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Eugene Foss

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Eugene Foss
Foss in 1910
45thGovernor of Massachusetts
In office
January 5, 1911 – January 8, 1914
LieutenantLouis A. Frothingham
Robert Luce
David I. Walsh
Preceded byEben Sumner Draper
Succeeded byDavid I. Walsh
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives
fromMassachusetts's14thdistrict
In office
March 22, 1910 – January 4, 1911
Preceded byWilliam C. Lovering
Succeeded byRobert O. Harris
Personal details
Born
Eugene Noble Foss

(1858-09-24)September 24, 1858
West Berkshire,Vermont
DiedSeptember 13, 1939(1939-09-13)(aged 80)
Jamaica Plain,Boston,Massachusetts
Political partyRepublican(1902–1909)
Democratic(1909–1913)
Independent (1913–1914)
Democratic(1925)
Alma materUniversity of Vermont
Occupationmanufacturer
industrialist
president, B. F. Sturtevant Company
Signature

Eugene Noble Foss(September 24, 1858 – September 13, 1939) was an American politician and manufacturer fromMassachusetts.[1]He was a member of theUnited States House of Representativesand served as a three-termgovernor of Massachusetts.[1]

Early years and business[edit]

Foss was born in WestBerkshire, Vermont,a small town near theCanada–US border.[1]His parents were George Edmund and Marcia (née Noble) Foss.[2]Foss's father was a politically active manager at theSt. Albans Manufacturing Company.The family moved toSt. Albans, Vermont,when he was ten.[2]

Foss was educated in public schools, and then attendedFranklin County Academyin St. Albans, Vermont.[1][2]He enrolled in theUniversity of Vermont.[1]He left the university after two years.[2]Next, he studied law but dropped out to pursue business interests.[3]

Career[edit]

Foss first worked as a traveling salesman, selling a lumber-drying device for the company his father managed.[2]He also was the sales agent forB. F. Sturtevant CompanyofBoston,selling its mill-related equipment.[2]His success in this role promptedBenjamin Franklin Sturtevantto offer Foss a management job in Boston in 1882.[2]The Sturtevant began producing industrial ventilation equipment and diversified into extensive ironworks.[2]

Foss became the company president after Sturtevant died in April 1890.[2]Under Foss's stewardship the company grew, opening branchesBerlin,Johannesburg,Paris,andSt. Petersburgas the Sturtevant Engineering Company.[2]In 1901, he moved the primary manufacturing plant toHyde Park,one of the finest such facilities in the United States.[2]In its building that covered ten acres, Sturtevant Company made blowers, economizers, engines, forges, motors, turbines, and more.[2]

In addition to serving as treasurer and manager of the Sturtevant Company, he was also president and director of theBecker Milling Machine Companyin Hype Park which had 500 employees in 1910.[2]In addition, he was president ofMead-Morrison Manufacturinglocated inCambridge, Massachusetts.[2]With its 500 workers, Mead-Morrison made coal conveying and hosting machinery.[2]He was also president of two cotton mills—theMaverick Cotton Millsin East Boston and the Burgess Mills atPawtucket, Rhode Islandwhich had 1,200 employees.[2]

Foss was also president of theBridgewater Water Companyand director of theBrooklyn Heights Railroad Company,Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company,Chicago Junction Railways,theHyde Park National Bank,Manhattan Elevated Railroad Companyof New York, and the Union Stockyard Company.[2]He was also a trustee and member of the executive committee of theMassachusetts Electric Company.[2]

After politics, Foss returned to his former manufacturing business and also managed his real estate holdings in Boston.[1]He expanded its production facilities to include theAmerican Napier automobile.

Politics[edit]

U.S. Congress[edit]

In 1902, Foss ran forU.S. Congressas aprogressiveRepublican.[3]His main issue was a tariff reform platform, calling for "free wool, free coal, free iron, and free hides" and reciprocity with Canada.[4]His campaign was held while there were high coal prices that had badly hurtMassachusetts.[5]While many voters blamed coal prices on the protective tariff, PresidentTheodore Rooseveltattributed it to the ongoing1902 anthracite coal strike.[5]

Foss narrowly carried the Republican nomination in a September 24, 1902 caucus and started his campaign for control ofthe state partyby submitting his revisionist plank at the October state party convention.[5]His motion was defeated following a speech byHenry Cabot Lodge,urging national party unity in defense of the protective tariff.[5]Foss lost the general election toJohn Andrew Sullivan.[5]

