Charles Frederick Crisp

Charles Frederick Crisp
33rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
In office
December 8, 1891 – March 4, 1895
President Benjamin Harrison
Grover Cleveland
Preceded by Thomas B. Reed
Succeeded by Thomas B. Reed
Member of U.S. House of Representatives
from Georgia's 3rd district
In office
March 4, 1883 – October 23, 1896
Preceded by Philip Cook
Succeeded by Charles R. Crisp
Personal details
Born (1845-01-29)January 29, 1845
Sheffield, England
Died October 23, 1896(1896-10-23) (aged 51)
Atlanta, Georgia
Political party Democratic
Profession Law

Charles Frederick Crisp (January 29, 1845 – October 23, 1896) was a United States political figure. A Democrat, he was elected as a Congressman from Georgia in 1882, and served until his death in 1896. From 1890 until his death, he was leader of the Democratic Party in the House, as either the House Minority Leader or the Speaker of the House. He was also the father of Charles R. Crisp who also served in Congress.

Biography

Crisp was born in Sheffield, England, January 29, 1845. Later in that year, his parents immigrated to the United States and settled in Georgia where he attended the common schools of Savannah and Macon, Georgia. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, he was temporarily residing in Luray, Virginia, with his parents, who were in the middle of a Shakespearean play tour. He enlisted in a local unit, the "Page Volunteers" of Company K, 10th Virginia Infantry, and was commissioned lieutenant. He served with that regiment until May 12, 1864, when he became a prisoner of war at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. He was held as one of the Immortal Six Hundred at Fort Pulaski, Georgia, and later transferred to Fort Delaware. After his release in June 1865, he joined his parents at Ellaville, Georgia.

Crisp studied law at Americus, Georgia. He was admitted to the bar in 1866 and commenced practice in Ellaville. He was appointed solicitor general of the southwestern judicial circuit in 1872 and reappointed in 1873 for a term of four years. Later, he was appointed judge of the superior court of the same circuit in June 1877. Crisp was elected by the general assembly to the same office in 1878 and reelected judge for a term of four years in 1880 when resigned that office in September 1882 to accept the Democratic nomination for the United States Congress.

Crisp served as president of the Democratic gubernatorial convention at Atlanta, Georgia, in April 1883. he was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1883, until his death. In Congress, he served as chairman of the Committee on Elections in the Fiftieth Congress, Committee on Rules in the Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses, and Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses. He had been nominated for United States Senator in the Georgia primary of 1896, but he died in Atlanta on October 23, 1896, and was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in his hometown of Americus. Georgia's Crisp County is named in his honor.

References

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by
Philip Cook		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Georgia's 3rd congressional district
March 4, 1883 – October 23, 1896 		Succeeded by
Charles R. Crisp
Political offices
Preceded by
Thomas B. Reed		 Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
December 8, 1891 – March 4, 1893;
August 7, 1893 – March 4, 1895 		Succeeded by
Thomas B. Reed
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