Up for auction "Civil Service Commission" Harris Ellsworth Signed TLS Dated 1958. 

ES-4426

Mathew Harris Ellsworth (September

17, 1899 – February 7, 1986) was a Republican U.S. congressman from Oregon. Born in Hoquiam, Washington, Ellsworth moved

together with his parents to Eugene, Oregon, and later to

nearby Wendling, where he attended public schools. In 1922, he graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Oregon. He worked in the

newspaper and lumber industries in the 1920s, and was an associate professor of

journalism at the University of Oregon in 1928 and 1929. While serving as

manager of the Oregon State Editorial Association (now the Oregon Newspaper

Publishers Association), in 1929, he purchased an interest in The Roseburg News-Review, eventually becoming its editor and publisher.

Ellsworth helped to bring a Veteran's

Administration hospital to Roseburg, which provided

construction jobs to the area hard-hit by the Great Depression. In 1936, he was instrumental in bringing KRNR radio on the air, one of Oregon's first radio stations

based outside of Portland. In 1941, Ellsworth was appointed to

the Oregon State Senate. In

1942, Ellsworth was elected to the United

States House of Representatives, representing Oregon's 4th

congressional district, which had just been established after

the 1940 census. He

served seven terms, and sat on the House Appropriations

Committee and House Rules Committee. In

the 1956

election, he was narrowly defeated by Democrat Charles O. Porter, whom Ellsworth had defeated two years

earlier. After losing the election, Ellsworth was appointed by President Eisenhower to

a two-year term as chairman of the United

States Civil Service Commission, serving until February 28, 1959.