Francis G. Newlands

Francis Griffith Newlands was a United States Representative and Senator from Nevada. A supporter of westward expansion, he helped pass the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902, which created the Bureau of Reclamation and boosted the agricultural industry by building dams to support irrigation in the arid Western states. Newlands also founded the neighborhoods of Chevy Chase, Washington, D.C. and Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Newlands was born in Natchez, Mississippi, on August 28, 1846, to Jessie and James Newlands, immigrants from Scotland. Sources vary as to whether Newlands was born in 1846 or 1848. Newlands was the fourth of five children. His father, trained as a physician in Edinburgh, died in 1851. Newlands was raised in Illinois and Washington, D.C.

Source: Wikipedia