Preceded by George W. Kipp Role U.S. representative Name William Blakeslee Party Republican Party | Alma mater Lehigh University Education Lehigh University Political party Republican Died September 4, 1932 Resigned 1915 | |
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Born April 8, 1864
New Milford, Pennsylvania ( 1864-04-08 ) | ||
Succeeded by Louis Thomas McFadden | ||
William David Blakeslee Ainey (April 8, 1864 – September 4, 1932) was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
Biography
He was born in New Milford, Pennsylvania. He attended the State Normal School at Mansfield, Pennsylvania, and Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1887. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1887 and commenced practice in Montrose, Pennsylvania. He served as district attorney for Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania from 1890 to 1896. He organized Company G of the Pennsylvania National Guard and served as captain from 1889 to 1894.
Ainey was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-second Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of George W. Kipp. He was reelected to the Sixty-third. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1914.
Ainey was a delegate to the International Parliamentary Union for International Peace held at Geneva, Switzerland, in 1912, and at The Hague in 1913. He served as secretary and president of the Japanese-American group of interparliamentarians and delegate in 1914 to Tokyo, Japan, and to Stockholm, Sweden. He resumed the practice of law in Montrose. He was appointed a member of the Public Service Commission of Pennsylvania May 20, 1915, and on August 20, 1915, was elected chairman. He was reappointed for a ten-year term as member and chairman on July 1, 1917, and again on July 1, 1927. He was appointed chairman of the Pennsylvania Fuel Commission in August 1922. He served as president of the National Association of Railroad and Utilities Commissioners in 1924. He died in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1932. Interment in Montrose Cemetery in Montrose, Pennsylvania.