As an evangelist, Thorpe was known as "the boy tramp orator of 1896". He worked as a salesman in
Du Quoin, Illinois, from 1897 to 1904 and in
Shenandoah, Iowa, from 1905 to 1919. In 1919, Thorpe moved to
Lincoln, Nebraska, still working as a salesman. On November 7, 1922, he was elected to the
Sixty-seventh United States Congress to fill the seat left open by
C. Frank Reavis who resigned to become a special war fraud prosecutor. He did not seek reelection in 1922, but attempted a comeback in 1924 but was defeated by
John H. Morehead. He traveled as a sales organizer and later engaged in the insurance business. ==Death==