Frank Charles Kniffin

Frank Charles Kniffin (April 26, 1894 – April 30, 1968) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician who served four terms as a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1931 to 1939. Born on a farm near Stryker, Williams County, Ohio, he spent his early years in a rural setting and was educated in the local public schools. His upbringing in northwestern Ohio shaped his familiarity with agricultural and small-town concerns that would later inform his political career and representation of his constituents.

After completing his public school education, Kniffin studied law, preparing for a professional career in the legal field. He was admitted to the bar in 1919 and soon thereafter commenced the practice of law in Napoleon, Ohio, the county seat of Henry County. Establishing himself as an attorney in Napoleon, he became involved in local affairs and built the legal and community reputation that would support his repeated bids for public office.

Kniffin’s early political efforts were marked by persistence in the face of electoral defeat. A member of the Democratic Party, he was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922 for the Sixty-eighth Congress, in 1924 for the Sixty-ninth Congress, in 1926 for the Seventieth Congress, and in 1928 for the Seventy-first Congress. These successive campaigns, though unsuccessful, increased his visibility in the district and solidified his position as a leading Democratic figure in a region that often leaned Republican.

Kniffin was ultimately elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-second Congress and was reelected to the three succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1931, to January 3, 1939. During his four terms in the United States Congress, he represented an Ohio district during a period of profound national crisis and transformation, including the Great Depression and the early years of the New Deal. As a member of the House of Representatives, Frank Charles Kniffin participated in the democratic process, contributed to the legislative work of the era, and represented the interests of his constituents in Ohio. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, and he took part in the deliberations and votes that shaped federal responses to economic hardship and social change.

In 1938 Kniffin was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Seventy-sixth Congress, bringing his consecutive congressional service to a close at the start of 1939. His defeat ended his tenure in the House, and, as of 2020, he is noted as the last Democrat to have represented his particular Ohio district in Congress, underscoring the long-term political realignment of the area following his service.

Following the end of his congressional career, Kniffin resumed the practice of law in Napoleon, returning to the profession in which he had first established himself. He continued his public service in the judicial-adjacent sphere when he was appointed a referee in bankruptcy for the northern district of Ohio, western division, a position he held from 1939 until his death. In that capacity, he oversaw bankruptcy proceedings and contributed to the administration of federal bankruptcy law over nearly three decades.

Frank Charles Kniffin died in Napoleon, Ohio, on April 30, 1968. He was interred in Wauseon Cemetery in Wauseon, Ohio. His career reflected a steady progression from rural beginnings and local legal practice to national legislative service and, later, to a long tenure in the federal bankruptcy system, marking him as a significant Democratic figure in the political history of his region.