Introduction
Oscar Edward Bland (November 21, 1877 – August 3, 1951) was a U.S. Representative from Indiana, and a long-serving judge of the United States Court of Customs Appeals.
Biography
Born near Bloomfield, Indiana, Bland attended the public schools, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, and Indiana University. He taught school for three years. He read law and was admitted to the bar in 1901 and commenced practice in Linton, Indiana. He served as member of the Indiana State Senate from 1907 to 1909.
Bland was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for election to Congress in 1910, 1912, and 1914. He finally prevailed in the election of 1916, and was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-fifth, Sixty-sixth, and Sixty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1917 – March 3, 1923). He served as chairman of the Committee on Industrial Arts and Expositions (Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Congresses). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1922 to the Sixty-eighth Congress.
He was nominated by President Warren G. Harding as associate judge of the United States Court of Customs Appeals (later the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals), receiving his commission on March 4, 1923, and serving until his resignation on December 1, 1947. He resumed the private practice of law in Washington, D.C., where he died August 3, 1951. He was interred in Fort Lincoln Cemetery.