Townsend Scudder
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Townsend Scudder (July 26, 1865 - February 22, 1960) was a United States Representative from New York. Born in Northport, he was a nephew of Henry Joel Scudder, also a U.S. Representative from New York. Townsend attended preparatory schools in Europe and was graduated from Columbia Law School in 1888; he was admitted to the bar in 1889 and commenced practice in New York City. He was corporation counsel for Queens County from 1893 to 1899, and was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-sixth Congress, holding office from March 4, 1899 to March 3, 1901. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1900 and resumed the practice of law. He was elected to the Fifty-eighth Congress, holding office from March 4, 1903 to March 3, 1905; he was not a candidate for renomination in 1904.
Scudder was a justice of the New York Supreme Court for the second judicial district from 1907 to 1920, and again resumed the practice of his profession in New York City. He was State park commissioner and vice president of the Long Island State Park Commission from 1924 to 1927. He was appointed to the State supreme court bench by Gov. Alfred E. Smith in February 1927, and was subsequently nominated by the two major political parties to succeed himself for the full term of fourteen years. He was elected on November 8, 1927 and served until January 1, 1936, when he retired. He died in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1960; interment was in Putnam Cemetery.
