Edward H. Gillette

Edward H. Gillette
From Volume II (1909) ofHerringshaw's National Library of American Biography
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives from Iowa's 7th district
In office March 4, 1879 – March 3, 1881
Preceded by	Henry J. B. Cummings
Succeeded by	John A. Kasson
Personal details
Born	(1840-10-01)October 1, 1840 Bloomfield,Connecticut
Died	August 14, 1918(1918-08-14)(aged 77)
Political party	Greenback Party
Alma mater	New York State College of Agriculture

Edward Hooker Gillette(October 1, 1840 – August 14, 1918) was a nineteenth-centurypopulistpolitician and editor fromIowa.He was elected on theGreenback Partyticket to representIowa's 7th congressional districtfor only one term in Congress, but remained active in populist political movements. Gillette was the son ofSenatorFrancis Gilletteand Elisabeth Daggett Hooker, a descendant of Rev.Thomas Hooker,and the brother ofactor/playwrightWilliam Gillette.

Born inBloomfield, Connecticut,he attended public schools inHartford, Connecticutas a child and went on to attend theNew York State College of AgricultureinOvid, New York.

Early adult life

Foreseeing westward expansion after the war,Francis Gilletteand brother-in-law John Hooker had purchased shares in a concern which owned thousands of acres of sprawling Iowa landscape. Edward left college in 1863 to oversee their investment. He settled on a large farm outside ofDes Moines,the new capital of the nation's newly added twenty-ninth state. He raised high-bred livestock and later purchased another farm inWalnut Township,four miles west ofDes Moines.There he engaged in several business enterprises, including building and manufacturing, while developing his farm.

On June 26, 1866, Edward married Sophia Theresa Stoddard, who had formerly been betrothed to his fallen brother, Robert, who had been killed atFort Fisher,near Wilmington, North Carolina, the morning after the surrender of the fort.

Edward served as editor of theIowa Tribune,the central organ of the Populist party of Iowa.He also served as chairman of the Greenback Party's National Committee, and was a delegate to its National Convention in 1876. In 1878, Gillette was elected as a Greenback Party member to theUnited States House of Representatives,serving in the46th Congresswith fellow Iowa Greenback Party memberJames B. Weaverfrom 1879 to 1881.

Political career

The May 1876 convention inIndianapolisresulted in the formation of theGreenback Party,which cooperated with theDemocratic Partyto elect a joint ticket two years later. Edward, representing the 7th Congressional District, ran for a seat in the 46th Congress with the directness and forthright style of his father. TheGreenback-Labor Party,supporting issues important in the rural west at the time, pulled in more than a million votes and sent fifteen congressmen, including Edward, to Washington in 1878.

On October 10 theHartford Timesreported,

This is certainly a great triumph for this Hartford young man... nominated for Congress by the Greenbackers, then by the Democrats, in a district that at the last election gave a Republican majority of 6,000, and went into the canvass without a dollar to aid him. Against the money and the organization of the Republicans he brought nothing but a personally spirited contest, and depended wholly for what money he obtained upon the sales of newspapers and documents which he carried with him, and sold at 10 cents each from the platform, and by going personally about among the crowd. That he should, under such circumstances, annihilate a Republican majority of 6,000, and change it into a majority of about 1,000 the other way, is a testimony to the popularity, and doubtless also to the favor with which his political ideas are rewarded in Iowa.

During his congressional term, Edward also served as chairman of the State Central Committee of the Union Labor Party.

Edward served from March 4, 1879, to March 3, 1881. The Democrats put up their own candidate in the next election, dividing the votes and giving an easy victory to his Republican opponent, former diplomatJohn A. Kasson,who was returning to Congress for the third time.

After term in congress

Following his return from Washington, Edward remained active in local and party politics in the populist cause. In 1893 he was thePeople's Partycandidate forIowa Secretary of State,but lost.

He and Sophia had three children, a son and two daughters. After divorcing Sophia, Edward married Mrs. Jennie Isabel Apple on February 28, 1907.

Edward served for ten years as editor of theIowa Tribune,was chairman of theNational Committee Union Labor/Populist Party,and served for years as one of the directors of theIowa Humane Society.

Congressman Gillette lived out his life on his farm, Clover Hills Place, nearValley Junction, Iowa,close to Des Moines, and died there on August 14, 1918, at the age of seventy-eight. He was interred in the nearbyGlendale Cemeteryin Des Moines, the only family member not buried in the Hooker or Gillette family plots inFarmington,Connecticut.

External links

• Edward H. GilletteatFind a Grave

• United States Congress."Edward H. Gillette (id: G000203)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.