Charles Sumner Hamlin


Charles Sumner Hamlin was an American lawyer. He was the first Chairman of the Federal Reserve, serving from 1914 to 1916.

Biography

Charles Sumner Hamlin was born in Boston, Massachusetts on August 30, 1861, a son of Anna and Edward Hamlin. His mother was born in England to Irish parents, while his father, a coal dealer, was from Massachusetts.He graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor of arts degree in 1883 and received his master of arts from Harvard in 1886. Sumner studied law while completing his master's degree, attained admission to the bar in 1886, and practiced in Boston.
From 1893 to 1897 and again from 1913 to 1914 he was the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. He twice ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Massachusetts, in 1902 and 1910. On August 10, 1914, he was appointed the first Chairman of the Federal Reserve and served in that capacity until August 10, 1916. He lectured at Harvard on government in 1902 and 1903; In 1912 was vice president of the Woodrow Wilson College Men's League and president of the Woodrow Wilson League of Massachusetts; and he published, besides pamphlets on statistical and financial subjects, an Index Digest of Interstate Commerce Laws and the Index Digest of the Federal Reserve Bulletin.
Hamlin died in Washington, D.C. on April 24, 1938. He was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

Family

In 1898 Sumner married Huybertje Lansing Pruyn, the daughter of John V. L. Pruyn and granddaughter of Amasa J. Parker.

Legacy

Hamlin's papers are archived at the Library of Congress.