Topics in Kansas History: Politics & Government

Essay on Kansas Governors

The governor of the State of Kansas heads the executive branch which includes the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and attorney general. For more than 100 years the electorate filled these offices every two years. Beginning with the 1974 election the term of office became four years.

This essay includes information about the state's forty-four governors and the ten men who were appointed by the president of the United States to serve as governor of the Territory of Kansas. Although most have been white males, they are a diverse group in terms of nativity and background. The office has been filled by farmers, lawyers, businessmen, journalists, one doctor, and a minister. They have come from many different states; only fifteen have been native sons or daughters.

Andrew Reeder served as the first territorial governor of Kansas. During his short tenure, the territory witnessed its first tumultuous elections, and the capital moved from Pawnee and the building now known as the First Territorial Capitol, to the Shawnee Methodist Mission in Johnson County.

Because of the turmoil in Kansas during this period, the ten territorial governors served brief, irregular terms. All were appointed by Presidents Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan.

In 1858, the city of Denver, Colorado, was named after Governor James W. Denver. At this time, Kansas included much of what is now eastern Colorado. The present western boundary was determined by the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention in July 1859. Most importantly, however, the constitution adopted at Wyandotte made Kansas a free state when it entered the Union on January 29, 1861.

The state's first governor, Charles Robinson, was born in Hardwick, Massachusetts, on July 21, 1818. He came to Kansas as a leader of the free-state New England Emigrant Aid Society in 1854, and was elected governor under the extra-legal Topeka Constitution in 1856. Although he had received a medical education, Robinson immediately became embroiled in political activity. He served only a single, stormy term as chief executive but remained active in state politics until his death at his Douglas County home on August 17, 1894.

The state's second governor, Thomas Carney, was the first of six native Ohioans to serve as Kansas' chief executive. Carney was denied a second term in 1864 and returned to Leavenworth to pursue generally successful business enterprises. He died in Leavenworth at age 63 on July 28, 1888.

Born in Lawrence County, Indiana, on April 10, 1835, Samuel Crawford moved to Kansas in 1859. During the Civil War he attained the rank of Brevet Major General and won the gubernatorial election while on active duty. Toward the end of his second term in 1868, Crawford resigned to take command of the 19th Kansas Volunteers. Crawford's regiment was organized to help subdue Plains Indians resisting the expansion settlements on the state's western frontier. Crawford died in Topeka at age 78 on October 21, 1913.

Nehemiah Green, the pastor of Manhattan's First Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Hardin County, Ohio, in 1837. He was elected lieutenant governor in November 1866 and became governor two years later upon the resignation of Samuel Crawford. Green served as governor for only the two months left in Crawford's term and then returned to Manhattan where he died on January 12, 1890.

The state's fifth governor was born on September 21, 1833, in Monroe County, Virginia. James M. Harvey moved to Kansas in 1859 and was a veteran of the Civil War and the state legislature before becoming governor. Harvey served two terms as governor (1869-1873) and was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1874, where he served for three years. On April 15, 1894, Harvey died at his home in Vinton, Riley County.

Born at Meadville, Pennsylvania, on October 26, 1836, Thomas Osborn moved to Kansas during the 1850s. After two terms in the state house (1873-1877), Osborn served as minister to Chile and Brazil under Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield. The former governor died in Pennsylvania on February 4, 1898.

George T. Anthony, a Leavenworth newspaperman, moved to Kansas from New York in November 1865, at age 41. After a single term in the governor's office, he served in the state legislature and on the State Board of Railroad Commissioners. Anthony died in Topeka on August 5, 1896.

John P. St. John was born at Brooksville, Indiana, in 1833. Soon after moving to Kansas in 1869 he became involved in the crusade to rid the state of liquor and was elected governor on a prohibitionist platform in 1878. During his administration, voters approved an amendment making Kansas a "dry" state. St. John transferred his efforts to the national stage in 1884 when he ran for president as the candidate of the national Prohibition Party. The former governor died at his Olathe home on August 31, 1916.

George W. Glick was the first of ten Democrats to win election as governor of Kansas. Born in Greencastle, Ohio, on July 4, 1827, Glick studied law in the office of Rutherford B. Hayes, who later became the nineteenth President of the United States. Glick moved to Kansas in 1858, settling in Atchison. There the state's ninth governor died at age 83 on April 13, 1911.

