1909

Events from the year **1909 in the United States**.

## Incumbents

### Federal Government

* President: Theodore Roosevelt (R-NY) (until March 4), William Howard Taft (R-OH) (starting March 4)
* Vice President: Charles W. Fairbanks (R-IN) (until March 4), James S. Sherman (R-NY) (starting March 4)
* Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (IL)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph Gurney Cannon (R-IL)
* Congress: 60th (until March 4), 61st (starting March 4)

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: B. B. Comer (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas:
	+ until January 11: Xenophon Overton Pindall (Democratic)
	+ January 11-January 14: Jesse M. Martin (Democratic)
	+ starting January 14: George Washington Donaghey (Democratic)
* Governor of California: James Gillett (Republican)
* Governor of Colorado: Henry Augustus Buchtel (Republican) (until January 12), John F. Shafroth (Democratic) (starting January 12)
* Governor of Connecticut:
	+ until January 6: Rollin S. Woodruff (Republican)
	+ January 6-April 21: George L. Lilley (Republican)
	+ starting April 21: Frank B. Weeks (Republican)
* Governor of Delaware: Preston Lea (Republican) (until January 19), Simeon S. Pennewill (Republican) (starting January 19)
* Governor of Florida: Napoleon B. Broward (Democratic) (until January 5), Albert W. Gilchrist (Democratic) (starting January 5)
* Governor of Georgia: Hoke Smith (Democratic) (until June 26), Joseph M. Brown (Democratic) (starting June 26)
* Governor of Idaho: Frank R. Gooding (Republican) (until January 4), James H. Brady (Republican) (starting January 4)
* Governor of Illinois: Charles S. Deneen (Republican)
* Governor of Indiana: J. Frank Hanly (Republican) (until January 11), Thomas R. Marshall (Democratic) (starting January 11)
* Governor of Iowa: Warren Garst (Republican) (until January 14), Beryl F. Carroll (Republican) (starting January 14)
* Governor of Kansas: Edward W. Hoch (Republican) (until January 11), Walter R. Stubbs (Republican) (starting January 11)
* Governor of Kentucky: Augustus E. Willson (Republican)
* Governor of Louisiana: Jared Young Sanders Sr. (Democratic)
* Governor of Maine: William T. Cobb (Republican) (until January 6), Bert M. Fernald (Republican) (starting January 6)
* Governor of Maryland: Austin Lane Crothers (Democratic)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Curtis Guild Jr. (Republican) (until January 7), Eben Sumner Draper (Republican) (starting January 7)
* Governor of Michigan: Fred M. Warner (Republican)
* Governor of Minnesota: John Albert Johnson (Democratic) (until September 21), Adolph O. Eberhart (Republican) (starting September 21)
* Governor of Mississippi: Edmond Noel (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: Joseph W. Folk (Democratic) (until January 11), Herbert S. Hadley (Republican) (starting January 11)
* Governor of Montana: Edwin L. Norris (Democratic)
* Governor of Nebraska: George L. Sheldon (Republican) (until January 7), Ashton C. Shallenberger (Democratic) (starting January 7)
* Governor of Nevada: Denver S. Dickerson (Silver)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Charles M. Floyd (Republican) (until January 7), Henry B. Quinby (Republican) (starting January 7)
* Governor of New Jersey: John Franklin Fort (Republican)
* Governor of New York: Charles Evans Hughes (Republican)
* Governor of North Carolina: Robert Broadnax Glenn (Democratic) (until January 12), William Walton Kitchin (Democratic) (starting January 12)
* Governor of North Dakota: John Burke (Democratic)
* Governor of Ohio: Andrew L. Harris (Republican) (until January 11), Judson Harmon (Democratic) (starting January 11)
* Governor of Oklahoma: Charles N. Haskell (Democratic)
* Governor of Oregon: George Earle Chamberlain (Democratic) (until March 1), Frank W. Benson (Republican) (starting March 1)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: Edwin Sydney Stuart (Republican)
* Governor of Rhode Island: James H. Higgins (Democratic) (until January 5), Aram J. Pothier (Republican) (starting January 5)
* Governor of South Carolina: Martin Frederick Ansel (Democratic)
* Governor of South Dakota: Coe I. Crawford (Republican) (until January 5), Robert S. Vessey (Republican) (starting January 5)
* Governor of Tennessee: Malcolm R. Patterson (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: Thomas Mitchell Campbell (Democratic)
* Governor of Utah: John Christopher Cutler (Republican) (until January 4), William Spry (Republican) (starting January 4)
