“He remains
one of Indiana's most controversial governors.” So Wikipedia summarizes the
public service of James Frank Hanly, the 26th Governor of Indiana
from 1905 to 1909. “J. Frank” was from Williamsport, the county seat of Warren
County. I grew up in Pine Village, a town in the same county.
What made
Hanly so controversial? We will soon see.
 |
J.
Frank Hanly
Governor
of Indiana from 1905 to 1909
|
Born in a
log cabin in Champaign County, Illinois, in 1863, Hanly was the youngest of
seven children. He attended a rural school near Homer. Eventually, he enrolled
in Danville’s Eastern Illinois Normal School. He moved to Warren County,
Indiana, and taught public school. Married to Eva A. R. Simmer in 1881, Hanly
studied law and entered Judge Joseph M. Rabb’s law office in Williamsport in
1889. Of the Hanlys’ five children, only one lived beyond childhood.
Hanly
served in the Indiana State Senate. He won election to a term in the U.S. House
of Representatives. In 1899, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. Hanly
delivered fiery, sanctimonious speeches to defeat his Democratic rival and to
become Governor. In Indianapolis, he charted his own course without conforming
to the wishes of the Republican Party that had nominated him. He championed temperance
and prohibition and warred against such corruption as gambling. He worked to
ensure that government offices would perform their functions in a non-partisan
manner. He required the state to begin keeping accurate financial records. It
was during his administration that Indiana mandated sterilization of various
individuals in custody, but the law was overturned two years later. Hanly put
many state officials on trial for embezzlement.
While Hanly
was Governor, public officials were caught paying gambling debts with
government expense accounts at French Lick’s resort hotel, which was owned by
Thomas Taggart, chair of the Democratic National Committee. Hanly authorized
the state police to raid French Lick, where slot machines, roulette wheels, and
other gambling paraphernalia were seized. The suit that Hanly brought against
Taggart became bogged down until it was dropped after a Democratic governor was
elected.
After his
governorship, Hanly lectured on prohibition. He became the Prohibition Party’s
candidate for President of the United States in the 1916 election, receiving
approximately 1.2 percent of the vote; President Woodrow Wilson was elected to
a second term. In 1920, Hanly won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court upholding
the Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages.
Through a public referendum, Ohio had tried to overturn the amendment. On a
speaking tour during the same year, Hanly passed away from injuries received when
a Pennsylvania freight train struck the automobile in which he was a passenger
near Dennison, Ohio. He lies buried at Hillside Cemetery in Williamsport. In
keeping with his morality, his marker is understated.
Hanly’s
public life can be summarized in the noun “crusader”: hence, his status as a
controversial figure!
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