Representative Burton Lee French

Burton Lee French (August 1, 1875 – September 12, 1954) was a Republican congressman from Idaho who served in the United States House of Representatives for a combined 26 years between 1903 and 1933, making him the longest-serving U.S. House member in Idaho history. He was born in Delphi, Carroll County, Indiana, to Mina Philippena (Fisher) French and Charles Albert French, the fourth of nine children. In 1880 his family moved to Kearney, Nebraska, and in 1882 they continued west to Princeton, Idaho, by way of San Francisco, California. About a year later the family settled in Palouse, Washington, where French attended the local public schools and graduated in 1891, growing up in the developing communities of the Pacific Northwest that he would later represent in Congress.

French entered the University of Idaho at Moscow in 1893. Like many students of his era, he alternated study with work, interrupting his college education to teach school in the nearby Idaho communities of Kendrick and Juliaetta. He returned to the University of Idaho and completed his degree in 1901. Immediately afterward, he pursued advanced study in political science and law as a fellow at the University of Chicago from 1901 to 1903. During this period he was admitted to the bar and, after his studies, commenced the practice of law in Moscow, Idaho. His early legal and academic training provided the foundation for a career that would combine law, public policy, and legislative service.

French’s political career began even before he completed his undergraduate education. While still a student at the University of Idaho, he was elected to the Idaho state legislature, serving from 1898 to 1902. This early legislative experience introduced him to statewide politics and established his reputation as a capable young Republican leader. During his service in the state legislature he met Winfred E. Hartley, a Boise schoolteacher originally from Nebraska. The two married in 1904. The couple had one daughter, who died in infancy in 1908, a personal loss that marked their early married life.

French was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1902 at the age of 27, taking office on March 4, 1903. He initially served as the sole at-large member from Idaho, representing the entire state in the House. A member of the Republican Party, he contributed to the legislative process during a period of significant transformation in American political and economic life, including the Progressive Era, World War I, and the early years of the Great Depression. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, and as a member of the House of Representatives he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his Idaho constituents on national issues.

French’s congressional tenure was not continuous but spanned multiple periods: he served from 1903 to 1909, from 1911 to 1915, and from 1917 to 1933. With these 13 terms in office, totaling 26 years, he remains the longest-serving U.S. House member in Idaho history. Idaho gained a second seat in the House for the 1912 election, and for the 1912, 1914, and 1916 elections both of the state’s representatives were elected at large. Beginning with the 1918 election, French represented Idaho’s newly created First Congressional District, with that term commencing in March 1919. He won his last election to Congress in 1930, serving through the early years of the New Deal era before leaving office in March 1933. Throughout these years he was a consistent Republican voice from Idaho, engaged in the legislative debates of his time and in the representation of a largely rural, resource-based state undergoing modernization.

After concluding his long congressional career, French turned to academic life. In 1935 he joined the faculty of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he served as a professor until his retirement in 1947. At Miami University he drew on his extensive experience in national politics and law to teach and mentor students in government and related fields, extending his public service into the realm of higher education. His later years were spent in Ohio, even as he maintained ties to Idaho, where much of his earlier life and career had unfolded.

French’s personal life in his later years was marked by loss as well as professional accomplishment. His wife, Winfred E. French, died in 1934 in Moscow, Idaho, after an extended illness, a year after he left Congress and shortly before he began his academic career in Ohio. Burton Lee French died in Ohio on September 12, 1954, after a year-long battle with leukemia. He and his wife, along with their infant daughter who died in 1908, are buried in Moscow Cemetery, east of the city of Moscow, Idaho. His long record of service in the House of Representatives, combined with his early role in Idaho state politics and his later academic work, secured his place as a significant figure in the political history of Idaho and in the broader narrative of congressional service in the first half of the twentieth century.