William Kent (March 29, 1864 – March 13, 1928) was an American politician, conservationist and philanthropist from Marin County, California. He served three terms as a U.S. Representative from Northern California between 1911 and 1917, and was instrumental in the creation of Muir Woods National Monument.

Early life

Kent was born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 29, 1864. His parents, Adaline Elizabeth Dutton and meatpacking magnate Albert Emmett Kent (A.E. Kent)

Following graduation from Yale, Kent returned to Chicago and took up his father's real estate and livestock businesses, where he had inherited, among other interests, a tenement block adjacent to the Hull House settlement.

Kent was a vocal proponent of anti-Asian and exclusionary immigration policies throughout his political career. Campaigning in 1910, Kent told the Asiatic Exclusion League that "I have made a large part of my campaign on the Asiatic Exclusion idea, comparing it with the racial troubles brought on by the needless importation of negroes." In Congress, Kent pushed legislation barring Asian immigrants from owning land, becoming U.S. citizens, and entering the United States altogether.

Conservationist

In 1916, Kent was the lead sponsor of legislation in the House of Representatives establishing the National Park Service, with companion legislation in the Senate sponsored by Reed Smoot. The legislation passed the House of Representatives on July 1, 1916, passed the Senate on August 5, and was signed by President Woodrow Wilson on August 25, 1916.

Kent was also responsible for the establishment of Muir Woods National Monument on 611 acres of land along Redwood Creek that Kent and his wife Elizabeth Thacher Kent had originally purchased in 1905 for $45,000 in an effort to preserve the property's groves of old-growth redwoods. After a local water company began condemnation proceedings in 1907 in an effort to create a reservoir on the site, Kent quickly deeded 295 acres of the property to the U.S. Department of the Interior for the establishment of a national monument under the recently passed Antiquities Act. Established as a national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt on January 6, 1908, Kent asked the site be named in honor of conservationist John Muir.

Later career

thumb|right|Kent later in life

After leaving Congress, Kent was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to the United States Tariff Commission in 1917. In lobbying the Wilson administration for his appointment, Kent alluded to a possible run for governor of California, writing Wilson ally Norman Hapgood that "I probably could secure the governorship here if I wanted it, but I do not like the idea of getting down to state matters when my view has been directed at national affairs." Kent served on the Tariff Commission until his resignation in 1920 to make an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate.

References

  • Sherman-Hoar family at Political Graveyard
  • Baldwin-Greene-Gager family of Connecticut at Political Graveyard