In 1904, he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention.[3]He ran for Congress again in 1904, with an even more embarrassing defeat.[6]He next failed in a bid for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 1906.[6]

After GovernorEben Sumner Draperwas elected in 1908, divisions within the state Republican Party deepened, especially over tariff reform.[7]The party's position on tariffs led Foss to leave the party.[8]In 1909, he bought his way onto theDemocratic Partyticket as its nominee for lieutenant governor, but lost to the Republicans by a narrow margin.[8]

In March 1910, Foss won a special election forUnited States House of Representatives,filling a vacancy caused by the death ofWilliam C. Lovering.[9][10]He served until January 4, 1911, when he resigned to become governor of Massachusetts.[1]

Eugene Foss, 1915

Governor[edit]

Foss then announced his intention to contend for the Democratic nomination for governor.[11]The nominating convention was a contentious affair, with old-line labor Democrats opposing his nomination.[11]Labor agitators criticized Foss for opposing bills that reduced maximum working hours, and supporting pro-business bills such as that authorizing the merger of theBoston and Maine Railroadwith theNew York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.[11]The convention deadlocked on the second ballot, between Foss and the previous year's nominee,James H. Vahey.[11]There were fistfights on the floor, chairs were thrown, and the convention ended up appointing a committee to choose a nominee.[11]

The committee also deadlocked, this time between Foss andCharles Sumner Hamlin.[11]At this point, Foss announced that he intended to run regardless, and essentially demanded the party ratify his nomination.[11]He won a mail election by a single vote.[12]In the general election, labor Democrats attacked Draper's anti-labor record, while Foss essentially campaigned against the pro-tariff stance of Senator Lodge.[12]The Republicans called inTheodore Roosevelt,in an attempt to paint Draper in a more favorable light.[12]Foss won the election for Governor by 32,000 votes on November 8, 1910.[13][3]He was reelected in 1911 and 1912.[3]

During his three terms as governor, Foss enacted many reform measures.[14]He signed measures covering employer liability and workmen's compensation, but also vetoed bills authorizing the tenure of school teachers and the right to picket.[14]He signed an election reform bill changing primaries to direct elections, a bill setting a minimum wage for women and children, and a bill allowing jury trials for cases involving the violation of strike injunctions.[14]In addition, a pension plan was started for state employees and part-time schooling for working children was also enforced.[3]He also promoted and signed bills that benefited his businesses.[14]In 1911 he led a somewhat quixotic campaign to deprive Senator Lodge of his seat; his campaigning ended up having the opposite effect, essentially killing the chances of either Democrats or progressive Republicans to unseat Lodge.[15]

Foss's tenure included the1912 textile strikeinLawrence, Massachusetts,which was stimulated by the passage of a law limiting the working hours of women and children.[16][3]Organized by theIndustrial Workers of the World(IWW, or Wobblies), the labor action united numerous immigrant groups and involved more than 20,000 workers in all of the industrial city's mills.[16]Incidents of violence in the strike prompted Foss to call out the state militia, and he applied pressure on the mill owners to settle the action by threatening to withdraw them.[16]

Foss denied clemency forClarence Richesonfor the sensationalized murder ofAvis Linell.Richeson had documented bouts of mental problems and was convicted without trial after eventually pleading guilty to the charges. His case prompted calls for reforms in the state's handling and treatment of mental patients.

By 1913 Foss's anti-labor policies had disenchanted the state Democratic leadership, and Lieutenant GovernorDavid I. Walshannounced that he would challenge Foss for the Democratic nomination. Foss received no support from the party but was offered—and declined—the opportunity to contest for theBull Moose Partynomination. He eventually took out papers for the Republican nomination but failed to qualify for the primary ballot. He ran in the general election as an Independent.[3]It was a Democratic landslide, and Foss trailed far behind the other three candidates. He left office on January 4, 1914.[3]

1925 campaign for Congress[edit]

In 1925, Foss ran for the 5th Congressional District as a "Coolidge-Democrat."[17]He lost by a huge margin and did not win any districts.[17]

Personal[edit]

On June 12, 1884, Foss married his employer's daughter, Lilla Rollins Sturtevant (1860–1925).[2]Together, they had two sons and two daughters:[2]

