Daniel F. Lafean

Daniel Franklin Lafean was an American politician and businessman who was a member of the U.S. [House of Representatives] from Pennsylvania from 1903 to 1913 and again from 1915 to 1917. He was the first president of the American Caramel Company.

Biography

Lafean was born in York, Pennsylvania to German immigrants from Posen. He was engaged in candy manufacturing and in banking in York. He served as a director of the Gettysburg College and trustee of the Lutheran [Theological Seminary at Gettysburg|Gettysburg Seminary] in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He was the first president of the American Caramel Company and was later a co-founder and president of the Keystone Color Works. He was a Freemason and served as Worshipful Master of his lodge, Zeredatha Lodge No. 451, York, in 1895.
Lafean was elected as a Republican to the 58th [United States Congress|Fifty-eighth] and to the four succeeding Congresses. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in United [States House election, 1912|1912]. He was elected to the Sixty-fourth Congress, but was not a candidate for renomination in 1916. He was appointed commissioner of banking of the State of Pennsylvania in 1917. He again engaged in manufacturing pursuits and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was interred in Prospect Hill Cemetery in York, Pennsylvania.