p 305 -
[son of Henry Jason Olmsted and Evalena Cushing]
p 359 -
(7041) (Hon.) MARLIN E. OLMSTED, Harrisburg, Pa. b. May, 21, 1847; m. Oct. 26, 1899, Gertrude Howard. (For biographical sketch, see section "Biographical.")
pp 450-452 -
(No. 7041) Page 359 - HON. MARLIN E. OLMSTED, LL. D.
Mr. Olmsted, son of Henry Jason Olmsted and Evalena Theresa Cushing Olmsted, was born at Olmsted's Corners, near Ulysses, Potter County, Pa., May 21, 1847. He now resides at Harrisburg, Pa., and is a Member of Congress. Oct. 26, 1899, he married at Lynchburg, Virginia, Gertrude Howard; b. May 7, 1874; dau. of Maj. Conway Robinson Howard, of Richmond, Virginia, and Jane (Colston) Howard, and they have children as
follows :
Marlin Edgar, Jr.; b. Sept. 25, 1900.
Gertrude Howard; b. Oct. 31, 1901.
Henry Cushing; b. June 12, 1905.
Conway Howard; b. Oct. 28, 1907.
Jane; b. Mar. 23, 1909.
It is said that from the beginning of the Government until the present time, no other man has married and been the father of five children, all within the period of his Congressional service.
When he was about one year of age his parents moved to the county seat, Coudersport, where he attended the common, or district, school, and the Coudersport Academy. His father served as Prothonotary and Clerk of the Courts of Potter County for more than twenty-four years, and Marlin E. frequently acted as his deputy. It was planned by his father and uncle that he should read law with his uncle, Arthur G. Olmsted, one of the leading lawyers of Northern Pennsylvania, who had served as Speaker of the House of Representatives, was at the time State Senator, and later became President Judge of the Bucks and Montgomery district, and, still later, of the Forty-eighth Judicial District, but the young man did not, at that time, incline to the law.
In 1869 he was, through the influence of Senator Olmsted, tendered a position in the State Treasury, but the then State Treasurer, Robert W. Mackey, learning of his youth and inexperience, traded him off, as it were, to Auditor-General Hartranft, in whose department he became assistant corporation clerk in the place of Captain W. B. Hart, who was transferred to the Treasury and who subsequently became Cashier and then State Treasurer. The young man devoted himself to the duties of assistant corporation clerk with such energy and success that one year later, although the youngest in years and in service of the many clerks in the department, he was, upon the resignation of J. Montgomery Forster to accept the position of Insurance Commissioner, promoted to the responsible position of Corporation Clerk in charge of the collection of millions of dollars of revenue under Pennsylvania's peculiar system of taxing corporations. He rendered the State an additional service in the preparation of several entirely new general revenue laws, which were passed by the legislature in the precise form in which he prepared them, and, being sustained by the courts at every point, yielded to the Commonwealth vast sums of revenue. This position he held for six years, under Auditors-General Hartranft and Allen. Upon the accession of a democratic administration, the leading newspapers of the State declared that in the interest of the Commonwealth Mr. Olmsted, although a Republican, should be retained in office, but the incoming Auditor-General elected to appoint his own son-in-law.
Upon retiring from the Auditor-General's office, Mr. Olmsted was offered a position in the Insurance Department, a position in the Treasury Department, and a position in the office of the Secretary of State, as well as one or two desirable business positions, including the cashiership of a large National bank. But, declining them all, he chose to read law with the late John W Simonton, at Harrisburg, who afterwards became President Judge of the Twelfth Judicial District. He was admitted to the bar of Dauphin County November 25, 1878, to the bar of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania May 16, 1881, and to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States November 12, 1884. From the very beginning, important clients came to him in great numbers from different and distant parts of the State and from other States, and he soon had an extensive and lucrative practice in the State and federal courts, chiefly in cases involving questions of constitutional and corporation law.
When scarcely of age he was elected Borough Auditor of Coudersport, but never served, having taken up his residence in Harrisburg, where he was elected and served for a brief period as a member of Select Council. In 1891 the people of the various districts of Pennsylvania were called upon to elect delegates to a proposed Constitutional Convention, and also to vote whether such convention should be held. Mr. Olmsted was elected a delegate from his district, but in the State at large the majority voted against the holding of the convention. In 1896, he was, by an overwhelming majority, elected to Congress from the Fourteenth District, comprising the counties of Dauphin, Lebanon and Perry. Although from the beginning of the Government no congressman had represented the State capital district for more than two terms, Mr. Olmsted has been elected eight times — twice more from the Fourteenth and then five times from the Eighteenth District, which was the same as the former except that Cumberland County was substituted for Perry. At each of the eight elections he ran far ahead of the candidates on the State and local tickets.
He has taken an active and prominent part in the important legislation of Congress since he has been a member of that body. His speeches on the tariff, in particular, have been extensively quoted from in campaign text- books in Congressional and Presidential years. As chairman, for a number of terms, of the Committee on Elections, he helped to rescue the determination of contests for seats in the House from a mere political controversy, and to convert the Committee into a judicial tribunal wherein contests were decided upon their merits without reference to political considerations. He acquired an enviable reputation for fairness in that committee, and also in his rulings in the Chair, where he was frequently called to preside over the House of Representatives. As a member of the Committee on Revision of Laws he assisted in the preparation and passage of a law for the government of Alaska. As a member and, later, as Chairman of the Committee on Insular Affairs, he was prominent in promoting and passing laws for the government of the Philippines and Porto Rico, and particularly the "Olmsted Bill," which, withstanding attacks in the court, settled a deadlock between the two legislative branches in Porto Rico which threatened to block the wheels of government. At the present time he is also a member of the Committee on Appropriations, perhaps the most important of all the Committeees of the House. He was one of the managers on the part of the House who presented and argued before the United States Senate the impeachment proceedings against Judge Swayne of Florida.
Discovering early that the member most skilled in the complicated parliamentary law and usages of the House had a great advantage in legislation, he devoted himself to the mastery of the subject, and has, on many important occasions, been called — perhaps more frequently than any other member — to preside over the House of Representatives, either as Speaker pro tempore or as Chairman of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union. More important rulings made by him are recorded in "Hinds' Parliamentary Precedents " than by any other Congressman who ever served in that body without having been Speaker. His well-known parliamentary skill led to his selection as Parliamentarian of the Republican National Convention of 1912.
He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Lebanon Valley College in 1903, and from Dickinson College in 1905. He is one of the Trustees of Pennsylvania State College. December 22, 1911, there apparently being no opposition to his continued service, he publicly announced that in the ensuing year he would not be a candidate for re-election, preferring to see more of his family and give more attention to his professional practice. He is the senior member of the firm of Olmsted & Stamm, which probably has as large a practice as any law firm in Pennsylvania; and at the expiration of his present term in Congress, March 4, 1913, he will devote his attention entirely to his profession and to the affairs of railroad and other enterprises with which he is officially connected.
