Representative Charles Lenmore Richards - Contact Information

Charles Lenmore Richards (October 3, 1877 – December 22, 1953) was an American lawyer and Democratic United States Representative from Nevada who served one term in Congress from 1923 to 1925. Over the course of his career he was active in state and national politics, local government, and the legal profession, and he played a role in Nevada’s political life during the early twentieth century.

Richards was born on October 3, 1877, in Austin, Lander County, Nevada. He attended public schools in both Nevada and Pennsylvania, reflecting a childhood divided between the West and the East. After completing his early education, he pursued legal studies at Stanford University in California. He graduated from the law department of Stanford University in 1901, entering the legal profession at a time when Nevada was undergoing rapid economic and demographic change associated with mining and development in the Great Basin.

In 1901, Richards was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in Tonopah, Nevada, a prominent mining town that had emerged as a major center of activity in the state. His early legal career quickly led him into public service. He was elected district attorney of Nye County, serving in that capacity in 1903 and 1904. As district attorney, he was responsible for prosecuting criminal cases and advising county officials, gaining experience in public law and administration that would later inform his legislative work.

Richards’s involvement in Nevada politics continued in the years that followed. In 1919 he was elected a member of the Nevada Assembly, where he participated in the legislative process at the state level. Around this time he moved to Reno, which was becoming an important political, commercial, and legal center in Nevada. Within the Democratic Party, he rose to positions of leadership, serving as chairman of the Democratic State committee in 1922. In addition to his party responsibilities, he served as councilor from Nevada to the United States Chamber of Commerce from March 29, 1923, to May 20, 1924, linking Nevada’s business interests with national economic and policy discussions.

Richards was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-eighth Congress and served as a Representative from Nevada from March 4, 1923, to March 3, 1925. His term in the U.S. House of Representatives occurred during a significant period in American history, in the aftermath of World War I and during the early 1920s, when issues of economic adjustment, western development, and national infrastructure were prominent. As a member of the House of Representatives, Charles Lenmore Richards contributed to the legislative process, participated in the democratic governance of the nation, and represented the interests of his Nevada constituents in Washington, D.C. A member of the Democratic Party, he served one full term and then ran for reelection in 1924 but did not win.

After leaving Congress, Richards returned to Nevada and resumed the practice of law in Reno. He continued his legal career there for the remainder of his life, remaining a figure in the state’s legal and civic community even after his congressional service had ended. Charles Lenmore Richards died in Reno, Nevada, on December 22, 1953. He was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Reno, closing a career that had spanned local, state, and national public service as well as long-standing engagement in the legal profession.