  • Benjamin Sturtevant Foss (1886–1961), who married Dorothy Emily Chapman, a daughter of Wilfred Barrett Chapman, in 1911.[18]They divorced in 1921.
  • Guy Noble Foss (b. 1889), who married Katherine Cobb, a daughter of Frederick L. Cobb, in 1912.[19]
  • Esther Foss (1894–1954), a twin who married polo player George Gordon Moore. They divorced in 1933 and she marriedAiden Roark,another polo player, in 1934. They divorced in 1937.[20]and she marriedSidney Webster Fish,son ofStuyvesant Fish.[21][22]
  • Helen Foss (b. 1894), a twin who married English polo player Henry Forrester in 1930.[23]

He was as active in the Home Market Club of Boston and was also chair of the Republican Party in ward 23 of Boston.[2]He was a trustee of theBoston Young Men's Christian Association(later the YMCA),Colby University,theHebron Academy,theNewton Theological Seminaryand theVermont Academy.[2]He was a member of the First Baptist Church in theJamaica Plainneighborhood of Boston.[2]He was a member of theAlgonquin Club,theBoston Art Club,theEliot Club,theExchange Club,the Jamaica Club, and the Country Club.[2]

He died inJamaica Plainon September 13, 1939.[1]He was buried inForest Hills Cemeteryin Boston.[1][3]

References[edit]

  1. ^abcdefghi"Foss, Eugene Noble 1858 – 1939".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.RetrievedMay 9,2022.
  2. ^abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxAdams, William Frederick.Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts, Volume 4.New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1910. p. 2462-2464. via Google Books.
  3. ^abcdefghij"Eugene Noble Foss".National Governors Association.RetrievedMay 9,2022.
  4. ^Hennessy, Michael Edmund (1917).Twenty-five Years of Massachusetts Politics; from Russell to McCall, 1890-1915.Boston: Practical Politics, Inc. p. 216 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^abcdeAbrams, Richard (1964).Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900-1912.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.,pp. 91-93, 97
  6. ^abAbrams, Richard (1964).Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900-1912.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.,p. 108
  7. ^Abrams, Richard (1964).Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900-1912.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.pp. 235-237
  8. ^abAbrams, Richard (1964).Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900-1912.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.,pp. 233, 251
  9. ^United States Congress."Eugene Foss (id: F000293)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  10. ^Abrams, Richard (1964).Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900-1912.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.,p. 238
  11. ^abcdefgAbrams, Richard (1964).Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900-1912.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.,pp. 252-255
  12. ^abcAbrams, Richard (1964).Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900-1912.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.,pp. 255-256
  13. ^Abrams, Richard (1964).Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900-1912.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.,p. 257
  14. ^abcdAbrams, Richard (1964).Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900-1912.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.,pp. 258-260
  15. ^Abrams, Richard (1964).Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900-1912.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.,pp. 264-266
  16. ^abcRosenberg, Chaim M. (2004).The great workshop: Boston's Victorian Age.Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub. p. 37.ISBN0-7385-2468-9.OCLC60246514.
  17. ^ab"Governor Eugene Foss".Sturtevant Fan Company.RetrievedMay 9,2022.
  18. ^"GQV. FOSS'S SON TO WED; Benjamin Foss Wires Mother of Engagement to Miss Dorothy Chapman".The New York Times.April 12, 1911.RetrievedJune 16,2023.
  19. ^Times, Special to The New York (January 21, 1912)."Gov. Foss's Son to Wed Miss Cobb".The New York Times.RetrievedJune 16,2023.
  20. ^"Wife Divorces Aidan Roark".New York Times.December 23, 1937.RetrievedApril 7,2011.Mrs. Esther F. Roark, formerly of Boston and Pebble Beach, Calif., won a divorce today from Aidan Roark, film executive and polo star. She testified that he was rude and brusque.
  21. ^"MRS. SIDNEY FISH".The New York Times.November 27, 1954.RetrievedApril 7,2017.
  22. ^"SIDNEY FISH MARRIES; Mrs. Esther Foss Roark Is Bride of New Yorker in West".The New York Times.January 11, 1939.RetrievedApril 7,2017.
  23. ^"MRS. HELEN F. HOBBS WEDS CAPT. FORRESTER; Daughter of Ex-Governor Foss of Massachusetts Marries English Polo Player in California".The New York Times.April 28, 1930.RetrievedJune 16,2023.

Further reading[edit]

  • Abrams, Richard (1964).Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900-1912.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.online

External links[edit]

Party political offices
Preceded by Democraticnominee forGovernor of Massachusetts
1910,1911,1912 		Succeeded by
First Progressivenominee forGovernor of Massachusetts
1910,1911 		Succeeded by
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts district 14
March 22, 1910 – January 4, 1911 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Governor of Massachusetts
1911–1914 		Succeeded by
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