Steiwer, Frederick, 1883-1939

U.S. Senator from Oregon.

Frederick Steiwer, Republican senator from Oregon in the New Deal era, was born October 13, 1883, near Jefferson, Marion County, Oregon.

Graduating from the University of Oregon in 1903, he studied law in Portland and entered a legal practice in Pendleton. He was elected Umatilla County district attorney in 1912, and Oregon State Senator in 1912. After serving with distinction in World War I, he returned to law practice and was elected United States Senator in 1927. He became a prominent Republican opponent of President Roosevelt's New Deal and gave the keynote address to the Republican National Convention in 1936. After resigning from the Senate due to ill health, he died in Washington, D.C., in 1939.

Frederick Steiwer (1883-1939) was born on a farm near Jefferson, Marion County, Oregon. He attended public schools and graduated from Oregon State Agricultural College at Corvallis in 1902 and from the University of Oregon at Eugene in 1906. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1908 and commenced practice in Pendleton, Umatilla County, in 1909.

He served as Oregon deputy district attorney 1909-1910, and then as district attorney 1912-1916. He was elected to the State Senate and served from 1936-19717.

Steiwer enlisted in the United States Army during the First World War and served from 1917 to 1919 in the Sixty-fifth Field Artillery, with rank of first lieutenant.

After his return, he was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1926 and reelected in 1932 and served until January 31, 1938, when he resigned. During his time in the U.S. Senate he served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments (Seventy-second Congress).

After his resignation from the U.S. Senate he continued practicing law in Washington, D.C., until his death there February 3, 1939. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.