* Governor of Vermont: George H. Prouty (Republican)
* Governor of Virginia: Claude A. Swanson (Democratic)
* Governor of Washington:
	+ until January 27: Albert E. Mead (Republican)
	+ January 27-March 28: Samuel G. Cosgrove (Republican)
	+ starting March 28: Marion E. Hay (Republican)
* Governor of West Virginia: William M. O. Dawson (Republican) (until March 4), William E. Glasscock (Republican) (starting March 4)
* Governor of Wisconsin: James O. Davidson (Republican)
* Governor of Wyoming: Bryant B. Brooks (Republican)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Henry B. Gray (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of California: Warren R. Porter (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Erastus Harper (Republican) (until January 12), Stephen R. Fitzgarrald (Democratic) (starting January 12)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut:
	+ until January 6: Everett J. Lake (Republican)
	+ January 6-April 21: Frank B. Weeks (Republican)
	+ starting April 21: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: Isaac T. Parker (Republican) (until January 19), John M. Mendinhall (Republican) (starting January 19)
* Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: Ezra A. Burrell (Republican) (until January 4), Lewis H. Sweetser (Republican) (starting January 4)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Lawrence Yates Sherman (Republican) (until January 18), John G. Oglesby (Republican) (starting January 18)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Hugh Thomas Miller (Republican) (until January 11), Frank J. Hall (Democratic) (starting January 11)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: vacant (until month and day unknown), George W. Clarke (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: William James Fitzgerald (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: William Hopkinson Cox (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Paul M. Lambremont (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Eben Sumner Draper (Republican) (until January 7), Louis A. Frothingham (Republican) (starting January 7)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Patrick H. Kelley (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota:
	+ until September 21: Adolph Olson Eberhart (Republican)
	+ September 21-September 25: vacant
	+ starting September 25: Edward Everett Smith (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Luther Manship (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: John C. McKinley (Republican) (until January 11), Jacob Friedrich Gmelich (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Montana:
	+ until month and day unknown: Edwin L. Norris (Democratic)
	+ month and day unknown: Benjamin F. White (Republican)
	+ starting month and day unknown: William R. Allen (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Melville R. Hopewell (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Horace White (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Francis D. Winston (Democratic) (until January 12), William C. Newland (Democratic) (starting January 12)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Robert S. Lewis (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: vacant (until January 11), Francis W. Treadway (Republican) (starting January 11)
* Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: George W. Bellamy (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Robert S. Murphy (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Ralph Watrous (Republican) (until January 5), Arthur W. Dennis (Republican) (starting January 5)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Thomas Gordon McLeod (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Howard C. Shober (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: E. G. Tollett (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), William Kinney (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Asbury Bascom Davidson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: John A. Mead (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: James Taylor Ellyson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Washington:
	+ until January 7: Charles E. Coon (Republican)
	+ January 7-January 27: vacant
	+ January 27-March 28: Marion E. Hay (Republican)
	+ starting March 28: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: William D. Connor (Republican) (until January 4), John Strange (Republican) (starting January 4)

