Edward Mandell House

Edward Mandell House was born July 26, 1858, in Houston, Texas. His father, Thomas William House, was a "prosperous banker with large holdings of sugar cane and cotton lands." House was educated at the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, Connecticut. He entered Cornell University in 1877 but returned to Texas in 1880 when his father passed away.

1881: House married Loulie Hunter of Hunter, TX, and spent a year in Europe.

1882: "House became involved in state politics during the reelection bid of Governor James Stephen Hogg. Winning reelection  in a stunning upset victory, Governor Hogg declared House an honorary colonel in the state militia." [in 1893].

1895: House also credited with securing elections of Governors Charles Allen Culberson (1895-1899); 1899: Joseph D. Sayers (1899-1903); and 1903: Samuel W.T. Lanham (1903-1907).

1913: House served as Woodrow Wilson's campaign manager, and then as chief advisor. House helped to pick the charter members of the original Federal Reserve Board.

1919: House was one of the five American delegates to the International Peace Conference at Versailles:
 * "When the United States became involved in the war, he won British and French acceptance of Wilson's Fourteen Points as the basis for the peace. House was appointed one of the five American commissioners at the peace conference and served as Wilson's second in command. When the president temporarily returned to the United States during the negotiations, House took his place at the head of the American delegation. After signing the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919, Wilson appointed House to represent him at London in the drafting of provisions for operation of the mandate system set up by the treaty."

1920s: House and Hoover's relationship "deteriorated after Wilson was incapacitated by a stroke in the fall of 1919, and during the Republican party'sqv ascendancy in the 1920s House ceased to exercise direct influence on public affairs."


 * Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed House as Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

"Often described as a power broker and as the founder of the modern Democratic party of Texas, Colonel House avoided holding or accepting public office himself. He believed that doing so would have interfered with his effectiveness and freedom. Colonel House died on March 28, 1938 at the age of 79."

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