Cassius McLean Shartel

Cassius McLean Shartel (April 27, 1860 – September 27, 1943) was a lawyer, Republican politician, and one-term U.S. Representative from Missouri. He was born in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, on April 27, 1860. During his childhood he moved with his parents to Knox County, Missouri, where the family resided until 1873. In that year they relocated again, settling in Chautauqua County, Kansas, which was then a developing frontier area and where Shartel spent his remaining youth.

Shartel was educated in the common schools of Kansas and later attended Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan (now Kansas State University). After his formal schooling, he worked as a schoolteacher, an experience that preceded his decision to pursue a legal career. He studied law while in Kansas and, after completing his legal studies, was admitted to the bar in 1881. He commenced the practice of law in Sedan, Kansas, where he built his early professional reputation.

In 1887 Shartel moved back to Missouri, first to Nevada and then, later that same year, to Neosho, Missouri. He continued the practice of law in Neosho, which became his long-term home and the center of his professional and political life. Over the following years he became an active member of the Republican Party in Missouri and developed interests that extended beyond the courtroom, including involvement in farm loans and agricultural finance, reflecting both his Kansas background and the agrarian character of the region in which he lived.

Shartel’s growing prominence in Republican politics led to his selection as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1900, where the party nominated President William McKinley for a second term. His participation in national party affairs helped establish his standing within Missouri Republican circles and set the stage for his later candidacy for Congress.

Shartel was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-ninth Congress and served a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1905, to March 3, 1907, representing Missouri. During his tenure in Congress he served at a time when issues of economic development, regulation, and agricultural interests were prominent in national debates, although he chose not to seek a second term. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1906 and returned to Missouri to resume his legal and business activities, including his continuing interest in farm loans.

In the years following his congressional service, Shartel remained influential in Missouri public affairs. His legal experience and political background led to his selection as president of the Missouri constitutional convention in 1922 and 1923, a body convened to consider revisions to the state’s fundamental law. In that role he presided over deliberations that addressed the structure and powers of state government, further cementing his reputation as a significant figure in Missouri’s legal and political history. He again participated in national Republican politics as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1936, underscoring his long-standing engagement with the party over several decades.

Cassius McLean Shartel spent his later years in Neosho, Missouri, where he continued to be regarded as a leading citizen and elder statesman of the Republican Party in the state. He died in Neosho on September 27, 1943. He was interred in Odd Fellows Cemetery, bringing to a close a career that spanned law, state constitutional reform, and service in the United States Congress.