Hazen S. Pingree

Infobox Governor
name= Hazen S. Pingree


caption=
order= 24^th
office= Governor of Michigan
term_start= January 1, 1897
term_end= January 1, 1901
lieutenant= 1.Thomas B. Dunstan2.Orrin W. Robinson
predecessor= John T. Rich
successor= Aaron T. Bliss
birth_date= August 30, 1840
birth_place= Denmark, Maine
death_date= June 18, 1901
death_place= London, England
spouse= Frances Gilbert
party=Republican
religion=Baptist

Hazen Stuart Pingree (August 30, 1840–June 18, 1901) was a four-term Republican mayor of Detroit (1889-1897) and Governor of the U.S. state of Michigan (1897-1901).

Early life in Maine and Massachusetts

Pingree was born in Denmark, Maine, to Jasper Pingree and Adeline (Bryant) Pingree and attended the common schools in Maine. At the age of fourteen, he moved to Saco, Maine, where he worked at a cotton factory. Two years later, he moved to Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and worked several years as a cutter in a shoe factory.

Civil War

In 1862, Pingree enlisted in the Union Army to serve in the Civil War with the 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery Regiment (Company F). He fought on the front line during General Pope’s Northern Virginia Campaign and the Second Battle of Bull Run. The regiment he fought with was then ordered to defend Washington, D.C. until May 15, 1864, and then was sent to the front again. He fought with the Second Brigade of Tyler’s Division, Second Corps, which participated in battles at Fredericksburg Road (May 18), Harris Farm (May 19), and Spotsylvania Court House (May 19-21).

His regiment was then assigned to the Second Corps, Third Division, in the Army of the Potomac and fought at North Anna (May 24-25) where he and some other men were captured by a detachment of John S. Mosby’s partisan command. Pingree was confined in Confederate prisons at Gordonsville and Lynchburg, Virginia, and at Salisbury, North Carolina. He was then taken to Andersonville prison and, while General Sherman was on his march to the sea, he was taken to Millen, Georgia, where he later escaped by pretending to be someone else during a roll call for a prisoner exchange in November 1864.

He rejoined his regiment, fought in many more battles and was present at Appomattox Court House when Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865. A few months later, on August 15, his regiment was mustered out.

Life in Michigan

Pingree was a cobbler by trade and, following the war, moved to Detroit and briefly worked for H. P. Baldwin & Company. Then in December 1866, with Charles H. Smith, he established the Pingree and Smith Shoe Co. In 1883, Smith retired from the firm and J. B. Howarth joined the partnership. In March 1887, a fire destroyed the entire plant, yet they were able to recover. By the 1890s, the firm had become the West's largest shoe manufacturer. When Pingree became governor, the company branded one of its styles "Governor." [Willis F. Dunbar and George S. May. "Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State". 3rd Revised Ed., (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1995), 414.]

In 1872, Pingree married Frances A. Gilbert of Mount Clemens, Michigan. They had three children; Joe, Hazel, and another daughter who died young.

Politics

Pingree was elected mayor of Detroit in 1889 on a platform of exposing and ending corruption in city paving contracts, sewer contracts, and the school board. He soon turned to fighting privately owned utility monopolies. He challenged the electric and gas monopolies through municipally-owned competitors. His largest struggle, however, was with Tom L. Johnson, president of the Detroit City Railways, over lowering streetcar fares to three-cents. Pingree again attempted to create a competing municipally-owned company, but was barred from creating a railway by the Michigan Constitution.

During the depression of 1893, Pingree expanded the public welfare programs, initiated public works for the unemployed, built new schools, parks, and public baths. He gained national recognition through his "potato patch plan," a systematic use of vacant city land for gardens which would produce food for the city's poor. He was also an advocate of economist Henry George's single tax.

In 1896, Pingree was elected Governor of Michigan. After taking office on January 1, 1897, he intended to also fill the last year of his term as mayor of Detroit, which would have lasted until elections in November 1897. However, his right to hold the two offices simultaneously was contested, and after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled against him, Pingree resigned as mayor (see Catlin p. 628). During his four years in office, the direct election of U.S. senators was promoted; an eight-hour workday was endorsed; a regulated income tax was supported; and railroad taxation was advocated.

Retirement and death

In 1901, Pingree had arrived in London, England, whilst returning from an African safari with his son and U.S. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. He was stricken with peritonitis and was unable to return to the U.S. King Edward VII, Pingree’s famous look-a-like, even sent his own physicians to London's Grand Hotel to assist in his recovery. Just before his wife and daughter embarked from New York to visit him, they heard the news her husband had passed away.

Pingree died at the age of sixty, just five months after leaving office as governor. He was interred in Detroit and later reinterred at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit. There is a statue of Pingree standing in the Grand Circus Park in Detroit, commemorating him as "The Idol of the People."

ee also

*Grand Circus Park
*William C. Maybury

References

*cite book
first=George B.
last=Catlin
title=The story of Detroit
origyear=1900
url=http://name.umdl.umich.edu/apk1036.0001.001
accessdate=2006-06-15
year=2005
publisher=University of Michigan Library
location=Ann Arbor, Mich.
pages=pp. 585-630
chapter=Chapters CI through CVII
chapterurl = http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=micounty;cc=micounty;q1=Pingree;rgn=full%20text;idno=APK1036.0001.001;didno=APK1036.0001.001;view=image;seq=00000609
*Holli, Melvin G. "Reform in Detroit: Hazen S. Pingree and Urban Politics". New York: Oxford University Press, 1969.
*cite book
title=Cyclopedia of Michigan: historical and biographical, comprising a synopsis of general history of the state, and biographical sketches of men who have, in their various spheres, contributed toward its development
origyear=1900
url=http://name.umdl.umich.edu/apk6141.0001.001
accessdate=2006-06-15
year=2005
publisher=University of Michigan Library
location=Ann Arbor, Mich.
pages=pp. 144-146
chapter=s.v. Hon. Hazen S. Pingree
chapterurl = http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=micounty;cc=micounty;idno=apk6141.0001.001;q1=Pingree;size=l;frm=frameset;seq=218
* [http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=175&category=people Detroit News by Don Lochbiler]
* [http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=165&category=locations Detroit News by Pat Zacharias]
* [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/pindall-pingree.html#RHI18TDFP Political Graveyard]
* [http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=9ca8e8569a313010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD National Governors Association]
*findagrave|6248706 Retrieved on 2008-02-14

Notes