Representative Anderson Howell Walters

Anderson Howell Walters (May 18, 1862 – December 7, 1927) was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania who served as a Representative in the United States Congress from 1913 to 1927. He was born in Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, where he attended the public schools and was graduated from Johnstown High School in 1878. His early life and education in Johnstown laid the foundation for a career that combined business, journalism, and public service at the local, state, and national levels.

After completing high school, Walters was employed as a telegrapher and clerk with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company from 1878 to 1880. In 1881 he entered the service of the Johnstown Water Company and the Johnstown Gas Company. He advanced steadily within these utilities, becoming assistant superintendent in 1889 and later serving as general manager and secretary from 1895 to 1902. Through this work he became a prominent figure in the civic and economic life of Johnstown, gaining administrative and managerial experience that would inform his later political career.

Walters became active in Republican Party politics in Pennsylvania during the late nineteenth century. He was a delegate to the Republican State conventions in 1890, 1892, 1898, and 1904, and he served as a delegate to the 1896 Republican National Convention, reflecting his growing influence within the party. He was chairman of the Republican city committee in Johnstown from 1896 to 1899 and a member of the Republican State committee from 1898 to 1902. At the municipal level, he served as a member of the Johnstown City Council from 1900 to 1904, where he participated directly in local governance and policy-making.

In addition to his political and business activities, Walters was a significant figure in Pennsylvania journalism and finance. In 1902 he became editor and proprietor of the Johnstown Tribune, a position he held until his death, using the newspaper as a platform for civic engagement and Republican viewpoints. He was elected a member of the board of trustees of the Johnstown Savings Bank in 1907, further extending his role in the community’s economic affairs. Demonstrating his interest in civic and service organizations, in May 1917 he joined with a group of businessmen to charter the Rotary Club of Johnstown, and he became its first president.

Walters’s national political career began when he was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-third Congress, representing Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives. His service in Congress, which extended from 1913 to 1927, occurred during a significant period in American history that encompassed the Progressive Era, World War I, and the early postwar years. A member of the Republican Party, he contributed to the legislative process during four terms in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents in Pennsylvania. After his initial term in the Sixty-third Congress, he was not a candidate for renomination, but he later returned to Congress.

Walters was again elected to the Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Congresses, during which he held a key leadership role as chairman of the United States House Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Labor. In that capacity he oversaw and reviewed federal spending related to labor affairs at a time of industrial change and postwar adjustment. Following these terms, he was not a candidate for renomination, but he remained a respected Republican figure in his district. He was subsequently elected to the Sixty-ninth Congress, continuing his service in the House of Representatives until 1927, after which he again declined to seek renomination.

In his later years, Walters continued to manage and guide the Johnstown Tribune while maintaining his various civic and business interests in Johnstown. He remained closely identified with the city where he had been born, educated, and had built his professional and political career. Anderson Howell Walters died in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on December 7, 1927. He was interred in Grandview Cemetery in Johnstown, closing a life marked by sustained engagement in local affairs, state and national Republican politics, and service in the United States Congress.