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- Impeachment: President Andrew Johnson
- The People’s House: A Guide to Its History, Spaces, and Traditions
- Electronic Technology in the House of Representatives
- History of the House Page Program
- The 1954 Shooting
- Congressional Sporting Events
- Florence Kahn: Congressional Widow to Trailblazing Lawmaker
FREAR, James Archibald
1861–1939
Concise Biography
FREAR, James Archibald, a Representative from Wisconsin; born in Hudson, St. Croix County, Wis., October 24, 1861; attended the public schools, and Laurence University, Appleton, Wis., in 1878; moved with his parents to Washington, D.C., in 1879; served in the Signal Service, United States Army, 1879-1884; was graduated from the National Law University, Washington, D.C., in 1884; was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Hudson, Wis.; city attorney of Hudson in 1894 and 1895; served eleven years with the Wisconsin National Guard, retiring with the rank of colonel and judge advocate; district attorney of St. Croix County 1896-1901; member of the State assembly in 1903; served in the State senate in 1905; secretary of state of Wisconsin 1907-1913; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-third and to the ten succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1913-January 3, 1935); was not a candidate for renomination in 1934; resumed the practice of law in Washington, D.C., where he died May 28, 1939; interment in Arlington National Cemetery.
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
[ Top ]External Research Collections
Minnesota Historical Society
St. Paul, MN
Papers:
In the Lynn Haines Papers, 1909-1931, 24 cubic feet.
Persons represented include James Frear.
New Mexico State Records Center and Archives
Santa Fe, NM
Papers:
In the Herbert J. Hagerman Papers, 1924-1932, 1 linear foot.
Persons represented include James Frear.
Wisconsin Historical Society
Madison, WI
Papers:
1906 and 1919-1940, 1.4 cubic feet.
Correspondence pertains to routine congressional business, the unofficial tour of Russia made by James Frear in 1923, his committee service in the House of Representatives, his views of organized labor, conservation, and tax reform, and his application for an appointment to the Tariff Commission (1934-1935). A few of the 1933 letters deal with the control of Indian affairs in New York State. The larger part of the collection is that which spans the years from 1933 to 1940, relating largely to personal matters, including Frear's law practice, land investments in Montana, the publication of his autobiography, "Forty Years of Progressive Public Service" (1937), a trip to Europe and North Africa (1938), and the settlement of his estate. The collection includes letters from a number of Frear's nationally known contemporaries: Presidents Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin D. Roosevelt; Theodore Barton; Harry M. Daugherty; John N. Garner; Harold Ickes; Robert M. La Follette, Jr.; and Gifford Pinchot.
Papers:
In the Charles H. Crownhart Family Papers, 1853-1943, 11.6 cubic feet.
Correspondents include James Frear.
Papers:
In the Herman Lewis Ekern Papers, 1872-1954, 36.4 cubic feet.
Correspondents include James Frear.
Papers:
In the Nathaniel Caldwell Foster Papers, 1830-1936, 0.3 cubic foot.
The collection contains political correspondence with representative James A. Frear.
Papers:
In the Alexander Gumberg Papers, 1904-1939, 6.6 cubic feet.
Persons represented include James Frear.
Papers:
In the Merlin Hull Papers, 1856-1953, 78 cubic feet.
Correspondents include James Frear.
Papers:
In the Robert M. La Follette Papers, 1879-1910 and 1922-1924, 57.6 cubic feet.
Persons represented include James Frear.
Papers:
In the John Mandt Nelson Papers, 1897-1977, 4.8 cubic feet.
Correspondents include James Frear.
Papers:
In the Michael B. Olbrich Papers, 1906-1932, 5.8 cubic feet.
Correspondents include James Frear.
Papers:
In the Clarence Julius Reiter Papers, 1929-1951, 0.1 cubic foot.
Correspondents include Congressman James A. Frear discussing personal matters and referring to national and state politics (1929-1939).
Papers:
In the Charles D. Rosa Papers, 1911-1952, 6.8 cubic feet.
Correspondents include James Frear.
Papers:
In the Peter J. Smith Papers, 1920-1928, 0.4 cubic foot.
Correspondents include James Frear.
Papers:
In the Wisconsin Capitol Commission General Files, 1903-1927, 20 cubic feet.
Correspondents include James Frear.
Papers:
In the Wisconsin Secretary of State Frear’s Correspondence, 1910-1912, 1.2 cubic feet.
General correspondence of Secretary James Frear with officials, agencies, and the general public including requests for Blue Books, election laws, and other materials; references to the Progressive Movement and La Follette’s campaign; and requests for recommendations and appointments to government positions.
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