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Biography
Martin Dies (March 13, 1870 – July 13, 1922) was a Texas politician and a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives. His son, Martin Dies, Jr. was also a member of the United States House of Representatives.
Dies was born in Jackson Parish, Louisiana and moved with his parents to Freestone County, Texas, in 1876. He graduated from the law department of the University of Texas at Austin and was admitted to the bar in 1893, practicing in Woodville, Texas.
He edited a newspaper in Freestone County, was county marshal and later county judge of Tyler County, Texas in 1894. He served as district attorney of the first judicial district of Texas from 1898-1900.
Dies moved to Beaumont, Texas in 1902 and was employed as counsel for the Gulf Refining Co. He was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-first and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1909 – March 3, 1919). He served as chairman of the Committee on Railways and Canals (Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses).
Dies retired in 1918 to his ranch on Turkey Creek, Tyler County, Tex. He moved to Kerrville, Texas, in 1921 and died there on July 13, 1922. He is interred in Glenwood Cemetery, Houston, Texas.