Nan Wood Honeyman was an American politician from the state of Oregon.
Background
A native of New York, she was the daughter of author and attorney Charles Erskine Scott Wood. She was born Nan Wood in West Point, New York, in 1881 to the noted progressive author Charles Erskine Scott Wood (died 1944) and Nanny Moale Wood (died 1933).
Education
She moved with her parents three years later to Portland, Oregon, where she graduated from Saint Helens Hall (later incorporated in the Oregon Episcopal School) in 1898.
Career
After growing up in Oregon, she served in the Oregon House of Representatives and the Oregon State Senate. Between these offices, Honeyman became the first woman elected to the United States Congress from Oregon in 1936. Honeyman served as a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1933, which ratified the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution, repealing prohibition.
Honeyman was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives, representing Oregon"s 3rd congressional district and served from 1937 to 1939, the first congresswoman from Oregon.
While in Congress, Honeyman was a strong supporter of the New Deal and the completion of the Bonneville Dam. However, her bids for reelection in 1938 and election in 1940 were unsuccessful.
She held the position of senior representative of the Pacific Coast Office of Price Administration from 1941 to 1942. During the same period, the Multnomah County Commissioners appointed Honeyman to the Oregon Senate in 1941 to fill a vacancy, and she served until her resignation in 1942.
She was United States. collector of Customs in Portland from 1942 to 1953.
The court determined David Honeyman had misappropriated in excess of $100,000 of trust funds while Nan was left blameless. In 1946, the case was finally resolved after the Oregon Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s ruling, which came after Honeyman’s father died in 1944.
Politics
She married David Honeyman in 1908, with whom she raised three children and was active in civic and humanitarian organizations before becoming involved in politics. Honeyman died in Woodacre, California, on December 10, 1970, and was buried at River View Cemetery in Portland.
Membership
She was a member of the Oregon House of Representatives from 1935 to 1937 and served as a delegate to the Democratic national conventions in 1936 and 1940.