William H. Clagett

William Horace Clagett ( born September 21, 1838 in Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County, Maryland; † August 3, 1901 in Spokane, Washington ) was an American politician. Between 1871 and 1873 he represented the Montana Territory in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Early years

In 1850, William Clagett moved with his father to Keokuk, Iowa. There he finished primary school. Then he studied law until 1858. After qualifying as a lawyer, he began to work in Keokuk in this profession. In 1861 he moved to Nevada Territory, where he initially worked as a lawyer in Carson City and then in Humboldt.

Political career

William Clagett was a member of the Republican Party. From 1862 to 1863 he was a member of the Territorial House of Representatives from Nevada; after the area had joined as a federal state the United States, he became a deputy in the Nevada Assembly. This mandate he held from 1864 to 1865. In the following years he worked in the cities of Virginia City, Helena and Deer Lodge as a lawyer. The latter two were in the former Montana Territory. Between March 4, 1871, and March 3, 1873 he was a delegate of the territory Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Since this area but was not an official state in the U.S., he had no vote in Congress. In the elections of 1872 he was defeated by Martin Maginnis, the candidate of the Democratic Party.

Further CV

After the end of his tenure in the federal capital Washington William Clagett again worked as a lawyer in various cities in the Pacific Northwest. In 1889, he was Chairman of the Constituent Assembly of Idaho. In this state he was a candidate in 1891 and 1895 respectively unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. Senate. He then moved to Spokane in Washington State. There he worked as a lawyer again. William Clagett was the uncle of Samuel B. Pettengill, who represented 1931-1939 the State of Indiana in the U.S. House of Representatives.