{{Short description|American politician (1870–1935)}} {{Use American English|date=November 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder |birth_name = John Sanford Cohen |image = John S Cohen.jpg |jr/sr = United States Senator |state = [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] |term_start = April 25, 1932 |term_end = January 11, 1933 |appointer = [[Richard Russell Jr.]] |predecessor = [[William J. Harris]] |successor = Richard Russell Jr. |birth_date = {{birth date|1870|2|26}} |birth_place = [[Augusta, Georgia|Augusta]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], U.S. |death_date = {{death date and age|1935|5|13|1870|2|26}} |death_place = [[Atlanta]], Georgia, U.S. |party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] }}

'''John Sanford Cohen''' (February 26, 1870{{spaced ndash}}May 13, 1935) was a [[United States senator]] from [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]].

==Life and career== Cohen was born in [[Augusta, Georgia]], the son of Ellen Gobert (Wright) and Philip Lawrence Cohen.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}} His father was from a long-established [[Jewish]] family. Cohen was raised in his mother's [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalian]] faith. His maternal grandfather was politician and Confederate Civil War general [[Ambrose R. Wright]].<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cohen-john-sanford| title = Cohen, John Sanford {{!}} Encyclopedia.com}} </ref>

Cohen was educated at [[Academy of Richmond County|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 [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]] [[M. Hoke Smith|Hoke Smith]] from 1893 to 1896, and was a member of the [[press gallery|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.<ref> ''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"</ref> He originated the plan for the [[National Highway System (United States)|national highway]] from [[New York City]] to [[Jacksonville, Florida]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ingram|first1=Tammy|title=Dixie Highway : Road Building and the Making of the Modern South, 1900-1930|date=2014|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|isbn=9781469629827|page=40}}</ref> 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 [[Democratic Party (United States)|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 [[1932 United States Senate elections|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]].<ref name=gpa1942>{{cite news|title=Merit Awards Given 11 State Publishers | newspaper=The Atlanta Constitution | date=July 18, 1942 | pages=1, 3 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53436701/georgia-press-association-1942-meeting/ | access-date=July 1, 2020 | via=[[newspapers.com]] }}</ref>

==Further reading== {{CongBio|C000597}} *''The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American War: A Political, Social, and Military History, Vol. I.'' By [[Spencer C. Tucker]]. p.&nbsp;127 *{{cite book|editor-last1=Maisel|editor-first1=L. Sandy|editor-link1=L. Sandy Maisel|editor-last2=Forman|editor-first2=Ira N.|editor-link2=Ira Forman|title=Jews in American Politics|year=2001|publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]]|pages=51–52}}

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == *[http://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/broadcast/id/885 Henry Ford and Major John S. Cohen among a group of men at WSB] from the Broadcasting Collections at [[Georgia State University]] *[http://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/cdm/ref/collection/athpc/id/987 Atlanta National Bank Board of Directors, 1911] from the [[Atlanta History Center]]

{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-sen}} {{U.S. Senator box | state=Georgia | class=2 | alongside=[[Walter F. George]] | before=[[William J. Harris]] | after= [[Richard Russell, Jr.]] | years= April 25, 1932 – January 11, 1933 }} {{s-end}}

{{USSenGA}} {{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, John S.}} [[Category:American newspaper editors]] [[Category:19th-century American Episcopalians]] [[Category:20th-century American Episcopalians]] [[Category:Jewish American people in Georgia (U.S. state) politics]] [[Category:American people of the Spanish–American War]] [[Category:1870 births]] [[Category:1935 deaths]] [[Category:Politicians from Augusta, Georgia]] [[Category:Georgia (U.S. state) Democrats]] [[Category:Democratic Party United States senators from Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:20th-century United States senators]]