American politician (1877–1921)

This article is about the politician from Iowa. For the politician from New York, see Maurice E. Connolly.

Maurice Connolly (March 13, 1877 – May 28, 1921) was elected in 1912 to a single term as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa's 3rd congressional district. After giving up his House seat in an unsuccessful bid for election to the U.S. Senate in 1914, Connolly then served as an aviation officer in World War I and died in a plane crash in 1921.

Contents

• 1 Background
• 2 Congress
• 3 Senate candidacy
• 4 Military service
• 5 Death
• 6 See also
• 7 References

Background

He was born in Dubuque, Iowa on March 13, 1877, as the son of a successful carriage maker, Tom Connolly, and his wife Ellen Brown Connolly. Connolly attended the common schools. He was graduated from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, in 1897, where he was a member of the Quill and Dagger society. In 1898, at age twenty-one, he graduated from the New York University School of Law, in New York City. He was admitted to the bar in 1899 and did postgraduate work at Balliol College, Oxford, England, and the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He returned to Dubuque when his father died suddenly in 1903, and *umed his ownership and management of the Connolly Carriage Company. Later, Connolly engaged in the insurance business and banking.

Congress

Connolly's home in Washington, D.C., while serving in Congress

Connolly ran as a Democrat for Congress in 1912, against in*bent Republican Charles E. Pickett. Connolly's hometown of Dubuque was a Democratic-leaning city at the edge of Iowa's strongly-Republican 3rd congressional district, which in Connolly's lifetime had elected only Republicans. Indeed, in every election since 1890, Republicans captured either all or all but one of Iowa's eleven seats in the U.S. House, while holding each seat in the Senate. When Iowa Republicans were divided between Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party candidacy and Republican Party nominee William Howard Taft, Connolly tied himself closely to Democratic presidential candidate Woodrow Wilson. Along with in*bent Democrat Irvin S. Pepper in Iowa's 2nd congressional district and Democrat Sanford Kirkpatrick in Iowa's 6th congressional district, Connolly was elected in 1912 to the Sixty-third Congress.

Senate candidacy

In 1914 Iowans had their first opportunity to directly elect a U.S. Senator; until the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Cons*ution in 1913, the U.S. Cons*ution had authorized only state legislatures to choose senators. In 1913, 37-year-old Congressman Pepper was the presumptive favorite to win the Democratic nomination for Senate, to challenge in*bent Republican Senator Albert B. *mins, but Pepper died unexpectedly in December 1913. Connolly ran in the Democratic primary for the nomination. He defeated Edwin T. Meredith in the primary, but was defeated by Senator *mins in the general election.

Connolly was replaced in the House by Republican Burton E. Sweet, who had defeated Democrat J.C. Murtagh. In all, Connolly served in Congress from March 4, 1913 to March 3, 1915.

Military service

After leaving Congress, Connolly returned to Dubuque to run his family's carriage company. He also became an executive of Dubuque Fire and Insurance Company. Connolly was an at-large delegate to the 1916 Democratic National Convention. President Wilson appointed him as postmaster of Dubuque.

After the United States entered World War I, Connolly enlisted, earning his flight wings and serving as captain, then major, in the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps. He served as adjutant, executive officer and commanding officer at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois, Wilbur Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, and Hazelhurst Field in Mineola, New York. When the armistice was declared, he was *igned to Washington, where he *isted Major General William L. Kenly, first head of the United States Army Air Service. Connolly also flew in one of the "flying circuses" of fliers performing to raise funds for the Liberty Loan program.

Connolly and future New York City Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia were the only former congressmen to earn their wings in World War I.

Death

Following the war, Connolly became the Washington representative for the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. He was killed in an airplane accident near Indian Head, Maryland on May 28, 1921. He was one of two civilian p*engers killed along with five air corps officers, including Medal of Honor recipient Lt. Col. Archie Miller, when their army Curtiss Eagle converted air ambulance crashed during a wind and electrical storm when returning to Washington D.C. At the time, it was considered the worst aviation accident in U.S. history.

He was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Key West, Iowa.

See also

• List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (pre-1925)

References

• United States Congress. "Maurice Connolly (id: C000699)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.