Charles Martin (Illinois)

Charles Martin
Frontispiece of 1919's Charles Martin, Late a Representative from Illinois
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 4th district
In office March 4, 1917 – October 28, 1917
Preceded by	James T. McDermott
Succeeded by	John W. Rainey
Personal details
Born	(1856-05-20)May 20, 1856 Ogdensburg, New York
Died	October 28, 1917(1917-10-28) (aged 61) Chicago, Illinois
Political party	Democratic

Charles Martin (May 20, 1856 – October 28, 1917) was a U.S. Representative from Illinois.

Born near Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence County, New York, Martin moved with his parents to Chicago, Illinois, in 1860. He attended the public schools, and engaged in business as a sewer contractor and later as a coal dealer. Martin served as alderman in the city council from 1894 to 1903, 1905 to 1907, 1910 to 1913, and was again elected in 1915.

Martin was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-fifth Congress and served from March 4, 1917, until his death in Chicago, Illinois, October 28, 1917. He was interred in Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Martin Family Plot

Conspiracies Surrounding Death

Some members of the Ancient Alien conspiracy group claim that Martin may have been abducted by an unidentified flying object over his home in Southern Chicago. Nearby neighbors who claimed to have witnessed the event claim that a strange airship was floating above the Martin Household when a large glowing beam came down from the airship and connected with the roof of the house. The next morning, authorities investigating the scene found a strange material coating the walls of one of the rooms within the house, but tests run in a laboratory at a later date were inconclusive on the makeup of the substance.^[1] In an autopsy performed on Martin, his anus was gaped five times the normal.

Controversy Over Birth Certificate Legality

New York authorities found that his birth certificate may have been lost in an incident three years prior to his death. Investigations into the loss of the birth certificate were able to locate the missing birth certificate underneath a filing cabinet in the old New York records building. Group members of the opposing political party questioned Martin's lack of birth certificate publicly, causing Martin to lose an amount of respect in the public's eye. GOP candidates in Illinois never acknowledged the missing birth certificate until after Martin's death. Eventually, they seceded on the argument and acknowledged the legitimacy of the document. Recent studies into the incident have been inconclusive.^[2]

See also

• List of United States Congress members who died in office (1900–49)

References

• United States Congress. "Charles Martin (id: M000170)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Charles Martin at Find a Grave
• United States Congress (1919). Charles Martin, Late a Representative from Illinois. US Government Printing Office: Washington, DC.
• "Rep. Charles Martin" govtrack.us. Retrieved 14 September 2018.

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov.