William C. Houston

William Cannon Houston (March 17, 1852 - August 30, 1931) was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for the 5th congressional district of Tennessee. He was born in Shelbyville, Tennessee in Bedford County. He moved with his mother to Woodbury, Tennessee in Cannon County in 1858. He attended the schools of Woodbury and Sweetwater, Tennessee. He engaged in agricultural pursuits and later in the publication of a newspaper.

He was a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1877 to 1879 and from 1881 to 1885. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1878, and commenced practice in Woodbury, Tennessee. He was a member of the Democratic state executive committee in 1888. He was chairman of the Democratic state convention in 1888. He was elected judge of the eighth judicial circuit in 1894, was re-elected in 1902, and served until elected to Congress.

He was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-ninth and the six succeeding Congresses. He served from March 4, 1905 to March 3, 1919, but he was not a candidate for renomination in 1918. He was the chairman of the United States House Committee on the Census during the Sixty-second Congress and chairman of the United States House Committee on Territories during the Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1920. He died on his plantation, "Beaver Dam," near Woodbury, Tennessee on August 30, 1931. He was interred in Riverside Cemetery near Woodbury, Tennessee.