ROBERT JOHN TRACEWELL
TRACEWELL, ROBERT JOHN, Hanover college, A.B., 1874; lawyer in Corydon, Indiana, 1876-94; representative from the third district of Indiana in the fifty-fourth Congress, 1895-97; comptroller of the United States treasury since August 1, 1897; was born in Warren county, Virginia, May 7, 1852; son of William Neal and Louisa V. (Brown) Tracewell. His father removed to Corydon, Indiana, where he practised law. Robert John Tracewell attended the common schools of Corydon, but says he was dull and indolent to the degree of negligence in acquiring the tasks set for him, and made no serious effort to obtain an education until he entered Hanover college in 1870. Meantime he had worked in a printing office and there gained his first knowledge of the value of money self-earned. He was graduated at Hanover college in 1874, and was admitted to the bar in 1875, having studied law in his father's office. He practised in Corydon up to the time of taking his seat in the United States house of representatives, March 4, 1895. He was the Republican candidate for representative from the third district of Indiana to the fifty-fourth Congress in 1894, and was elected over Strother M. Stockslager, Democratic representative in the forty-seventh and forty-eighth Congresses, by a plurality of six hundred and fifty-six votes, the first Republican to be elected from the district. He was defeated for reelection in 1896 by Judge William T. Zenor, of Corydon, Democrat, by two thousand five hundred and forty-eight votes, there being no third candidate in the field. On August 1, 1897, he was sworn in as comptroller of the United States treasury, having been appointed to the office by President McKinley as successor to Robert B. Bowler. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Hanover in 1893, and that of LL.D. in 1903. He asserts that contact with his classmates in college and his legal brethren at the bar were the strongest influences to direct his course in life, and that the choice of a profession was his personal preference. His counsel to young men is to "do the thing however humble they find at hand better than the average person." His greatest regret in life
