Frank Steunenberg (August 8, 1861December 30, 1905) was the
fourth governor of the
State
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
of
Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...
, serving from 1897 until 1901. He was
assassinated in 1905 by onetime
union member
Harry Orchard, who was also a paid informant for the
Cripple Creek Mine Owners' Association. Orchard attempted to implicate leaders of the radical
Western Federation of Miners
The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was a labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into ...
in the assassination. The labor leaders were found not guilty in two trials, but Orchard spent the rest of his life in prison.
Early career
Born in
Keokuk, Iowa
Keokuk is a city in and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States. It is Iowa's southernmost city. The population was 9,900 at the time of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. The city is named after the Sauk people, Sauk chief K ...
, and raised in
Knoxville
Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...
, Steunenberg was the fourth of 10 children of Bernardus and Cornelia (Keppel) Steunenberg, with five brothers and four sisters.
He attended
Iowa State College at
Ames and then went on to become a
printer's apprentice and publisher. In 1881, he was hired by the ''
Des Moines Register'' in
Des Moines
Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...
. Steunenberg later published a newspaper in Knoxville until 1886, when he moved west and settled in
Caldwell,
Idaho Territory, where he joined his younger brother Albert K. Steunenberg (1863–1907) in taking over the ''
Caldwell Tribune'' for six years.
Steunenberg became active in politics as a member of the 1889
Idaho Constitutional Convention which led to Idaho's
admission to the Union in 1890. In 1890, he was elected to the
Idaho House of Representatives
The Idaho House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the Idaho Legislature.
It consists of 70 representatives elected to two-year terms. The state is divided into 35 districts, each of which elects two representatives to separate seats. ...
as a
fusion candidate, endorsed by both the
Democratic and
Populist
Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...
Parties, and he served one term. In addition, he served for several years as chairman of the Caldwell town council.
Governor
With
labor union
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
support, in 1896 Steunenberg was nominated as both the Democratic and Populist candidate for
governor
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
. He won the November election at age 35 (the youngest in the states history) and became the first non-
Republican elected to that office and was re-elected to a second two-year term in 1898. Steunenberg served during a period of considerable
labor unrest, particularly in the
mining industry
Mining is the extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, or feasibly created artificially in a la ...
in
northern Idaho. As a result, many corporations, fearing that Steunenberg's government would not support them if there was a
strike
Strike may refer to:
People
*Strike (surname)
* Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
* Airstrike, ...
, increased their wages for workers.
The
Bunker Hill Mining Company, however, hired only non-union labor and kept wages lower than unionized mines in the area. In April 1899, members of the
Western Federation of Miners
The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was a labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into ...
destroyed the company's mill at
Wardner in the
Silver Valley. In response, Steunenberg declared
martial law
Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...
and because the
national guard
National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards.
...
was deployed to the
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
due to the
Spanish–American War
The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...
of the preceding year, Steunenberg asked
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
William McKinley
William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until Assassination of William McKinley, his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...
to send federal troops to quell
the unrest. This action was seen as a betrayal by Steunenberg's union supporters. Martial law remained in place through the end of his term, and Steunenberg did not seek a third term in 1900.
Assassination
Nearly five years after he left office, Steunenberg was killed outside his house in Caldwell at 1602 Dearborn Street () by a bomb rigged to the side gate on 16th Avenue.
Harry Orchard, a former miner from the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), was arrested in Caldwell shortly after for the assassination,
and the investigation was conducted by
Pinkerton agent
James McParland. Orchard at first claimed innocence, but after
solitary confinement
Solitary confinement (also shortened to solitary) is a form of imprisonment in which an incarcerated person lives in a single Prison cell, cell with little or no contact with other people. It is a punitive tool used within the prison system to ...
and intense interrogation by McParland, Orchard signed a 64-page typewritten
confession
A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of people – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information that ...
detailing years of being a paid
assassin
Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives.
Assassinations are orde ...
and
dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern German ...
r for the WFM.
Orchard claimed he was hired to kill Steunenberg by leadership of the WFM, and he had been in previous jobs that resulted in at least 17 other deaths.
