He attended the public schools, and graduated from the law department of the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1891, earning his LL.B.

He was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Oconto.

In 1916, Classon was elected as a Republican to represent Wisconsin's 9th congressional district in the Sixty-fifth Congress, defeating Democratic incumbent Thomas F. Konop.

He was then re-elected to the Sixty-sixth, and Sixty-seventh Congresses, serving until March 3, 1923.

[2][3] In Congress, he was one of the two Wisconsin congressmen who voted in favor of the declaration of war with Germany during World War I, out of the eleven members of the Wisconsin delegation.