The state's next governor, John A. Martin, left his native Pennsylvania for Kansas Territory in 1857, when he was barely eighteen years old. He soon became editor and publisher of the Atchison Daily Champion first called Freedom's Champion. The young editor had a distinguished military career during the Civil War, and he was elected governor in 1884. Nine months after finishing his second term, Martin, who was only 50 years old, died at home in Atchison.

Before moving to Kansas in 1871, Lyman Humphrey studied law at the University of Michigan. After finishing his second term as governor in January 1893, Humphrey returned to Independence where he died on September 12, 1915.

The state's first Populist governor (1893-1895), Lorenzo D. Lewelling, was born in Salem, Iowa, on December 21, 1846. He did not move to Kansas until 1887 but quickly became a popular reform speaker. Five years after finishing his single term as governor, Lewelling died in Arkansas City, at age 53.

Edmund N. Morrill, the state's thirteenth governor, was born in Westbrook, Maine, on February 12, 1834. He moved to Kansas in 1857 and served as a member of the Free-State Legislature. A Republican and Hiawatha banker, Morrill served in many elective offices, including the U.S. Congress (1883-1891), before winning the governorship in 1894. Morrill died in Texas on March 14, 1909.

A native of Ohio, John W. Leedy was one of a very few real farmers among the leaders of the People's Party. He served a single term as governor (1897-1899) and then left Kansas and eventually moved to Canada where he died at age 86 in 1935.

William E. Stanley, the first governor to live in the state's executive mansion at Eighth and Buchanan, left his native Ohio and settled in Jefferson County, Kansas, in 1870. After leaving the governor's office in 1903 , he unsuccessfully sought election to the U. S. Senate. He died in Wichita on October 13, 1910.

Willis Bailey was born in Carroll County, Illinois, in 1854. He accompanied his father to Nemaha County in 1877 where they founded the town of Baileyville and became involved in farming and stock raising, as well as politics. A Republican, Bailey served a single term as governor, 1903-1905. He died in Johnson County on May 19, 1932.

Born in Danville, Kentucky, on March 17, 1849, Edward Hoch first moved to Kansas in 1871. Within three years he had settled in Marion where he published the Record and earned a reputation as one of the state's leading journalists. Although a loyal Republican, Hoch split with some of the old party leaders and advocated a number of progressive reforms during the early 1900s. Hoch, a former state legislator, served two eventful terms in the statehouse (1905-1909). He died in Marion on June 1, 1925.

Walter R. Stubbs was born in Wayne County, Indiana, on November 7, 1858. At the age of eleven, he moved to Douglas County with his family. Stubbs built a very successful railroad construction business and was a millionaire before he became involved in state politics. Soon after he entered the state legislature in 1902, Stubbs emerged as the dominant leader of the progressive wing of the Republican Party. Near the end of his second term as governor, Stubbs won his party's nomination for the U. S. Senate but lost the general election in November 1912. The former governor died in Topeka on March 25, 1929.

George H. Hodges was born in Richland County, Wisconsin, on February 6, 1866, and moved to Johnson County when he was just three years old. He operated a lumber business in Olathe before and after becoming Kansas' second Democratic governor. During the 1912 election that saw Hodges defeat Republican Arthur Capper in the gubernatorial contest, Kansas women were granted equal suffrage under the state's constitution. Hodges died in Kansas City, Missouri, on October 7, 1947.

The gubernatorial election of 1914 was a rematch--Hodges v. Capper--and this time the Republican, Arthur Capper, won. The state's first native-born governor (Garnett, 1865) and prominent publisher, Capper mobilized Kansas for war in 1917 and signed the "Bone Dry" bill, designed to close the loopholes in the state's prohibition law. After serving two terms as the state's chief executive, Capper was elected to the U. S. Senate where he served for thirty years. He died in Topeka on December 19, 1951.

Henry J. Allen was born in Warren County, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 1868, and moved to Kansas with his family during the 1870s. He worked as a journalist in several Kansas towns before settling in Wichita, where he died in January of 1950. Allen was a Republican politico for many years, an ardent supporter of Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party movement, and a very active two-term governor, 1919-1923.

Allen's Democratic successor, Jonathan M. Davis, signed the eight month minimum school term bill. The state's twenty-second governor was born in Bourbon County on April 27, 1871. Davis served in the state legislature prior to his election as governor in 1922 and remained active in politics after his defeat in 1924. He died in Fort Scott on June 27, 1943.

Governor Benjamin S. Paulen was born in Illinois but moved with his family to Wilson County, Kansas, in 1867 when he was just a year old. He was defeated in his first bid for the governor's office in 1922 but won his second race--a contest that featured the independent candidacy of William Allen White--two years later. Governor Ben Paulen signed the 1927 Kindergarten bill into law. He died in his hometown of Fredonia on July 11, 1961.

