Longworth

On April 9, 1931, Nicholas Longworth, U.S. representative from Ohio and speaker of the House, died on a visit to Aiken, S.C.

A Republican, he was elected to the 58th Congress in 1902 and served four subsequent terms. He was defeated in 1912 but re-elected in 1914 and served until his death.

Longworth was the great-grandson of the famous Cincinnati wine maker, also named Nicholas. The elder Longworth was penniless when he moved to Cincinnati from New Jersey around 1803. After acquiring land, he planted Catawba grapes and made the first American sparkling wine that rivaled those of France. He made Ohio the biggest wine-producing state in the country and in 1850 was one of the wealthiest men in America.

His great-grandson was born in Cincinnati in 1869 and attended one of the city's best boys schools - The Franklin School. He went on to graduate from Harvard University in 1891 and the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1894. He practiced law in Cincinnati and served on the school board. He was elected to the Ohio House in 1899 and the Ohio Senate in 1901.

A violinist and lover of fine wine, Longworth was a celebrated bachelor when he went to Washington on the wave of Republican popularity that also landed William McKinley in the White House. He married Alice Lee Roosevelt, daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, in a grand ceremony in the presidential mansion in 1906.

Rebecca Goodman

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com or call 768-8361.