Frederick Steiwer

American politician

Frederick Steiwer (October 13, 1883February 3, 1939) was an American politician and lawyer in the state of Oregon. A native of the state, he was county district attorney and member of the Oregon State Senate from eastern Oregon and a veteran of World War I. A Republican, he was elected to the United States Senate and served from 1927 to 1938.

Born in Oregon on a farm near Jefferson in Marion County, Steiwer's parents were John F. and Ada (née May) Steiwer. He received his education in the local public schools, and entered Oregon State Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) at Corvallis at age 15 in 1898 and graduated four years later with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. Steiwer only served during the 1917 legislative session, resigning to enlist in the U. S. Army during the First World War. He won with only 39% of the vote, running against Democrat and later judge Bert Haney and Stanfield, then running for re election as an independent. In 1928, he was one of many candidates for the Republican presidential nomination at the National Convention, with Herbert Hoover winning the nomination and then the fall election. At the 1936 Republican National Convention he was the keynote speaker and temporary chairman, as well as an unsuccessful candidate for the nomination. Steiwer was re elected in 1932 and served from March 4, 1927, until January 31, 1938, when he resigned to return to the practice of law after suffering health problems. He had undergone gall bladder surgery in November 1936. While in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments (Seventy second Congress). Steiwer was an opponent of Roosevelt and The New Deal. In April 1937, he proposed an amendment to the U. S. Constitution to create a nationwide primary for selection of the candidates for the U. S. presidency and vice presidency. No amendment was ever passed.

On December 12, 1911, he married Frieda Roesch in Pendleton, and they had two children. One daughter, named Elizabeth, had a son who married the daughter of Thomas J. Watson, Jr. of IBM fame. His uncle was Winlock W. Steiwer, a state senator. Upon leaving the Senate, he returned to the full time practice of law in Washington, D. C., Steiwer died in the District of Columbia at the age of 55 on February 3, 1939, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in neighboring Arlington, Virginia.