Clyde M. Reed was born in Champaign County, Illinois. A journalist and a Republican, Reed served ten years in the U. S. Senate (1939-1949) after a single term as governor (1929-1931). The 78-year-old senator died in Parsons on November 8,1949 before the end of his second term.

Harry Woodring was born in Elk City on May 31, 1887. The state's twenty-fifth governor was a Democrat and Neodesha banker when elected to office. The governor lost his bid for reelection in 1932 but joined the Roosevelt administration where he served as assistant secretary of war and then secretary of war from 1933 to 1940. Woodring died on September 9, 1967.

Alfred M. Landon was born in Pennsylvania in 1887 and moved to Kansas with his family during the early 1900s. Soon he became active in the progressive wing of the Republican Party and remained a party activist the rest of his life. Near the end of his second term on June 11, 1936, Governor Landon won the Republican presidential nomination. (Read Governor Landon's acceptance speech.) Landon ran a serious campaign but was soundly defeated in the November election by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the popular incumbent president. Although he never sought another elective office, Alf Landon remained a respected state and national figure, a true elder statesman. The former governor died on October 12, 1987, just over a month after celebrating his 100th birthday at his Topeka home.

The state's 27th governor, Walter A. Huxman, was born on February 16, 1887, in Reno County, Kansas. He taught school, received a legal education at the University of Kansas law school, and won election as a Democrat in 1936. After one term as Kansas' chief executive, Huxman was appointed judge of the Tenth U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a position he held until 1962. Judge Huxman died in Topeka on June 26, 1972.

Born in Casey, Illinois, on October 13, 1896, Payne Ratner moved to Parsons in 1920. A Republican lawyer who held several elective offices prior to his elevation to the state's highest in 1939, Governor Ratner oversaw the state's transition to a wartime economy. On December 27, 1974, soon after his 78th birthday, the two-term Kansas governor died in Wichita.

Andrew Schoeppel was born in Barton County in 1894 and graduated from the University of Nebraska law school in 1923. He practiced law in Ness City until his election as governor in 1942. At the end of his second term January 1947, Schoeppel moved to Wichita and two years later was elected to the U. S. Senate. He was twice reelected but died January 21, 1962, in Bethesda, Maryland, only one year into his third term.

Born at Concordia, Kansas, in 1893, Frank Carlson was the son of Swedish immigrants. Carlson left the family farm to serve as an army private during World War I and entered politics during the 1920s. He served sixteen years in the state legislature and the U. S. Congress before being elected the state's thirtieth governor in 1946. Carlson resigned the governorship before the end of his second term in order to assume the office of U. S. senator from Kansas, a position he won in the 1950 election. After eighteen years in the Senate, Carlson retired to his Cloud County farm where he died May 30, 1987.

Born in Bushnell, Illinois, Frank Hagaman was seriously wounded while serving in the 117th Ammunition Train during World War I. On November 28, 1950, he became only the second Kansas lieutenant governor to take over the state's highest office upon the resignation of a governor. Having failed to win the gubernatorial nomination for himself in 1950, Hagaman, a lawyer and former Republican legislator, served as Kansas' chief executive for only 41 days. He died in Kansas City at age 72 on June 23, 1966.

Born in Kansas City on May 19, 1907, Edward F. Arn was the first Kansas governor born in the 20th century. A World War II veteran and Republican activist, Arn served as state attorney general and as a state supreme court justice before his election as governor in 1950. Arn returned to Wichita to practice law after completing his second term in January 1955. He died there on January 22, 1998.

Fred Hall was born in Dodge City on July 24, 1916. He received a law degree from the University of Southern California and eventually returned to Dodge City to establish his own firm. He was elected lieutenant governor in 1950 and defeated Democratic candidate George Docking in the 1954 gubernatorial election. Unsuccessful in the 1956 GOP primary, Governor Hall resigned less than two weeks before the end of his first term to accept appointment as chief justice of the state supreme court. He died at Shawnee on March 18, 1970.

A journalist and World War II veteran from Leadville, Colorado, Lieutenant Governor John McCuish succeeded Governor Hall on January 3, 1957, a beneficiary of the so-called "triple-play." The 34th governor served only 11 days, a record for the shortest term in Kansas gubernatorial history. McCuish returned to his Newton newspaper, later entered the oil business, and died at age 55 at his Newton home on March 12, 1962.

