Benjamin K. Focht | |
Image Name: | BenjaminKFocht.jpg |
State: | Pennsylvania |
Constituency: | 18th district |
Term Start: | March 4, 1933 |
Term End: | March 27, 1937 |
Preceded: | Joseph Franklin Biddle |
Succeeded: | Richard M. Simpson |
Constituency2: | 17th district |
Term Start2: | March 4, 1915 |
Term End2: | March 3, 1923 |
Preceded2: | Franklin Lewis Dershem |
Succeeded2: | Herbert Wesley Cummings |
Constituency3: | 17th district |
Term Start3: | March 4, 1907 |
Term End3: | March 3, 1913 |
Preceded3: | Thaddeus Maclay Mahon |
Succeeded3: | Franklin Lewis Dershem |
Office4: | Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives |
Term Start4: | 1893 |
Term End4: | 1897 |
Office5: | Member of the Pennsylvania Senate |
Term Start5: | 1901 |
Term End5: | 1905 |
Birth Date: | 12 March 1863 |
Birth Place: | New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania |
Death Place: | Washington, D.C. |
Party: | Republican |
Alma Mater: | Susquehanna University |
Benjamin Kurtz Focht (March 12, 1863 – March 27, 1937) was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
Benjamin K. Focht was born in New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania. He attended Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State College at State College, Pennsylvania, and Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. He established the Lewisburg Saturday News in 1881, serving as editor and publisher until his death. He was a delegate to the Republican State Convention in 1889. He served as an officer of the Pennsylvania National Guard. He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1893 to 1897, and a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate from 1901 to 1905. He was water supply commissioner of Pennsylvania from 1912 to 1914.
Focht was elected as a Republican to the Sixtieth, Sixty-first, and Sixty-second Congresses. He was unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1912. He was again elected to the Sixty-fourth and to the three succeeding Congresses. He served as Chairman of the United States House Committee on War Claims during the Sixty-sixth Congress, and the United States House Committee on the District of Columbia during the Sixty-seventh Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1922, 1924, 1926, 1928, and 1930, and also in 1932 for the unexpired term of Edward M. Beers. After his time in Congress he resumed business activities in Lewisburg. He served as deputy secretary of the Commonwealth in 1928 and 1929. Focht was again elected to the Seventy-third, Seventy-fourth, and Seventy-fifth Congresses and served until his death in Washington, D.C.