 1874 in Woodland, California, † December 15, 1921 in Washington DC ) was an American politician. Between 1915 and 1921 he represented the state of California in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

John Elston attended the public schools of his native land and from then until 1892, the Hesperian College, also in Woodland. Subsequently, he studied until 1897 at the University of California at Berkeley. In the meantime, he also worked as a teacher. After a subsequent law degree in 1901 and its recent approval as a lawyer, he began to work in this profession. At the same time he embarked on a political career. Between 1903 and 1907 he served on the staff of the Governor of California. From 1911 to 1914 he was a board member of the State Institution for the Deaf and the Blind. Politically, Elston finished first at the Progressive Party. Later he became a member of the Republican Party.

In the congressional elections of 1914 Elston was chosen as the candidate of the Progressive Party in the sixth constituency of California in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, where he became the successor of Joseph R. Knowland on March 4, 1915. After three re- elections he could remain until his suicide on 15 December 1921 for the Congress. Since 1919 he was chairman of the Committee on Mileage. In his time as a congressman fell among other things, the First World War and the ratification of the 18th and the 19th Amendment.