Walter R. Stubbs

Walter R. Stubbs
18th Governor of Kansas
In office
January 11, 1909 – January 13, 1913
Lieutenant William J. Fitzgerald
Richard J. Hopkins
Preceded by Edward W. Hoch
Succeeded by George H. Hodges
Member of the Kansas House of Representatives
In office
1903-1907
Personal details
Born November 7, 1858
Wayne County, Indiana
Died March 25, 1929 (aged 70)
Topeka, Kansas
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Stella Hostettler
Profession clerk, farmer, mule driver, banker, politician
Religion Methodist

Walter Roscoe Stubbs (November 7, 1858 - March 25, 1929) was 18th Governor of Kansas.

Biography

Stubbs was born in Wayne County, Indiana. His early education was in the public schools. He attended Kansas University, but did not graduate.[1] He moved to Douglas County, Kansas with his family in 1869. He married Stella Hosteller in 1886 and they had four children.[2]

Career

Stubbs built a very successful railroad construction business and was a millionaire before he became involved in state politics.

Soon after Stubbs entered the Kansas House of Representatives in 1902, he emerged as the dominant leader of the progressive wing of the Republican Party in Kansas from 1904 to 1908. He served from 1903 to 1907. He was Speaker of the House from 1905 to 1906.[3]

Stubbs served as governor from January 11, 1909 to 1913 and worked to crack down on bootlegging in the Crawford County, Kansas area known as the “Little Balkans,” where immigrants who were hired to work in strip mines made whiskey to supplement their incomes. During his administration, in March 1911, Kansas enacted the nation's first state blue sky law, which was promoted by Joseph Norman Dolley, the Kansas state banking commissioner, appointed by Governor Stubbs on March 3, 1909.[4] Stubbs became a staunch opponent of alcohol consumption.

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.[5] During this period, Kansas had always had at least one Republican United States Senator. In 1912, Democrat William H. Thompson, defeated Stubbs in his bid for the office. [6] Stubbs was again a candidate for the Senate in 1918, but was narrowly defeated in the Republican primary by Arthur Capper. [7]

Upon leaving the governor's office, Stubbs returned to his home at Windmill Hill in Lawrence, Kansas. He was in the cattle raising[8] business with large ranches in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.

Death

After suffering with heart trouble for some time, Stubbs died on March 25, 1929 in Topeka, Kansas. He is interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Lawrence.[9] Stubbs' home is now the University of Kansas Sigma Nu fraternity house.

References

  1. ↑ "Walter R. Stubbs". National Governors Association. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  2. ↑ "Walter R. Stubbs". The Political Graveyard. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  3. ↑ "Walter R. Stubbs". The Political Graveyard. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  4. ↑ "Walter R. Stubbs". Blue Skyways. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  5. ↑ Essay on Kansas Governors
  6. ↑ 1912 U.S. Senate Race
  7. ↑ https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=a7hKAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&pg=GBS.PA26
  8. ↑ Western Watersheds Project
  9. ↑ "Walter R. Stubbs". Find A Grave. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
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Political offices
Preceded by
Edward W. Hoch		 Governor of Kansas
1909–1913 		Succeeded by
George H. Hodges
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