Archibald E. Spriggs
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Archibald Everett Spriggs (December 2, 1866 – July 18, 1921) was an American politician and businessman. Affiliated with the People's Party, he served as the
lieutenant governor of Montana The lieutenant governor of Montana is an elected official in the State of Montana that ranks just below the governor of Montana. List of lieutenant governors ;Parties References {{DEFAULTSORT:Lieutenant governors of Montana * Monta ...
from 1897 to 1901. After his political career, he embarked on a business career, mostly in the mining industry in Montana.


Early life

Spriggs's father, Jabez (1838–1926), came to Wisconsin as a boy from
Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...
in England and became a farmer in
Kansasville Kansasville is an unincorporated community in Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. The area is a part of the Town of Dover. The area has also been referred to as Brighton or Eagle Lake, Wisconsin. History The origin for the name of the are ...
, in the Town of Dover,
Racine County, Wisconsin Racine County ( ) is a County (United States), county in southeastern Wisconsin. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 197,727, making it Wisconsin's fifth-most populous county. Its county seat is Racine, Wisconsi ...
. He and his wife Isabella had two children, Archibald and Harvey (1868–1959), who stayed on the family farm. Archibald Spriggs arrived in Montana in 1888 and taught school in the mining camp of Confederate Gulch for several years. He later became a store clerk in Townsend and then a store manager in nearby Winston.


Political career

He served in the
Montana House of Representatives The Montana House of Representatives is, with the Montana Senate, one of the two houses of the Montana Legislature. Composed of 100 members, the House elects its leadership every two years. Composition of the House In the event that the parti ...
from 1895 to 1896, representing Meagher County. A resident of Townsend, Spriggs lobbied for
Broadwater County Broadwater County is a county in the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,774. Its county seat is Townsend. The county was named for Charles Arthur Broadwater, a noted Montana railroad, real estate, and banking m ...
to be created from parts of Meagher and Jefferson counties, with Townsend as the county seat; this was done during Spriggs's term as lieutenant governor (1897–1901). In May, 1900
William A. Clark William Andrews Clark Sr. (January 8, 1839March 2, 1925) was an American entrepreneur, involved with mining, banking, and railroads, as well as a politician. Biography Clark was born in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. He moved with his family to ...
was on the verge of being expelled from the
U. S. Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
because of evidence that he had bribed the Montana legislature to appoint him. Spriggs, a friend of Clark, participated in an elaborate scheme to return Clark to the Senate. Governor Robert Burns Smith, an opponent of Clark, was lured out of the state to view a mining concession in California, and Spriggs made an unexpected return from a Populist convention, summoned by a telegram reading, "Weather fine, cattle doing well." Clark submitted a letter of resignation, leaving the senate seat empty, and Spriggs promptly reappointed him. However, the governor submitted a competing appointment of
Martin Maginnis Martin Maginnis (October 27, 1841 – March 27, 1919) was a nineteenth-century politician, soldier, publisher, editor and miner from Minnesota and the Montana Territory. Origins and early life Maginnis was born in 1841 on his family's farm ...
on his return, and the Senate refused to seat either man.


Business career

After his term as lieutenant governor, Spriggs became a business manager for Montana businessman
Henry Frank Henry L. Frank (c. 1851–1908) was an American politician and businessman based in Montana. Frank was born in Ohio about 1851, and was of French descent. A self-made entrepreneur who invested in liquor distribution, real estate and mining, he ...
. He made several trips to France to negotiate a sale of some of Frank's mining interests. After Frank's death in 1908, Spriggs worked with New York politician and businessman
William Sulzer William Sulzer (March 18, 1863 – November 6, 1941), nicknamed Plain Bill, was an American lawyer and politician. He was the 39th governor of New York serving for 10 months in 1913, and a long-serving U.S. representative from the same state. Su ...
, serving as president of his Alaska Industrial Company, which operated the "Jumbo" copper mine in Alaska. Spriggs and Sulzer used the connections he had acquired with French capitalists to try to obtain and exploit mining rights in
Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...
. Their Guatemala Mining and Development Company, backed by French capital, obtained broad rights from Guatemalan president
Manuel Estrada Cabrera Manuel José Estrada Cabrera (21 November 1857 – 24 September 1924) was the President of Guatemala from 1898 to 1920. A lawyer with no military background, he modernised the country's industry and transportation infrastructure, via granting c ...
in 1911, but the project was halted by the advent of World War I. Spriggs was also involved in Montana mines. He was a director for many years of the Boston & Alta Copper Company, which operated the Alta copper mine in Corbin. In 1920 he was the president of the Jib Mining Company, which reopened and worked gold mines near Basin, and also of the Montana Radersburg Mining Co., which owned additional claims in Broadwater County. From 1915 until his death Spriggs served as the first chairman of the Industrial Accident Board established by the Montana Workmen's Compensation Act of 1915.


Personal life

Spriggs married Josephine Marie (Leighton) Noble in 1911. She had been acquitted of murder in the death of her previous husband, Payton Noble, in 1905. After Spriggs' death, Josephine Spriggs ran for the Democratic nomination for Montana Secretary of State in 1924, coming in second. Spriggs is buried in Forestvale Cemetery in Helena.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spriggs, Archibald E. 1866 births 1921 deaths People from Dover, Racine County, Wisconsin People from Townsend, Montana Members of the Montana House of Representatives 19th-century American legislators Lieutenant governors of Montana Montana Populists American mining businesspeople Mining in Guatemala 19th-century Montana politicians