James S. Havens

James Smith Havens was an American lawyer and politician who served part of one term as a United States [House of Representatives|U.S. Representative] from New York from April 1910 to March 1911, having been elected to fill a mid-term vacancy.

Biography

Born in Weedsport, New York. He attended the public schools and Munro Collegiate Institute, Elbridge, New York and graduated from Yale College in 1884. He moved to Rochester the same year and studied law. He was Admission to [the bar in the United States|admitted to the bar] in 1887 and commenced practice in Rochester.

Family

He was the father of noted artist James D. Havens. He learned of research being done by Banting and Best in Canada, and his son Jim became the first American to use insulin.

Political career

He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1904. He was elected as a Democrat to the 61st [United States Congress|Sixty-first] Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James B. Perkins. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1910.

Later career and death

Havens resumed the practice of his profession in Rochester.
He declined the Democratic nomination for mayor of Rochester in 1913. He was vice president and secretary of the Eastman Kodak Company, and head of its legal department from 1919 until his death and interment in Mount [Hope Cemetery, Rochester|Mount Hope Cemetery] in 1927.