Born in Clay Center and raised in Lawrence, George Docking was only the sixth Democrat elected to the state's highest office. When he was reelected in 1958, he became the first Democrat ever elected to a second term. Two years later he failed in an effort to win an unprecedented third term, a feat accomplished by his son ten years later. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Docking director of the Export-Import Bank in Washington, D. C. The 59-year-old former Kansas governor died at home in Kansas City, Kansas, while holding that position on January 20, 1964.

Born in Johnson County on May 8, 1917, John Anderson, Jr., was a 1944 graduate of the University of Kansas law school. He practiced law in Olathe and served as county attorney, state legislator, and attorney general before winning the gubernatorial election in 1960. After finishing his second term, Anderson returned to the practice of law. In 1972, he unsuccessfully sought his party's nomination for governor a third time. That year, Republicans chose Morris Kay who lost in the general election to Robert Docking.

The son of a Clay County farmer and rancher, William H. Avery was born on August 11, 1911. He graduated from the Kansas University law school in 1934 but returned to the family farm near Wakefield. Avery was elected to the state legislature in 1950 and four years later won a seat in the U. S. Congress, a position he held until entering the governor's office in 1965. He was renominated in 1966 but denied a second term when he lost the general election contest. The former governor pursued business opportunities in Wichita for a number of years, but in 1977 he returned to Wakefield where he still resides.

The son of the state's 35th governor, Robert Docking was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on October 9, 1925. Like his father, he entered banking and in 1956 moved to Arkansas City. At the age of 41, just a decade after George Docking won his first gubernatorial election, Robert Docking won the first of four two-year terms as Kansas' chief executive. In 1970, he won an unprecedented third term and two years later set a new record by winning yet another. After eight years in Topeka, Docking returned to Arkansas City where he died on October 8, 1983.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, on May 23, 1927, Robert F. Bennett practiced law in Johnson County and held several local offices before winning election to the state senate in 1964. He was president of the senate when he won the Republican Party's 1974 gubernatorial nomination and the subsequent general election contest. This was the first election in which candidates for Kansas governor and lieutenant governor ran as a team and were elected to four-year, instead of two-year, terms. Bennett was an unsuccessful candidate for a second term in 1978. He returned to his Johnson County law firm and home, where he died on October 9, 2000.

John Carlin, a Democrat and the state's youngest 20th-century governor, was born in Salina on August 3, 1940. Carlin ran a dairy farm near Smolan when he was elected to the state legislature. In 1979, he moved to the governor's office after defeating the incumbent, and four years later, Governor Carlin became the first person to win a second four-year term. A constitutional provision, which prohibits three consecutive terms, ruled out the possibility of a third Carlin candidacy in 1986. After nearly a decade in Washington, D.C., where he served as Archivist of the United States, Governor Carlin once again resides in the state of his birth.

The state's 41st governor was born in Atwood on March 15, 1944. John Michael Hayden, a veteran of the Vietnam War, was a state legislator when he won the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 1986. In the subsequent general election, Mike Hayden defeated Lieutenant Governor Tom Docking, the son and grandson of former Kansas governors. Denied a second term in 1990, Hayden accepted a position in the U.S. Department of the Interior and then returned to Kansas where he heads up the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.

Born February 25, 1925 in Topeka, Joan Finney was Kansas' 42nd governor. From 1953 to 1969 she served on the staff of U. S. Senator Frank Carlson. She ran an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Congress as a Republican in 1972. She switched parties to become a Democrat and was elected to serve as state treasurer, a position she held from 1975 - 1991. Finney defeated former Governor John Carlin in the Democratic primary election and the incumbent governor, Mike Hayden, in the 1990 general election to become the first female to occupy the state's top office. Mrs. Finney also was the state's oldest governor, at age 65 in January 1991, and chose not to seek a second term. Former Governor Finney died on July 28, 2001, in Topeka.

Bill Graves was the state's 43rd governor. Born in January 9, 1953, in Salina, Graves was elected Kansas Secretary of State in 1990. He defeated Jim Slattery, a Democratic Congressman, in his race for governor in 1994. Graves was re-elected four years later with one of the largest margins in Kansas history.

Kathleen Sebelius, an Ohio native, was elected the 44th governor in November 2002. The daughter of a former Ohio governor and a Democrat, Sebelius served eight years as a state representative in Kansas and eight years as state insurance commissioner before successfully seeking the state's highest office. Sebelius is the second woman to hold that office and the first to win a second four-year term--the governor soundly defeated her conservative Republican challenger in the November 2006 general election.

February 2, 2007

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