Small, John H. (John Humphrey), 1858-1946

U.S. representative, 1899-1921, from North Carolina's First District, and Washington, D.C., attorney, 1921-1931.

Lawyer and U.S. Representative from North Carolina.

John F. Small was a furniture designer working in Boston in the 1890s. He was born in Harwich, Massachusetts, on October 3, 1858, the son of Samuel J. and Mary B. Small. Small seems to have done most of his work for Keeler & Co., a Boston furniture manufacturer owned by Cornelius P. and George A. Keeler and Ruel P. Buzzell. Keeler & Co. advertised that they made furniture from original designs and that yacht work was a specialty. In 1901, John and his older brother Samuel went into business together as Small Bros., naval architects. John was still alive when his brother died in September 1907.

John Humphrey Small (1858-1946) of Washington, N.C., was a United States representative, 1899-1921, from North Carolina's First District, and Washington, D.C., attorney, 1921-1931. Small ws educated at Trinity College and later taught school, 1876-1880, at Golden Valley in Rutherford County, N.C., and at Washington, N.C. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1881. He was editor and for a time owner of the Washington Gazette in the early 1880s. In 1881 he was elected reading clerk of the state senate and also became superintendent of public instruction of Beaufort County, N.C.; solicitor of the inferior court of Beaufort County, 1882-1885; attorney of the Board of Commissioners of Beaufort County, 1888-1896; city councilman, 1887-1890; mayor of Washington, N.C., 1889-1890; delegate to Democratic state conventions, 1889-1920; and presidential elector, 1896. He was married to Isabelle C. Wharton in 1890.

Small served in the United States Congress, 1899-1921. During this period he was also interested in farming, his law practice in partnership with Angus D. McLean, his school board work, and the development of the inland waterway from Boston, Mass., to Florida., railroad legal problems, and was a member of the National Rivers and Harbors Committee, 1916-1920. He was interested in the Rivers and Harbors bill, labor problems and Federal farm loan machinery, Federal Reserve System amendments, and World War I problems of transportation, emergency powers for the President of the United States, Naval militia federalization and appropriations, and other issues. He made a congressional trip of inspection to Asia in 1920.

After his retirement from Congress, Small practiced law in Washington, D.C.; was president of the National Rivers and Harbors Congress, 1921; was a member of the state geological board; and was interested in promotion of the port of Wilmington, N.C., railroads, banking, economic conditions, aviation development, politics, and elections.