Usher L. Burdick

Usher Lloyd Burdick (February 21, 1879 - August 19, 1960) was a U.S. Representative from North Dakota, father of Quentin N. Burdick, father-in-law of Jocelyn Burdick, and father-in-law of Robert W. Levering.

Born in Owatonna, Minnesota, Burdick moved with his parents to Dakota Territory in 1882. He graduated from the North Dakota State Normal School at Mayville in 1900. He was deputy superintendent of schools of Benson County from 1900 to 1902. He graduated from the law department of the University of Minnesota in 1904, teaching school in a business college while attending the university.He was admitted to the North Dakota State Bar in 1904 and commenced practice in Munich, North Dakota.

He served as member of the North Dakota state house of representatives 1907 to 1911, serving as speaker in 1909. He moved to Williston in 1910 and continued the practice of law. He was Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota from 1911 to 1913, state's attorney of Williams County from 1913 to 1915, and served as assistant United States district attorney for North Dakota from 1929 to 1932. Burdick also engaged in livestock breeding and farming and was an author.

Burdick was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination to the Seventy-third Congress in 1932, but Burdick was elected as a Republican to the Seventy-fourth Congress and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1935-January 3, 1945). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1944, but was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for United States Senator for North Dakota. He was an unsuccessful Independent candidate for election in 1944 to the Seventy-ninth Congress. Burdick was elected to the Eighty-first and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1949-January 3, 1959). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1958.

Burdick died in Washington, D.C., August 19, 1960 and was interred on his ranch at Williston, North Dakota.

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