Charles J. Colden

Charles J. Colden (August 24, 1870 – April 15, 1938) was a politician who served on the Los Angeles City Council and from 1933 to 1938 as a member of the U.S. Congress.

Biography Illustration of Colden published in the St. Joseph News-Press, November 21, 1903 Colden was born on a farm in Peoria County, Illinois, and moved at age 10 with his parents to Nodaway County, Missouri, in 1880. He attended grade school at the Ireland Schoolhouse near their farm, and later went to Maryville High School some ten miles distant in Maryville, Missouri. He attended Stanberry Normal School in Stanberry, Missouri, and Shenandoah College in Shenandoah, Iowa.

Colden taught school in Missouri and Iowa from 1889 to 1896. He was the editor and publisher of the Parnell Sentinel from 1896 to 1900 and the Nodaway Forum (which became the Maryville Daily Forum, in Maryville, Missouri, from 1900 to 1908. continuing in the real estate and building business. He was the president of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce from 1922 to 1924.

He was survived by his wife, Clara N. Colden; a sister, Mrs. B.C. Hall, two daughters, Mrs. Lester Hawthorne and Abbe Colden; and two sons, John C. Colden and Charles J. Colden Jr.

Political life

Missouri

Colden was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives from 1901 to 1905.

Harbor

Colden was president of the Los Angeles Harbor commission from 1923 to 1925. While on the commission, he worked vigorously for the Harbor Belt Line that linked all the port facilities via rail. He also led a fight to give the Santa Fe Railroad access to the waterfront. Colden denied the charge, and the matter was later settled out of court.

City Council

Colden was the first resident of the Harbor Area to serve on the Los Angeles City Council since the area was annexed to the city in 1909 through a shoestring strip that attached the district to the main part of the city some 20 miles to the north. He ran for the council in an at-large election in 1923, but placed 10th in a field of eighteen and only the first nine were elected.

In 1925 a new city charter gave the district and 14 others their own representatives on the council, creating the 15th District. He ran for this new post and edged James H. Dodson Jr. in the general election, 4,750 votes to 4,599. He was reelected in the May 1927 primary. Colden did not run in the 1929 election, noting his disappointment that the city had chosen to purchase "an airport and the classification yards at the harbor" when "These projects might have been [better] promoted by the beneficiaries and by private enterprise."

Congress Colden's wife Clara, who ran to succeed him in Congress but lost in the primary to Lee E. Geyer Colden was elected to Congress as a Democrat from California's 17th district and served from March 4, 1933, until his death in 1938.

During the 1934 California gubernatorial election, Colden supported George Creel in the Democratic primary. However, after Upton Sinclair won, Colden announced his support for him as the Democratic nominee, and endorsed his "End Poverty in California" program.

Liberty ship The Charles J. Colden (hull number 2691) was one of the type EC2-S-C1 Liberty ships built by Permanente Metals Yard No. 2 in Richmond, California, for the U.S. Maritime Commission from 1941 to 1945.

Electoral history