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John S. Cohen
United States Senator from Georgia
In office April 25, 1932 – January 11, 1933
Appointed by	Richard Russell Jr.
Preceded by	William J. Harris
Succeeded by	Richard Russell Jr.
Personal details
Born	John Sanford Cohen (1870-02-26)February 26, 1870 Augusta, Georgia
Died	May 13, 1935(1935-05-13) (aged 65) Atlanta, Georgia
Political party	Democratic

John Sanford Cohen (February 26, 1870 – May 13, 1935) was a United States senator from Georgia.

Life and career

Cohen was born in Augusta, Georgia, the son of Ellen Gobert (Wright) and Philip Lawrence Cohen. His father was from a long-established Jewish family. Cohen was raised in his mother's Episcopalian faith. His maternal grandfather was politician and Confederate Civil War general Ambrose R. Wright.

Cohen was educated at Richmond Academy in Augusta and Shenandoah Valley Academy at Winchester, Virginia. He attended the United States Naval Academy in 1885 and 1886, and became a newspaper reporter for the New York World in 1886. He was secretary to Secretary of the Interior Hoke Smith from 1893 to 1896, and was a member of the press galleries of the United States Congress from 1893 to 1897. During the Spanish–American War, he served as a war correspondent for the Atlanta Journal, and subsequently enlisted and served in the Third Georgia Volunteer Infantry, attaining the rank of major. He was a member of the army of occupation in Cuba, and was president of the Atlanta Journal, which he edited from 1900 to 1935. He originated the plan for the national highway from New York City to Jacksonville, Florida, and was vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1932 to 1935.

Cohen was appointed on April 25, 1932 to the United States Senate as a Democrat to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William J. Harris and served from April 25, 1932 to January 11, 1933, when a successor was duly elected and qualified. He was not a candidate in 1932 to fill the vacancy, and continued his former business activities until his death in Atlanta. He was buried at Westview Cemetery, in Atlanta.

In 1942 Cohen was inducted into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame.

Further reading

• United States Congress. "John S. Cohen (id: C000597)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American War: A Political, Social, and Military History, Vol. I. By Spencer C. Tucker. p. 127
• Maisel, L. Sandy; Forman, Ira N., eds. (2001). Jews in American Politics. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 51–52.

References

1. "Cohen, John Sanford | Encyclopedia.com".
2. Concise Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1964, p. 179: "COHEN, JOHN SANFORD (b. Augusta, Ga., 1870; d. 1927)...outstanding editor of the Atlanta Journal, 1900-35"
3. Ingram, Tammy (2014). Dixie Highway : Road Building and the Making of the Modern South, 1900-1930. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 40. ISBN 9781469629827.
4. "Merit Awards Given 11 State Publishers". The Atlanta Constitution. July 18, 1942. pp. 1, 3. Retrieved July 1, 2020 – via newspapers.com.

External links

• Henry Ford and Major John S. Cohen among a group of men at WSB from the Broadcasting Collections at Georgia State University
• Atlanta National Bank Board of Directors, 1911 from the Atlanta History Center

v t e United States senators from Georgia
Class 2	Few Jackson Walton Tattnall Baldwin Jones Crawford Bulloch Bibb Troup Forsyth Walker Ware Cobb Prince Troup King Lumpkin Berrien Charlton Toombs H. Miller Norwood B. Hill Barrow A. Colquitt Walsh Bacon West Hardwick Harris Cohen Russell Gambrell Nunn Cleland Chambliss Perdue Ossoff
Class 3	Gunn Jackson Milledge Tait Elliott Berrien Forsyth Cuthbert W. Colquitt Johnson Dawson Iverson J. Hill Gordon Brown Gordon Clay Terrell Smith Watson Felton George Talmadge Mattingly Fowler Coverdell Z. Miller Isakson Loeffler Warnock

• American newspaper editors
• 19th-century American Episcopalians
• 20th-century American Episcopalians
• Jewish American people in Georgia (U.S. state) politics
• People of the Spanish–American War
• 1870 births
• 1935 deaths
• Politicians from Augusta, Georgia
• Georgia (U.S. state) Democrats
• Democratic Party United States senators from Georgia (U.S. state)
• 20th-century United States senators