Quick Facts
Biography
Not to be confused with former Arizona Congressman, Gabrielle Dee Giffords
Charles Laceille Gifford (March 15, 1871 – August 23, 1947) was a United States Representative from Massachusetts. He was born in Cotuit on March 15, 1871. Gifford attended the common schools, and taught in Massachusetts and Connecticut from 1890 to 1900. He later engaged in the real estate business on Cape Cod as the owner of several summer cottages rented by vacationers, and the operator of the Cotuit Inn. Gifford then became interested in oyster raising as president of the Cotuit Oyster Company, and cranberry farming.
He was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1912–1913), and served in the Massachusetts State Senate (1914–1919).
He was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-seventh Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Joseph Walsh and on the same day was elected to the Sixty-eighth Congress. He was reelected to the Sixty-ninth and to the eleven succeeding Congresses and served from November 7, 1922, until his death. He was chairman of the Committee on Elections No. 3 (Sixty-ninth and Seventieth Congresses), and the Committee on Election of President, Vice President, and Representatives (Seventy-first Congress).
Gifford died in Cotuit on August 23, 1947, and was buried in Cotuit's Mosswood Cemetery.