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Matthew M

Matthew Mansfield Neely (9 November 1874-18 January 1958) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-WV 1) from 14 October 1913 to 3 March 1921 (succeeding John W. Davis and preceding Benjamin L. Rosenbloom) and from 3 January 1945 to 3 January 1947 (succeeding A.C. Schiffler and preceding Francis J. Love), a Democratic US Senator from 4 March 1923 to 3 March 1929 (succeeding Howard Sutherland and preceding Henry D. Hatfield), from 4 March 1931 to 13 January 1941 (succeeding Guy D. Goff and preceding Joseph Rosier), and from 3 January 1949 to 18 January 1958 (succeeding Chapman Revercomb and preceding John D. Hoblitzell Jr.), and Governor of West Virginia from 13 January 1941 to 15 January 1945 (succeeding Homer A. Holt and preceding Clarence W. Meadows).

Biography[]

Matthew Mansfield Neely was born in Grove, West Virginia in 1874, and he served in the US Army during the Spanish-American War and practiced law in Fairmont before becoming its Mayor in 1908. He served in the US House of Representatives from 1913 to 1921, when he was defeated for re-election due to his support for President Woodrow Wilson's policies, but he went on to serve in the US Senate from 1923 to 1929 and from 1931 to 1941, when he resigned in order to serve as Governor from 1941 to 1945. He detested the governorship and returned to the US Congress from 1945 to 1947 and served as a Senator from 1949 until his death in Washington DC in 1958. He was a New Deal Democrat, supporting organized labor and the African-American Civil Rights movement.

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