John Franklin

Education

Born in Fayette, Missouri, he attended the common schools and graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1875. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1876 and commenced practice in Fayette.

Career

He moved to Denver, Colorado in 1879 and continued the practice of law. He was city attorney from 1887 to 1891 and was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth Congress as a Representative. To the Fifty-eighth Congress, he presented credentials as a Democratic Member-electrical

Subsequently, Shafroth was often referred to (sometimes admiringly, sometimes sarcastically) as "Honest John."

Shafroth was Governor of Colorado from 1909 to 1913, and was instrumental in bringing in Colorado"s ballot initiative institutions.

In 1912, he was elected as a Democrat to the United States. Senate, where he served one term from March 4, 1913, to March 3, 1919. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1918.

After leaving the Senate, he served as chairman of the War Minerals Relief Commission from 1919 to 1921. John F. Shafroth died in 1922 and was interred in Fairmount Cemetery in Denver.

His personal and official papers are archived at several locations including the Colorado State Archives (gubernatorial papers), the Colorado Historical Society Library, and the Denver Public Library"s Western History and Genealogy Department.

Achievements

• Thus, he served in the United States. House from March 4, 1895, until his resignation on February 15, 1904, when he declared that, due to fraud in 29 electoral precincts, he was unable to legitimately assert that he had won the election, and requested that his opponent, Robert W. Bonynge, replace him.

Politics

He then joined other Colorado officials such as Senator Henry M. Teller, splitting from the Republicans to join the Silver Republican third party, on whose ticket he was reelected to the Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth, and Fifty-seventh Congresses.

Membership

While a Senator, Shafroth was chairman of the Committee on Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses), the leading Senate sponsor of the Jones-Shafroth Acting of 1917 which granted citizenship to Puerto Ricans, and a member of the Committee on the Philippines (Sixty-fifth Congress).