August 29, 1894: Birth of Senator Henry Dworshack

Today marks the birth of Idaho politician Henry Dworshack, born in Duluth on this day in 1894. Henry Jr. began working for his father, a printer, around age 15 and later worked as associate editor of Labor World and managed Duluth’s Northwest Printers’ Supply Co. in Duluth. In 1924 the family moved to Burley, Idaho, where he became owner and publisher of the Burley Bulletin. In 1938, Henry was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican and served four terms. He was known as a champion of conservation, reclamation, and government economy. He resigned in 1946 to run for U.S. Senate and while he won the seat he was not re-elected in 1948. In 1949 he was appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by the death of Sen. Bert H. Miller; he then won the 1950 election to complete Miller’s term and was re-elected in 1954 and in 1960. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he strongly opposed what he called “Socialist spending.” A year after his death in 1962, Congress passed legislation renaming a dam in Idaho the Dworshak Dam and Reservoir. You can read much more about Dworshak here.

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