Parley P. Christensen | |
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Member of the Los Angeles City Council from the 9th district | |
In office 1939–1949 |
|
Preceded by | Winfred J. Sanborn |
Succeeded by | Edward R. Roybal |
In office 1935–1937 |
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Preceded by | George W. C. Baker |
Succeeded by | Howard E. Dorsey |
Member of the Utah House of Representatives | |
In office 1910–1912 |
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Personal details | |
Born |
Weston, Idaho |
July 19, 1869
Died | February 10, 1954 Los Angeles, California |
(aged 84)
Political party |
Republican Farmer–Labor Party Progressive Democratic |
Alma mater | Cornell Law School (LL.B.) |
Religion | Unitarianism |
Parley Parker Christensen (July 19, 1869 – February 10, 1954) was an American politician and nominee of the Farmer–Labor Party for President of the United States in 1920. He was member of the Utah House of Representatives and of the Los Angeles, California, City Council. He was also a city attorney and a county attorney in Utah and the chairman of the Illinois Progressive Party.
Parley Parker Christensen was born on July 19, 1869, in Weston, Idaho, the son of Peter and Sophia M. Christensen, both of Denmark. and he was taken to Newton, Utah, when he was a child.
Mr. Christensen as a boy pioneered with his parents in Idaho and Utah[,] where his father drove wagons of freight from the railway terminus in Utah up cross country into Idaho, Montana, and the Dakotas. This background gave Mr. Christensen an insight into the struggle of those who labor and those who wrest their living from the soil.
He graduated from the University of Utah Normal School in 1890, then was a teacher and principal in Murray and Grantsville in that state. From 1892 to 1895 he was school superintendent in Toole County. He then earned a bachelor of laws degree from Cornell University law school in New York, and returned to practice law in Salt Lake City.
After 1920 Christensen traveled in Europe and Russia, and met with Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin; he wrote that he was impressed by Lenin's approachability and his command of the English language.
He was also an early active Esperantist, and in 1920-22 travelled around the world using the language. He was the vice president of the Esperantista Asocio de Norda Ameriko 1931-32, and taught Esperanto in Los Angeles and Pasadena.