Background
Gordon, William was born on December 15, 1862 in Oak Harbor, Ohio, United States. Son of Washington and Margaret (Rymers) Gordon.
United States representative lawyer politician
Gordon, William was born on December 15, 1862 in Oak Harbor, Ohio, United States. Son of Washington and Margaret (Rymers) Gordon.
He attended the public schools and Toledo (Ohio) Business College, and then taught school. He graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1893.
Gordon was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Oak Harbor. He was the prosecuting attorney for Ottawa County from 1895 to 1901 and a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1896. Entering private business, he founded the Gordon Lumber Company.
In 1906, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and reentered politics shortly afterward.
Gordon was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1910 to the Sixty-second Congress, but was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-third, Sixty-fourth, and Sixty-fifth Congresses (March 4, 1913 – March 4, 1919). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1918 to the Sixty-sixth Congress.
Gordon reengaged in the practice of law until his death in Cleveland in 1942. He was interred in Oak Harbor Cemetery, Oak Harbor, Ohio.
Gordon was married September 12, 1893 to Elizabeth Gernhard, daughter of the sheriff of Ottawa County.
They had two children. Gordon was Knights Templar. He resigned from the Knights Templar in the late 1920s over their anti-Catholic stance versus Democratic Presidential candidate First Rate (at Lloyd's) Smith.
Member county board school examiners, Ottawa Company, 1890-1896. Member Democratic State Central Committee, 1903, 04. Member 63d to 65th Congresses (1913-1919), 20th Ohio District Trustee Andrews Institute for Girls, Willoughby, O.
Mason ( Knights Templar, Shriner).
Club: City.
Married Elizabeth M. Gernhard, September 12, 1893.