Representative Charles Lee Faust

Charles Lee Faust (April 24, 1879 – December 17, 1928) was a Republican U.S. Representative from Missouri who served in the United States Congress from 1921 until his death in 1928. His four terms in the House of Representatives coincided with a significant period in American political and economic history in the years following World War I, during which he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his Missouri constituents.

Faust was born near Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio, on April 24, 1879. During his childhood he moved with his parents to a farm near Highland, Doniphan County, Kansas, a relocation that placed him in a rural Midwestern community where agriculture and small-town life shaped his early experiences. He attended the public schools in the Highland area and later pursued higher education at Highland University in Highland, Kansas, reflecting an early commitment to formal study at a time when access to advanced education in rural regions was limited.

Before entering the legal profession, Faust worked in education. From 1898 to 1900 he engaged in teaching in a country school near Highland, Kansas. This period of service as a schoolteacher provided him with firsthand knowledge of local community needs and the conditions of rural public education at the turn of the twentieth century. His experience in the classroom preceded and likely informed his later work as a lawyer and public official.

Faust advanced his education in law at the University of Kansas, enrolling in its law department at Lawrence. He graduated from the law department in 1903 and was admitted to the bar that same year. Immediately upon admission, he commenced the practice of law in St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri. His move to St. Joseph marked a transition from rural Kansas to an important commercial center in northwestern Missouri, where he established himself professionally and began to build the legal and political connections that would underpin his later public career.

In municipal government, Faust served as city counselor of St. Joseph from 1915 to 1919. In this capacity he acted as the city’s legal advisor, handling municipal legal affairs during a period that encompassed World War I and its local impacts. His work as city counselor enhanced his public profile and provided him with practical experience in governmental operations, municipal law, and public administration, positioning him for higher office.

Faust was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-seventh Congress and to the three succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1921, until his death on December 17, 1928. Representing Missouri in the U.S. House of Representatives, he contributed to the legislative process over four consecutive terms. His service in Congress occurred during the early 1920s, a time marked by postwar economic adjustment, debates over federal taxation and spending, and the emergence of new national policies in areas such as commerce and population management. Within the House, he served as chairman of the Committee on the Census during the Sixty-eighth Congress, a role that placed him at the center of legislative oversight of national population counts and related statistical inquiries, which were critical to apportionment and the allocation of federal resources.

As a member of the House of Representatives, Faust participated in the democratic process and worked to represent the interests of his Missouri constituents within the broader framework of national policy debates. He was a member of the Republican Party during an era of Republican dominance in federal politics, and his repeated reelection reflected sustained support from voters in his district. He had been reelected to the Seventy-first Congress and was preparing to continue his legislative service when his career was cut short.

Faust died in office on December 17, 1928, at the United States Naval Hospital in Washington, D.C. His death occurred before the commencement of the Seventy-first Congress, to which he had already been reelected. Following his death, his remains were returned to Kansas, and he was interred in Highland Cemetery in Highland, Kansas, near the community where he had grown up, taught school, and begun his path toward a career in law and national public service.