New York Governor, U.S. Congressman. Raised in rural Maine and New Hampshire, he taught school while preparing for college. He worked his way through Dartmouth College and upon graduation became involved with journalsim while reading for the bar examination in New York. Admitted to the New York bar in 1879, he practiced law in Troy, New York. He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1894 and became allied to the Republican bosses, Senator Thomas C. Platt and Lewis F. Payne. With their support, he was nominated for Governor of New York in 1896 and won an overwhelming victory against Democrat, Wilbur F. Porter. His plurality of over half a million votes out of 13.5 milliom votes cast was the largest in New York history to that date. During his term as the 32nd Governor of New York, he supported civil service reform, election reforms, forest preservation, biennial sessions of the state legislature, and completion of the New York state capitol building in Albany. He was an active supporter of the Spanish-American War. His appointment of Lewis F. Payne to the Canal Commission infuriated reformers; and when cost overruns and waste was revealed in the improvements to the Erie Canal, Senator Platt cut Republican losses by supporting Theodore Roosevelt for governor, thus denying Black renomination. When he left office in 1899, he resumed the practice of law in New York City until his death there on March 22, 1913. His body was cremated and his ashes were buried on his farm outside Freedom, New Hampshire.
New York Governor, U.S. Congressman. Raised in rural Maine and New Hampshire, he taught school while preparing for college. He worked his way through Dartmouth College and upon graduation became involved with journalsim while reading for the bar examination in New York. Admitted to the New York bar in 1879, he practiced law in Troy, New York. He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1894 and became allied to the Republican bosses, Senator Thomas C. Platt and Lewis F. Payne. With their support, he was nominated for Governor of New York in 1896 and won an overwhelming victory against Democrat, Wilbur F. Porter. His plurality of over half a million votes out of 13.5 milliom votes cast was the largest in New York history to that date. During his term as the 32nd Governor of New York, he supported civil service reform, election reforms, forest preservation, biennial sessions of the state legislature, and completion of the New York state capitol building in Albany. He was an active supporter of the Spanish-American War. His appointment of Lewis F. Payne to the Canal Commission infuriated reformers; and when cost overruns and waste was revealed in the improvements to the Erie Canal, Senator Platt cut Republican losses by supporting Theodore Roosevelt for governor, thus denying Black renomination. When he left office in 1899, he resumed the practice of law in New York City until his death there on March 22, 1913. His body was cremated and his ashes were buried on his farm outside Freedom, New Hampshire.
Bio by: Thomas Fisher
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