The 1954 election brought an easy victory for Republican Perkins Bass of Peterborough, as he won a seat in Congress by a 50,721-33,406 margin over George Brown of Winchester.

Bass served in Congress until 1963, after losing to Thomas J. McIntyre for the U.S. Senate in 1962. He was the middle member of a local political dynasty that spanned the beginning, middle and end of the 20th century.

His father, Robert Perkins Bass, was in the Legislature from 1905 to 1910 before serving as governor from 1911 to 1913. Perkins’ son, Charles Bass, served 10 years in the state Legislature and in Congress on two separate occasions – from 1995 to 2007 and again from 2011 to 2013.