Frank B. Brandegee

Frank Bosworth Brandegee (July 8, 1864 – October 14, 1924) was a United States Representative and Senator from Connecticut.

Biography

He was born in New London, Connecticut to US Representative Augustus Brandegee.

Brandegee attended the common schools, and graduated from Yale College in 1885, where he was a member of Skull and Bones.^[1]:1369 He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1888 and practiced in New London. In 1888, he was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, and was corporation counsel of New London from 1889-1893 and 1894-1897, when he resigned. He was a member of the State house of representatives in 1899, and served as speaker; he was again elected corporation counsel of New London (1901-1902), when he resigned to become a Member of Congress. Brandegee was chairman of the Republican state convention in 1904, and was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-seventh Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Charles A. Russell. Brandegee was reelected to the Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth Congresses and served from November 4, 1902, until May 10, 1905, when he resigned, having been elected a United States Senator to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Orville H. Platt; to the Senate, he was reelected in 1908, 1914, and 1920, and served from May 10, 1905, until his death at age 60 by suicide in his Washington, D.C. home on October 14, 1924. He died by inhaling gas in a seldom used bathroom on the third floor of his home. He left a suicide note for his butler along with $100.

Senator Brandegee was a staunch opponent of America's entry into the League of Nations.

During his time in the Senate, Brandegee was President pro tempore (Sixty-second Congress); chairman of the Committee on Forest Reservations and Game Protection (Fifty-ninth through Sixty-first Congresses), member of the Committee on Interoceanic Canals (Sixty-second Congress), Committee on Panama (Sixty-second Congress), member of the Committee on Pacific Railroads (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses), member of the Committee on Library (Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Congresses), and member of the Committee on Judiciary (Sixty-eighth Congress),

Brandegee was interred in Cedar Grove Cemetery, New London.

References

1. ^ "Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1924-1925". Yale University. 1925. http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1859_1924/1924-25.pdf. Retrieved March 24, 2011. 

• Frank B. Brandegee at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress