Willis G. Sears

Willis G. Sears.

Willis Gratz Sears (August 16, 1860 – June 1, 1949) was a Nebraska Republican politician.

Born in Willoughby, Ohio on August 16, 1860, Sears moved to Nebraska in 1879. He studied law at the University of Kansas at Lawrence, Kansas and was admitted to the bar in 1884. He set up practice in Tekamah, Nebraska and then became the prosecuting attorney for Burt County from 1895 to 1901.

Sears was elected a member of the Nebraska house of representatives in 1901, serving as speaker for his first year and as a normal representative until 1904. He was elected as judge of the fourth judicial district of Nebraska on November 6, 1903, serving until March 10, 1923, when he resigned having been elected to Congress. He was elected from Nebraska's 2nd district to the Sixty-eighth United States Congress and to the three succeeding Congresses serving from March 4, 1923 to March 3, 1931.

During his time, Sears was elected chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Expenditures in the Justice Department during the Sixty-ninth United States Congress and the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Elections No. 3 during the Seventy-first United States Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1930 to the Seventy-second United States Congress. He resumed the practice of law in Nebraska and again was elected judge of the fourth judicial district of Nebraska serving from 1932 to 1948. He died in Omaha, Nebraska on June 1, 1949 and is buried in Tekamah Cemetery.

References

1. "The Political Graveyard". Sears, Willis Gratz. Retrieved February 2, 2006. 
2. "Congressional Bioguide". Sears, Willis Gratz. Retrieved February 2, 2006. 

• This article incorporates facts obtained from: Lawrence Kestenbaum, The Political Graveyard 

• United States Congress. "Willis G. Sears (id: S000212)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. 

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Nebraska
1st district	A. Weaver McShane Connell Bryan Strode Burkett Pollard Maguire Reavis Thorpe Morehead Luckey Heinke Sweet Copeland Curtis P. Weaver Beermann Callan Denney Thone Bereuter Fortenberry
2nd district	Laird Laws McKeighan Mercer G. Hitchcock Kennedy G. Hitchcock Lobeck Jefferis Sears Baldrige Burke C. McLaughlin Buffett O'Sullivan Buffett Hruska Chase Cunningham McCollister Cavanaugh Daub Hoagland Christensen Terry Ashford Bacon (elect)
3rd district	Valentine Dorsey Kem Meiklejohn Maxwell Robinson McCarthy Boyd Latta Stephens Evans Howard Stefan Harrison Brock Beermann Martin V. Smith Barrett Osborne A. Smith
4th district	Hainer Stark Hinshaw Sloan M. McLaughlin Norton Sloan Norton Shallenberger Binderup Curtis Miller McGinley Martin
5th district	McKeighan Andrews Sutherland Shallenberger Norris Barton Shallenberger Andrews Shallenberger Johnson Shallenberger Carpenter Coffee
6th district	Kem Greene Neville Kinkaid Humphrey Simmons
At-large	Marquette Taffe Crounse Welch Majors Valentine
Territory	Giddings Chapman Ferguson Estabrook Daily P. Hitchcock