Frank W. Mondell

Frank Wheeler Mondell was born in St. Louis, Missouri, November 6, 1860; moved to Iowa where he attended the common schools and received instruction in the higher branches from a private teacher; engaged in mercantile pursuits, mining, and railway construction in various western states and territories; settled in Wyoming in 1887, and developed coal mines and oil property in the vicinity of Newcastle and Cambria: took an active part in establishing and building the town of Newcastle, Wyoming, and served as its mayor from 1888 until 1895: elected State Senator to the first and second State Legislatures, 1890-91,1893; was chosen president of the Senate in 1893; declined, in 1894, to accept the nomination for governor; delegate to the Republican National Conven­tion at Minneapolis in 1892, at Philadelphia in 1900. at Chicago in 1904, 1908, and 1912, and at Cleveland in 1924; elected to the Houses of Representatives of the Fifty-fourth Congress, serving from March 4, 1895 until March 3,1897; lost the election in 1896 under the free silver issue; November 15, 1897, was appointed assistant commissioner of the General Land Office in Washington; resigned March 3, 1899; was elected to the House of Representatives in 1898, in which position he served from March 4, 1899 to March 3, 1923, being elected for twelve consecutive terms; held many important commissions, and was majority floor leader in the House of Representatives of the Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Congresses; especially interested in public land legislation: an unsuccessful candidate for United States Senator in 1922; appointed director of the War Finance Corporation in 1923 and resigned in July, 1925; engaged in the practice of law in Washington, D.C.; died in that city August 6,1939.