Benjamin K. Focht Explained

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.

Biography

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.

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