ALDRICH, James Franklin (son of William Aldrich),
a Representative from Illinois; born at Two Rivers,
Manitowoc County, Wis., April 6, 1853; moved with his parents to Chicago, Ill., in April 1861; attended the public
schools and Chicago University; was graduated from
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., in 1877; engaged in the manufacture of linseed oil and later engaged
in the gas business; member of the Cook County Board
of Commissioners 1886-1888, serving as president in 1887;
member of the county board of education in 1887; commissioner of public works of Chicago from May 1, 1891, to
January 1, 1893; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-third
and Fifty-fourth Congresses (March 4, 1893-March 3, 1897);
chairman, Committee on Accounts (Fifty-fourth Congress);
was not a candidate for renomination in 1896; appointed
consul general at Havana, Cuba, in 1897, but did not reach
his post to serve owing to the sinking of the battleship
Maine and to the war with Spain which followed; receiver
of national banks, and railroad appraiser, from 1898 until
1923; died in Chicago, Ill., March 8, 1933; interment in
Rosehill Cemetery.
