BIOGRAPHY Philander Chase Knox Secretary of State,  Term of Appointment: 03/06/1909 to 03/05/1913

Travels

• Born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, May 6, 1853;
• Graduated from Mount Union College in 1872;
• Admitted to the bar in 1875 and practiced in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;
• Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, 1876-1877;
• Married Lillie Smith in 1880;
• President of the Pennsylvania Bar Association in 1897;
• As counsel for the Carnegie Steel Company, took a prominent part in organizing the United States Steel Corporation in 1901;
• Attorney General in the Cabinets of Presidents McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-1904;
• Senator from Pennsylvania, 1904-1909;
• Unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1908;
• Secretary of State in President Taft's Cabinet from March 6, 1909 until March 5, 1913;
• As Secretary of State, reorganized the Department on a divisional basis; extended the merit system to the Diplomatic Service up to the grade of chief of mission; pursued a policy of encouraging and protecting American investments abroad; and accomplished the settlement of the Bering Sea controversy and the North Atlantic fisheries controversy;
• Resumed the practice of law in Pittsburgh;
• Again a Senator from Pennsylvania 1917-1921;
• Died in Washington, DC on October 12, 1921.