Lester Dickinson | |
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United States Senator from Iowa |
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In office March 4, 1931 – January 3, 1937 |
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Preceded by | Daniel F. Steck |
Succeeded by | Clyde L. Herring |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa's 10th district |
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In office March 4, 1919 – March 4, 1931 |
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Preceded by | Frank P. Woods |
Succeeded by | Fred C. Gilchrist |
Personal details | |
Born |
Derby, Iowa, U.S. |
October 29, 1873
Died | June 4, 1968 Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. |
(aged 94)
Political party | Republican |
Education |
Cornell College (BA) University of Iowa (LLB) |
Lester Jesse ("L. J." or "Dick") Dickinson (October 29, 1873 – June 4, 1968) was a Republican United States Representative and Senator from Iowa. He was, in the words of Time magazine, "a big, friendly, white-thatched Iowa lawyer." In early 1936 he dreamed of winning the presidency. However, the only race he would enter that year would be for his own seat in the Senate, and he would lose it.
Dickinson was born on a farm near Derby, Iowa in Lucas County, to Levi and Willimine Morton Dickinson. When he was five, his family moved to another farm outside Danbury, Iowa, in Woodbury County. As a boy, he worked on his father's farm, peddled milk from the dairy, practiced orations behind the barn, and clerked in a hardware store. He graduated from Danbury High School in 1892, Cornell College (in Mount Vernon, Iowa) in 1898, and from University of Iowa College of Law at Iowa City in 1899. He was admitted to the bar in 1899 and commenced practice in Algona, Iowa, Kossuth County in the north-central part of the state. He was a second lieutenant in the 52nd Infantry, Iowa National Guard, from 1900 to 1902 and was city clerk of Algona from 1900 to 1904. He was County Attorney for Kossuth County from 1909 to 1913.
In 1910, he made an unsuccessful run for the Republican nomination for a seat in the Iowa House of Representatives.