Born in Cotuit, Barnstable County, Mass., March 15, 1871; Gifford attended the common schools; taught school in Massachusetts and Connecticut from 1890 to 1900; engaged in the real estate business in 1900 on Cape Cod and later became interested in the propagation of oysters and the raising of cranberries; member of the State house of representatives in 1912 and 1913; served in the State senate 1914-1919; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-seventh Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Joseph Walsh and on the same day was elected to the Sixty-eighth Congress; reelected to the Sixty-ninth and to the eleven succeeding Congresses and served from November 7, 1922, until his death at Cotuit, Mass., August 23, 1947; chairman, Committee on Elections No. 3 (Sixty-ninth and Seventieth Congresses), Committee on Election of President, Vice President, and Representatives (Seventy-first Congress); interment in Mosswood Cemetery.