Page:Men of Mark in America vol 1.djvu/440



OSS, GEORGE EDMUND, lawyer and member of congress from the tenth congressional district of Illinois, was born in Berkshire, Franklin county, Vermont, July 2, 1863. He is the son of George E. and Marcia (Noble) Foss. When three years old he moved with his parents to St. Albans, Vermont; here he attended the St. Albans academy and afterward the Franklin county grammar school. He was graduated from the grammar school with high honors in 1880, and the following year he entered Harvard college. He was graduated from college in the class of 1885, receiving the degree of A. B. Thereafter he attended the Columbia law school and the School of Political Science in New York city; after moving to Chicago he entered the Union college of law, where he received the degree of LL.B. in 1889. While in this school he won the first honor of his class, for "oratorical ability."

In 1889 he was admitted to the bar in Chicago and began the practice of law. While building up a successful legal practice, he has taken an active interest in the political affairs of his community; although he never held public office, until in 1894 he was elected to congress from the seventh Illinois district. He has served in the fifty-fourth, fifty-fifth, fifty-sixth, fifty-seventh and fifty-eighth Congresses, and has been reelected to the fifty-ninth. He is regarded as the enemy of machine politicians and "bosses," who have continually tried to defeat his reelection; but his friends declare that he is "invincible at the polls." In the national house of representatives he has been chairman of the important committee on Naval Affairs for six years; and as such he has earned distinction in encouraging the growth of the American navy.

Congressman Foss was one of the original McKinley men, and was active in promoting the nomination and the election of the late president. He assisted in the organization of the Lincoln club of Chicago, and he is also a member of the Hamilton, the Marquette and the Union League clubs. His home is at No. 47 Gordon Terrace, Chicago, Illinois.