John C. McKenzie (1860-1941) began his career as a lawyer in the small village of Elizabeth in northwestern Illinois. He served in the Illinois House from 1892 to 1896 and in the Illinois Senate from 1900 until 1911.  He used this desk until the State ordered new ones for both chambers. At that time, he purchased the desk and later took it to his Washington, D.C., office upon his election to the United States House of Representatives in 1911.  In 1925, McKenzie left the House and kept the desk until his death in 1941.