## Events

### January - March

* January 1 – Drilling begins on the Lakeview Gusher.
* January 28 – U.S. troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish–American War.
* January 31 – Torrential rain in California sees Helena Mine record 71.54 inches (1,817.1 mm) of precipitation for the month, the highest official monthly total in the contiguous United States.
* February 2 – Centennial anniversary of the foundation of Miami University (Ohio), which is celebrated.
* February 12 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded, commemorating the hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth.
* February 13 – Superior National Forest is established
* February 22 – The Great White Fleet returns to Hampton Roads, Virginia having circumnavigated the globe.
* February 24 – The Hudson Motor Car Company is founded.
* March 4 – William Howard Taft is sworn in as the 27th President of the United States, and James S. Sherman is sworn in as Vice President of the United States.
* March 23 – Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for the Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.

### April - June

* April 30 – Palm Beach County was founded, separating from Dade County.
* June 1 – The Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition opens in Seattle.
* June 9 – Alice Huyler Ramsey, a 22-year-old housewife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey, becomes the first woman to drive across the United States. In 59 days, she drives a Maxwell automobile 3,800 miles from Manhattan, New York to San Francisco, California with three non-driving female companions.
* June 18 – The strangled body of missionary Elsie Sigel is discovered in a trunk in New York City's Chinatown.
* June 22 – Construction begins on the Cape Cod Canal, which will separate Cape Cod from mainland Massachusetts.

### July - September

* August 2
	+ The United States Army Signal Corp Division purchases the world's first military airplane. They buy the Wright Military Flyer from the Wright Brothers.
	+ The U.S. Mint releases the 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent, discontinuing it on August 5 because it shows the initials of engraver Victor David Brenner.
* August 8 – The Rosicrucian Fellowship is launched at Seattle, Washington.
* August 12 – The first event is held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
* September 1 – Sigmund Freud, having arrived on August 29 in New York, delivers his only lectures in the United States, on psychoanalysis, at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, giving public recognition to the subject in the anglophone world.
* September 27 – The 5.1 Mfa Wabash River earthquake shook western Indiana with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (*Very strong*), causing light damage.

### October - December

* October 11 – The 1909 Florida Keys hurricane makes landfall in the U.S.
* November 1 – New York shirtwaist strike of 1909 begins.
* November 2 – The Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity is founded at Boston University.
* November 6 – The Union Soldiers and Sailors Monument is dedicated in Baltimore.
* November 8 – Fire at Robert Morrison fibroid comb factory in New York City kills 9.
* November 11 – The U.S. Navy founds a navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
* November 13 – Ballinger–Pinchot scandal begins: *Collier's Magazine* accuses U.S. Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger of questionable dealings in Alaskan coal fields.
* November 18 – Two United States Navy ships are sent to Nicaragua after 500 revolutionaries (including 2 Americans) are executed by order of dictator José Santos Zelaya.
* December 31 – The Manhattan Bridge opens.

## Memoriam

* January 10
	+ John Conness, Ireland-born U.S. Senator from California from 1863 to 1869 (aged 87; Boston, MA, USA)
	+ Charles Vernon Culver, politician (aged 78; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* February 17 – Geronimo, Apache Leader (aged 79; Fort Sill, OK, USA)
* April 9 – Francis Marion Crawford, novelist (aged 54; Sant'Agnello, Italy)
* April 21 – David Turpie, U.S. Senator from Indiana in 1863 and from 1887 to 1899 (aged 80; Indianapolis, IN, USA)
* April 23 – Franklin Bartlett, Representative from New York (aged 61; Manhattan, NY, USA)
* April 28 – Frederick Holbrook, 27th Governor of Vermont from 1861 to 1863 (aged 96; Brattleboro, VT, USA)
* May 17 – Helge Alexander Haugan, Norwegian-born banking executive (aged 61; Chicago, IL, USA)
* June 10 – Gideon T. Stewart, educator and politician (aged 84; Pasadena, CA, USA)
* June 24 – Sarah Orne Jewett, writer (aged 59; South Berwick, ME, USA)
* June 29 – George B. Cosby, Confederate general in the American Civil War (aged 79; Oakland, CA, USA)
* August 21 – George Cabot Lodge, poet (aged 35; Tuckernuck Island, MA, USA)
* September 4 – Clyde Fitch, dramatist (aged 44; Paris, France)
* September 21 – John Albert Johnson, 16th Governor of Minnesota (aged 48; Rochester, MN, USA)
* September 29 – William Ralls Morrison, U.S. Representative (aged 85; Waterloo, IL, USA)
* October 15 – William Lindsay, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1893 to 1901 (aged 74; Frankfort, KY, USA)
* November 23 – Solon Chase, farmer, orchardist, politician and newspaper publisher (aged 86; Turner, ME, USA)
* December 10 – Red Cloud, Oglala Lakota Chief (aged 87; Pine Ridge, SD, USA)
* December 20 – William Alexander Harris, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1897 to 1903 (aged 68; Chicago, IL, USA)
* December 24 – Jean Clemens, youngest child of Mark Twain (aged 29; Redding, CT, USA)
* December 26
	+ Frederic Remington, cowboy artist and sculptor (aged 48; Ridgefield, CT, USA)
	+ Mary Jane Richardson Jones, abolitionist (aged 90; Chicago, IL, USA)