Orchard said his orders for the killing of Steunenberg came from
"Big Bill" Haywood,
general secretary
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...
of the WFM,
Charles Moyer, president of the WFM, and
George Pettibone, a
labor activist who had a prior conviction related to an
1892 labor dispute in
Coeur d'Alene. At McParland's urging, the three were arrested in
Denver
Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
in February 1908, and hurriedly extradited to Idaho for trial.
The nationally publicized trial took place in
Boise
Boise ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, there were 235,685 people residing in the city. Located on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and nor ...
over several months in mid-1907 and included new
U.S. Senator William Borah for the prosecution and
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the 19th century for high-profile representations of trade union causes, and in the 20th century for several criminal matters, including the ...
for the defense. On the witness stand, Orchard repeated his written confession, admitting to years of setting bombs for the WFM. He was then
cross-examined by defense lawyers for 26 hours, spread out over a week's time. In addition to Orchard, the prosecution presented 80 more witnesses to corroborate Orchard's description of numerous attacks. Darrow and the defense team called over 100 witnesses of their own. Closing arguments lasted two weeks, the most talked about of which was by Darrow. Modern commentators have praised Darrow's closing argument, which used powerful emotional rhetoric focused on the moral superiority of the unions' position. However, contemporary reaction was universally negative. The ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'' called it "the most unseemly, abusive, inflammatory speech ever delivered in an American courtroom." Despite most observers' opinions that the verdict would be guilty, the jury returned an acquittal for Haywood in late July.
Pettibone was defended in a separate trial by Judge
Orrin N. Hilton of Denver and was also acquitted, and charges were dropped against Moyer.
Orchard pleaded guilty and received a
death sentence
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...
in a separate trial, but the sentence was commuted to life in prison. In 1952, at 86 years of age and 45 years after the Haywood trial, Orchard wrote in his autobiography that all of his confession and his trial testimony were true. He died in prison in 1954.
[Harry Orchard, ''Harry Orchard, the Man God Remade'' (Nashville, Tenn.: Southern Publishing, 1952) 118.]
Legacy
At the request of the Steunenberg family, attorney Borah gave a brief oration at the funeral in Caldwell on January 2, 1906.
A monument to Steunenberg was dedicated in December 1927 in Boise;
the outdoor bronze statue faces the front steps of the
Idaho State Capitol from across Jefferson Street.
Its inscription is as follows:
Frank Steunenberg
Governor of Idaho
1897 – 1900
When in 1899 organized lawlessness challenged the power of Idaho, he upheld the dignity of the state, enforced its authority and restored LAW AND ORDER within its boundaries, for which he was assassinated in 1905.
"Rugged in body, resolute in mind, massive in the strength of his convictions, he was of the granite hewn." In grateful memory of his courageous devotion to public duty, the people of Idaho have erected this monument.
The quote is from Borah's oration at the funeral in 1906.
[
]
Notes
See also
* Steve Adams, accused accomplice
* Frank R. Gooding, Idaho Governor during assassination and trials
* List of assassinated American politicians
References
Further reading
The Trial of Bill Haywood
- a detailed account of the murder trial
* An extensive discussion of the class warfare occurring at the turn of the 20th century.
External links
Steunenberg descendant's blog
with historical analysis, speculation, and related family information
Smithsonian Institution Art Inventories Catalog
– Frank Steunenberg, Governor of Idaho 1897-1900, (sculpture)
*
Frank Steunenberg
at National Governors Association
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steunenberg, Frank
1861 births
1905 deaths
People murdered in 1905
19th-century American newspaper publishers (people)
19th-century Idaho politicians
20th-century Idaho politicians
Assassinated American politicians
Deaths by improvised explosive device in the United States
Democratic Party governors of Idaho
Idaho Populists
Iowa State University alumni
Democratic Party members of the Idaho House of Representatives
Politicians from Caldwell, Idaho
People from Keokuk, Iowa
People from Knoxville, Iowa
People murdered in Idaho
People's Party state governors of the United States
Assassinated governors and heads of sub-national entities
19th-century governors
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Politicians assassinated in the 1900s
Members of the Idaho Constitutional Convention
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Deaths by explosive device