Solomon F Prouty

Solomon Francis Prouty (January 17, 1854 – July 16, 1927) was a one-term state legislator, Iowa trial court judge and a two-term Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's 7th congressional district.

Born in Delaware, Ohio, Prouty moved with his father to Marion County, Iowa, in 1855. He attended the public schools, Central College (then known as the Central University of Iowa) in Pella, Iowa from 1870 to 1873, Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa from 1873 to 1875, and was graduated from Central College in 1877. He taught for several years and served as a professor of Latin at Central from 1878 to 1882. In 1879, he was elected to one two-year term in the Iowa House of Representatives, serving in 1880 and 1881. He later studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1882, and commenced practice in Pella. He moved to Des Moines, Iowa, in 1891 and practiced law there. He served as judge of the district court in 1899.

Prouty was an unsuccessful candidate for election to Congress in 1902, 1904, and 1908. However, in 1910, Prouty won the Republican nomination for the U.S. House for Iowa's 7th congressional district, and defeated his opponents in the November general election. He was then re-elected two years later to his second (and last) term. In all, he served in the Sixty-second and Sixty-third Congresses, from March 4, 1911 to March 3, 1915.

Prouty was not a candidate for renomination in 1914, although his initial hesitancy about running for a third time prompted Des Moines Register and Leader cartoonist "Ding" Darling to caricature him in several front-page cartoons. He resumed the practice of his law, and served as trustee of the Central College.

He died in Des Moines, Iowa on July 16, 1927. He was interred in Glendale Cemetery.