Withycomb also became heavily involved in Oregon's agricultural industry, serving as president of the North Pacific Wool Growers and Northwest Sheep Breeders Associations. His tenureship on the board of the Oregon Academy of Sciences saw the dairy industry's profits rise from $2.5 million to $20 million. Such accomplishments built up respect for Withycombe statewide and gained the state Republican Party's attention.
Withycomb would enter politics in the 1906 primary, losing the Republican gubernatorial nomination. The 1910 election of controversial Democratic Governor Oswald West energized Oregon Republicans, who tapped Withycombe for the 1914 gubernatorial race. He handily defeated challenger Charles Smith; the first Republican Governor to assume office via election since T. T. Geer in 1903.
As Governor, James Withycombe vigourously promoted agricultural development. A notable proposal from his administration was to ask the Legislative Assembly to subsidize flax production as a prison industry.
The Withycombe Administration backed the "Good Roads" movement, creating the Oregon Highway Commission while in office. With the new commission in place, a large road-building program was initiated, establishing many of Oregon's modern state routes and highways.
Upon the U.S. entry into the First World War, Governor Withycomb took a vocal and patriotic postion in support of the war effort. He encouraged volunteer military service, and promoted the state's war industries.
While in office, he took a strong position against labor unions. He spoke out publicly against the Industrial Workers of the World, claiming that it terrorized labor and would cripple industry following several instances of I.W.W. threats to disrput production in 1917. He organized veterans of the Spanish-American War into an Oregon State Defense force, and encouraged citizens in Eastern Oregon to form self-defence committees to defend the state against violent labor agitators. Withycomb used his powers as Governor to shipyard prevent a strike in Astoria, by calling out the National Guard.
His 1918 reelection campaign capitalized on his wartime acts, portraying him as a wartime Governor actively protecting the state and aiding the defense of the United States. These efforts gained him a second term, of which he only served two months. James Withycombe died in office of a heart condition on March 3, 1919, succeeded by President of the Oregon State Senate Ben W. Olcott.
Ben W. Olcott
Ben W. Olcott (October 15, 1872-March 3, 1952) was a Republican Governor of Oregon, USA.
Olcott was born in Keithsburg, Illinois. He was educated at a Keithsburg elementary school and a business school in Dixon, later becoming a clerk in Chicago. In 1891, at age 19, he moved to Salem, Oregon, and became a roommate and good friend of Oswald West. West would become a major influence in the development of Olcott's political career.
For nearly 15 years, Olcott travelled throughout the Pacific Northwest, mostly in order to prospect for gold. Often this interrupted pursuits of other occupations, mostly in the field of banking. His trips would take him to Southern Oregon (1892-93 accompanied by Oswald West), back to Salem to become a bank teller (1893-1895), Northern Washington and British Columbia (1895-1897), and then back to Illinois for a career as a bank cashier.
Olcott's sense of adventure prevailed again in 1904, leading him to Alaska. His journey ended notably when he drove a dog sled team to Nome, a trip of over 1,000 miles up the Yukon and Tanna Rivers in the height of winter. Settling in Fairbanks, Olcott found work as a gold dust teller, and later a bank branch manager. He managed to make a sizeable profit from gold prospecting, allowing him to move back to Oregon.
Olcott's good friend Oswald West had entered politics, heading the State Land Office. West offered Olcott a position in the Land Office, which he accepted in 1909. He became more interested in the political process, and was appointed by Governor Chamberlain to oversee the state's interest in a failed Portland bank, which held a large ammount of state school funds.
Although he was a Republican, and West was a Democrat, the two had a strong friendship which transcended politics. Olcott ran West's victorious 1910 gubernatorial campaign, and contributed $1,500 to his friend's effort. He married Lena Olcott (nee Hutton), Oswald West's sister-in law.
In 1911, during Oswald West's Governorship, Secretary of State and former Governor Frank W. Benson, died of illness. Despite being from an opposing party, West appointed Olcott as Secretary of State to fill out the rest of Benson's term. Olcott would be elected in his own right to the office in 1912, and reelected in 1916.
On March 3, 1919, Governor James Withycombe died after serving only two months of his second term in office due to heart complications. Ben Olcott, as Secretary of State, assumed the Governorship under the state's gubernatorial line of sucession. Withycombe was so widely respected that Olcott refused to be sworn in until after the late Governor's funeral.
Once in office, Governor Olcott continued Withycombe's road-building agenda. Today's policy of leaving a protected buffer of forested land around state highways was instituted under the Olcott Administration.
Olcott Built upon Withycombe's defense and state safety policies. His administration managed to obtain U.S. Army air patrols for spotting forest fires. He proposed legislation banning the Japanese from holding land in Oregon.
The growing power of the Ku Klux Klan in Oregon alarmed Governor Olcott, who did not hesitate to denounce the organization. He refused any Klan support for his 1922 gubernatorial campaign, jepordizing his nomination. Olcott narrowly won the Republican nomination, but lost the general election to the Klan-supported, Democratic Senate President Walter M. Pierce.
After his electoral defeat, Olcott left Oregon to manage the Long Beach, California branch of the Bank of Italy. In 1924 he returned to Oregon to become a director of the Oregon Mutual Savings Bank in Portland. He died in Portland on July 21, 1952, and was buried in Salem.
Walter M. Pierce
Walter Marcus Pierce (May 30, 1861 - March 27, 1954) was an American politician, a Democrat, who served most notably as the 17th Governor of Oregon and a member of the United States House of Representatives from Oregon's 2nd Congressional District.
Pierce was born to Charles M. and Charlotte L. (nee Clapp) Pierce, Jacksonian Democrat farmers in Morris, Illinois on May 30, 1861. At the age of 17, he began teaching school despite only having a secondary education.
The ideas of Manifest Destiny as espoused by Horace Greeley, influenced Pierce to move west in 1883. After arriving in Portland, Oregon in June of that year, he found no available work. After a time working the wheat fields of eastern Washington Territory, he earned enough money to finally settle in Milton, Oregon in Umatilla County. There, he returned to a career in education, and established a sucessful farm.
As an educator, Pierce was drawn into local politics. He became well known for his pro-temperance views, as he regularly spoke out against saloons selling alchohol to his students. In 1887, he married one of his students, Clara R. Rudio, who would die during childbirth only three years later. He would marry Clara's sister, Laura in 1893.
From 1886 until 1890, Pierce served as Superintendent of Umatilla County Public Schools. From 1890 until 1894, he served as Umatilla County Clerk, a prosperous time in which he earned enough money from land transactions to further his education. He then returned to Illinois with his family to attend Northwestern University, earning his Bachelors of Law degree in 1896.