Charles J. Colden

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Charles J. Colden ( August 24, 1870 – April 15, 1938 ) was a Representative from California to the Seventy-third, Seventy-fourth, and Seventy-fifth United States Congress.

He was born on a farm in Peoria County, Illinois and moved with his parents to Nodaway County, Missouri in 1880. He attended grade school at the Ireland Schoolhouse near their farm, and later travelled the 10 miles to the High School in Maryville, Missouri. He attended Stanberry Normal School in Stanberry, Missouri and Shenandoah College in Shenandoah, Iowa.

Colden taught school in Missouri and Iowa from 1889 to 1896. He was the editor and publisher of the Parnell Sentinel from 1896 to 1900 and the Nodaway Forum, in Maryville, Missouri from 1900 to 1908.

He was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives from 1901 to 1905 and president of the board of regents of Northwest Missouri Teachers College from 1905 to 1908. In 1908, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri and entered the real-estate and residential construction businesses.

Colden moved to San Pedro, California in 1912 and continued in the real estate and building business. He was the president of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce from 1922 to 1924, the president of the Los Angeles Harbor commission from 1923 to 1925, and a member of the Los Angeles city council from 1925 to 1929.

He was elected to the U.S. Congress as a Democrat from California's 17th district, and served from March 4, 1933, until his death in Washington, D.C., in 1938. He was buried in Roosevelt Memorial Park Cemetery in Gardena, California, but in 1965, his body was reinterred at Green Hills Memorial Park in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

[edit] Liberty Ship

The Charles J. Colden (hull number 2691) was one of the type EC2-S-C1 Liberty ships built by Permanente Metals Yard #2 in Richmond, California, for U. S. Maritime Commission from 1941 to 1945.

[edit] References

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress: COLDEN, Charles J., 1870-1938

Chronological Record of Los Angeles City Officials: 1850—1938, Compiled under Direction of Municipal Reference Library City Hall, Los Angeles March 1938 (Reprinted 1966)