William Thomas Bland | |
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| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives from Missouri's 5th district | |
| In office March 4, 1919 – March 3, 1921 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1861-01-21)January 21, 1861 |
| Died | January 15, 1928(1928-01-15) (aged 66) Orlando, Florida, U.S. |
| Resting place | Greenwood Cemetery Orlando, Florida, U.S. |
| Spouse | |
| Relations | James M. Jackson (cousin) Thomas Bland (grandfather) John G. Jackson (grandfather) |
| Children | 1 |
| Parent |
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| Alma mater | West Virginia University (BS,LLB) University of Virginia Law School |
| Occupation |
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William Thomas Bland (January 21, 1861 – January 15, 1928) was an American lawyer and businessman born in what becameWest Virginia during the American Civil War and who served as aU.S. Representative fromMissouri.
William Thomas Bland was born on January 21, 1861, inWeston, the county seat ofLewis County, Virginia (in what would soon become West Virginia)[1] to Columbia Ann Madison Jackson Duncan and her second husband, Dr.William John Bland (1816-1897). William T. Bland was descended from theFirst Families of Virginia. His father would represent Lewis County in theVirginia House of Delegates in 1863-1865,[2][3] as well as become the chief surgeon of his brother-in-law CSA General Stonewall Jackson's Brigade and later become the President of the West Virginia Medical Association and superintendent of the West Virginia State Hospital for the Insane (1881-1889)[4] His father's elder brother Newton B. Bland would also become a local physician. His farmer grandfatherThomas Bland (1793-1867) owned slaves in 1840 and served several terms in the Virginia House of Delegates beginning in 1823 and was one of Lewis County's delegates to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850.[citation needed] His maternal grandfatherJohn G. Jackson and cousinJames M. Jackson also were prominent politicians in Harrison County for decades.[1]
W. T. Bland graduated from theWest Virginia University atMorgantown in 1883 with aBachelor of Science and from the law department of that university in 1884 with aBachelor of Laws. He then took a special course in law inCharlottesville, Virginia at theUniversity of Virginia School of Law in 1885.[1][5]
Admitted to the West Virginia bar, Bland began practicing law in his native Weston,Lewis County, West Virginia. Bland moved west toAtchison, Kansas, in 1887, where he became the prosecuting attorney ofAtchison County, Kansas (from 1890 to 1892) and won election as mayor ofAtchison in 1894.[1] Bland was elected judge of the second Kansas district in 1896. He was reelected in 1900, but resigned in 1901.[1][3]
He entered the wholesale drug business in 1901 and moved toKansas City, Missouri in 1904. He was the vice president and later president of the McPike Drug Company of Kansas City until 1917. He then became a banker.[1][3] In 1907, Bland was elected as president of the Manufacturers and Merchants' Association of Kansas City. In 1909, he was elected as president of theKansas City Commercial Club. He was elected to a second term but declined to serve.[5]
Meanwhile, Bland's political career began as he became chairman of the Kansas City River and Harbor Improvement Commission 1909-1918, director of the National Rivers and Harbors Congress, and vice president of the Mississippi Valley Waterway Association. Bland won election to the Kansas City Board of Education in 1912 for a six-year term and served as vice president and president.[1] Bland also served as chairman of theFirst Liberty Loan campaign in Kansas City forWorld War I. He served in later liberty loan committees.[3]
He ran as aDemocrat to representMissouri's 5th congressional district in the Sixty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1919 – March 3, 1921), but lost his bid for reelection in 1920 to the Sixty-seventh Congress.[1]
Bland moved to Florida and settled inOrlando in 1921. He engaged in banking, become president of the First National Bank of Orlando in 1921, and served as a member of the Orlando Utilities Commission for three years.[1][5] He also served as vice president of the First Bond and Mortgage Company.[3]
Bland married Bertha Helen McPike of Atchison, Kansas on August 19, 1891. They had one son, William T. Bland Jr. (1894-1990)[5][6] Bland wasEpiscopalian.[6]
Bland died at his home at 716 South Orange Avenue in Orlando on January 15, 1928, and was buried inGreenwood Cemetery.[1][3] His elder brother Meigs Bland (1859-) would marry Lutie, the daughter of Virginia JudgeJohn James Allen and their son Major William John Bland would drill many soldiers in Kansas City before dying heroically in World War I. Major Bland is buried at Arlington National Cemetery and become the namesake of Kansas City's American Legion post.[7][citation needed]
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| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromMissouri's 5th congressional district 1919-1921 | Succeeded by |
