Carroll Leach Meins was a political figure who served as a member of the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

, Chairman of the

Massachusetts Republican Party The Massachusetts Republican Party (MassGOP) is the Massachusetts branch of the U.S. Republican Party. In accordance with Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 52, the party is governed by a state committee which consists of one man and one woma ...

, and Collector of Customs for the Port of Boston. 1923 Carroll Meins Massachusetts House of Representatives

Early life

Meins was born on October 22, 1892 in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

. He attended Boston Public Schools and graduated from the High School of Commerce in 1911. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Meins enlisted as a First Lieutenant in the

Quartermaster Corps Following is a list of Quartermaster Corps, military units, active and defunct, with logistics duties: * Egyptian Army Quartermaster Corps - see Structure of the Egyptian Army * Hellenic Army Quartermaster Corps (''Σώμα Φροντιστώ� ...

of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. He served eighteen months in the

American Expeditionary Forces The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought alo ...

in France. After the war, Meins served as treasurer of the Sparrow and Meins Chocolate Company.

Political career

State representative

Meins was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1923 to 1929. During his tenure he was chairman of the House Committee on Taxation and was a member of the Committee on Rules.

Party leader

In 1937 he was elected Chairman of the Boston Republican Committee. On May 4, 1938 Meins was elected Chairman of the state Republican Party. During his tenure as Chairman, Republican

Leverett Saltonstall Leverett A. Saltonstall (September 1, 1892June 17, 1979) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts. He served three two-year terms as the List of Governors of Massachusetts, 55th Governor of Massachusetts, and for more than twent ...

was elected

Governor of Massachusetts The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the chief executive officer of the government of Massachusetts. The governor is the head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonwealth's military forces. Massachuse ...

. Saltonstall chose Meins to serve as Secretary to the Governor. He was succeeded as party chairman by George W. Schryver on December 14, 1938.

Saltonstall administration

Meins served as chief secretary to Governor Saltonstall from January 5, 1939 to December 11, 1940 when he accepted an appointment to the State Public Utilities Commission.

Bradford administration

In 1947, Meins was appointed by

Robert F. Bradford Robert Fiske Bradford (December 15, 1902 – March 18, 1983) was an American lawyer and politician who served one term as the List of Governors of Massachusetts, 57th Governor of Massachusetts, from 1947 to 1949. Early years Robert Fiske Bra ...

to head the newly created Metropolitan Transit Authority. Although Meins had a ten-year term, on January 5, 1949, he and the four other members of the Metropolitan Transit Authority Board of Trustees resigned, as they believed incoming Governor

Paul A. Dever Paul Andrew Dever (January 15, 1903April 11, 1958) was an American Democratic politician from Boston, Massachusetts. He served as the 58th Governor of Massachusetts and was its youngest-ever Attorney General. Among his notable accomplishments ...

was entitled to appoint his own board. Dever had been expected to remove the trustees, as the MTA system had run a $9 million deficit under their leadership.

Collector of Customs

In 1953, Meins was appointed by President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

to serve as Collector of Customs for the Port of Boston. He died on September 14, 1953 at

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United State ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meins, Carroll L. 1892 births 1953 deaths Businesspeople in confectionery Massachusetts Republican Party chairs Republican Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Politicians from Boston Collectors of the Port of Boston 20th-century American politicians