Progressive state senator John E. Cashman was born on November 18, 1865 on the homestead in Franklin township, Kewaunee County, which his parents William and Hannah purchased from the government in 1858. The eighth of nine children, Cashman was educated in the local schools and after additional home study attended Valparaiso University. The dates of this attendance, as well as those of many of the events of his early life, are not known. It is known, however, that he taught in rural schools in Brown and Kewaunee counties before the turn of the century. In 1901 he began work as a federal meat inspector with the United States Bureau of Animal Husbandry. In subsequent years, Cashman advanced to the position of gauger with the Bureau of Internal Revenue and was active in the gaugers' national association. In 1902 Cashman began two years of night classes at Chicago Law School, making his mark as president of his class and winner of the institution's 1904 oratorical prize.
Cashman left the federal civil service in 1919 to return to Wisconsin to operate the family farm. In his first attempt at electoral politics in 1922, he was elected to the state senate representing Door, Kewaunee, and Manitowoc counties. Except for a very brief period, he was to serve in the Senate for the rest of his life.
Cashman was a staunch supporter of the Progressive faction of the Republican Party, and in 1924 he served as a La Follette delegate to the National Convention. His legislative accomplishments included the 1931 highway bill, which funded road construction through gas taxes and license fees; an anti-oleomargarine bill; a bill which exempted farmers' woodlots from taxation; and a bill which provided that all beer sold in Wisconsin be made from barley. Like many of the Wisconsin Progressives, Cashman was an isolationist, and it was in conjunction with this issue that he was perhaps best known. In 1923 he introduced a bill which eliminated pro-British interpretations of the American Revolution from textbooks in Wisconsin schools. This bill passed largely due to Cashman's colorful and persuasive oratory, and it brought him a considerable amount of national publicity. During the 1930's Cashman returned to this theme when he attempted to abolish texts which contained pro-British views of the causes of World War I.
Cashman was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress on the Democratic ticket in 1936 and 1938. In 1938 he gave up his Senate seat in order to make the attempt. He returned to the Senate, however, in 1939 when he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Francis Yindra. Although Cashman planned to run for reelection in 1946, declining health forced him to withdraw. He died before the election on June 5, 1946.
In addition to his legislative work Cashman served a six-year term on the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin. He was also a devout Catholic and was active in St. James Church in Cooperstown and the Knights of Columbus of Algoma.
In 1896 Cashman married Sophie Marie Duaime (b. 1876) of DePere. She died in 1907, leaving an infant son, John R. Cashman was remarried in 1923 to Elizabeth Kelly, but this marriage ended in divorce in 1925.
