Richard Bartholdt (November 2, 1855 – March 19, 1932) was a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. Born in

Schleiz Schleiz is a town in the district of Saale-Orla-Kreis in Thuringia, Germany. The former municipality Crispendorf was merged into Schleiz in January 2019, and Burgk in December 2019. Location Schleiz is in the Thuringian Vogtland area, an ar ...

, Germany, Bartholdt attended the public schools and Schleiz College (Gymnasium). He emigrated to the United States in April 1872 and settled in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. He learned the printing trade and became a newspaper writer and publisher. He moved to Missouri and settled in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

in 1877. He was connected with several papers as a reporter, legislative correspondent, and editor, and at the time of his election to Congress was editor in chief of the '' St. Louis Tribune.'' He served as member of the St. Louis Board of Education from 1888 to 1892, serving as president from 1890 to 1892. Bartholdt was elected as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

to the Fifty-third and to the ten succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1893 – March 3, 1915). He served as chairman of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization (Fifty-fourth Congress), Committee on Levees and Improvements of the Mississippi River (Fifty-fifth through Fifty-eighth Congresses), Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds (Fifty-ninth through Sixty-first Congresses). In 1911 he was appointed by President Taft as a special envoy to the

German Emperor The German Emperor (german: Deutscher Kaiser, ) was the official title of the head of state and hereditary ruler of the German Empire. A specifically chosen term, it was introduced with the 1 January 1871 constitution and lasted until the offi ...

to present a statue of

Baron von Steuben Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand von Steuben (born Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin Louis von Steuben; September 17, 1730 – November 28, 1794), also referred to as Baron von Steuben (), was a Prussian military officer who p ...

as a gift from Congress and the American people. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1914. He served as chairman of the Republican State convention at St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1896. Bartholdt was elected president of the

Interparliamentary Union The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU; french: Union Interparlementaire, UIP) is an international organization of national parliaments. Its primary purpose is to promote democratic governance, accountability, and cooperation among its members; other ...

at the conference held in St. Louis in 1904, wherein the following year he proposed "the most interesting recent suggestion for federating nations into a League of Peace". He also founded the arbitration group in Congress in 1903, and was its president for many years. Bartholdt was an

Esperantist An Esperantist ( eo, esperantisto) is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperanto ...

, and in 1914 he proposed a resolution to have Esperanto taught in American schools. During World War I, he was president of the American Independence Union, which campaigned for an embargo on munitions sales by United States companies to belligerent countries. He wrote an autobiography entitled ''From Steerage to Congress'' (Philadelphia: Dorrance, 1930). He died in St. Louis, Missouri, on March 19, 1932. His body was cremated and the ashes interred in Concordia Cemetery.

References

External links

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Richard Bartholdt Scrapbooks
at St. Louis Public Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Bartholdt, Richard 1855 births 1932 deaths People from Schleiz People from the Principality of Reuss-Gera German emigrants to the United States Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri 19th-century American newspaper editors American newspaper reporters and correspondents School board members in Missouri American Esperantists Politicians from St. Louis