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Iowans in President's Cabinets
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Fifteen notable Iowa man have served in the cabinets of 13
Presidents of the United States; four as Secretary of Agriculture;
three as Secretary of the Interior; three as Secretary of War; two
as Secretary of Commerce; one as Secretary of the Navy; one as
Secretary of the Treasury; and one is Postmaster General. One of the
list held the distinction of serving 16 years, under three
Presidents, which is the nation's record for this kind of public
service.
The list of Iowa's Cabinet members, arranged chronologically, with
brief biographies, is as follows:
James M. Harlan
James M. Harlan, of Mt. Pleasant, served as Secretary of the
Interior in the cabinet of President Andrew Johnson in 1865 and
1866. A graduate of Asbury (now DePauw) University in Indiana, he
was elected president of Iowa Wesleyan University, at Mt. Pleasant,
in 1853; served as United States Senator from Iowa from 1855 to
1865, and returned to the Senate, from the Cabinet, serving a term
from 1866 to 1872. He was a close associate of Abraham Lincoln, and
his daughter Mary married Robert T. Lincoln, son of the martyred
President. Secretary Harlan died in Mt. Pleasant in 1899.
William W. Belknap
William W. Belknap, Secretary of War in the two administrations of
President Ulysses S. Grant, was born in New York, but made his home
in Keokuk for a number of years. In 1861, He entered the Union Army
as Major of the 15th Iowa Volunteers and was engaged at Shiloh,
Corinth and Vicksburg, but became most prominent in Sherman's
Atlanta campaign. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1864 and
major general in 1865. He was collector of internal revenue in Iowa
from 1865 to 1869, but on October 29th of that year was appointed
Secretary of War by President Grant, to succeed General William
Tecumseh Sherman. General Belknap served from that date until March
7, 1876, having been reappointed when Grant took office the second
time. He died in 1890.
George W. McCrary
George W. McCrary served as Secretary of War in the cabinet of
President Rutherford B. Hayes. He was born in Indiana, removing with
his family to the Wisconsin Territory, of which Iowa was a part,
when a year old. He studied law in Keokuk and was admitted to the
bar in 1856. He was elected to the State Legislature in 1857 and
from 1861 to 1865 served in the State Senate, where he was chairman
of the committees on military affairs and the judiciary. He was a
member of Congress from 1869 to 1877. He was secretary of war under
President Hayes from 1877 to 1879, when he was appointed Justice of
the United States Circuit Court. Later on, he was general counsel
for the Santa Fe railroad until his death in 1890.
Samuel J. Kirkwood
Samuel J. Kirkwood, Iowa's Civil War governor, was Secretary of the
Interior under President James A. Garfield. He was born in Maryland,
moved to Ohio, and in 1855 established himself in milling and
farming in Iowa. The next year he was a member of the Iowa State
Senate and from 1860 to 1864 was Governor of Iowa during the Civil
War he levied 48 regiments of volunteers and equiped them at
$500,000 less than the usual cost. He was United States Senator from
Iowa from 1865 to 1867 (completing the unexpired term of James
Harlan, resigned) was again elected governor of Iowa in 1875 and
from 1877 to 1871 was a member of the State Senate. He was appointed
Secretary of the Interior by President Garfield and served from
March 4, 1881, to April 6, 1882, when he resigned. He died at Iowa
City, September 1, 1894.
Frank Hatton
Frank Hatton, of Burlington, co-publisher with Robert J. Burdette of
the Hawk-Eye, was assistant Postmaster General from 1881 to 1884 and
the Postmaster General in the cabinet of President Chester A. Arthur
from October 14, 1884, to March 4, 1885; the youngest Cabinet member
since Alexander Hamilton, being 38 years old when appointed. He died
in 1894.
James Wilson
James Wilson, of Tama and Ames, served as Secretary of Agriculture
for 16 years, in the cabinets of Presidents McKinley, Roosevelt, and
Taft. He was born in Scotland, coming with his parents to the United
States in 1851 and settling in Iowa in 1855. He was educated at Iowa
State College, engaged in farming, and in 1861 was elected to the
Iowa Legislature where he served for three terms, acting as Speaker
of the House the last term. He was a member of Congress from 1873 to
1877; State Railway commissioner in Iowa from 1877 to 1883, and from
1883 to 1885 was again a member of Congress. He was a regent of Iowa
State University from 1870 to 1874, and from 1890 to 1897 was
Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station and professor of
agriculture at Iowa State College at Ames. He was appointed
Secretary of Agriculture by President McKinley in 1897, was
reappointed by him when he took office the second time, was retained
by President Theodore Roosevelt and reappointed by President Taft,
remaining in office until Woodrow Wilson came in on March 4, 1913.
During his regime the Department of Agriculture developed rapidly;
Forest services were made, experiment stations were established and
farm demonstration work was undertaken on a national scale. He died
in 1920.
Leslie M. Shaw
Leslie M. Shaw, of Denison, served as Secretary of the Treasury in
the two administrations of President Theodore Roosevelt. He was a
native of Vermont, was graduated from Cornell College at Mount
Vernon, and from the Iowa College of Law. He established a law
practice in Denison, became president of one bank there and another
in Manilla and took an active part in civic and political affairs.
His effective work on the Republican side in the free silver
campaign in 1896, when William J. Bryan was running for president
against William McKinley, speaking an average of five hours a day
some weeks and as high as seven hours for several consecutive days,
led to his nomination and election the following year as Governor of
Iowa. He was reelected two years later, doubling his plurality and
multiplying his majority by four. He declined a third nomination. In
1898 he was president of the international monetary conference at
Indianapolis. At the end of his second term as governor of Iowa he
became Secretary of the Treasury in Theodore Roosevelt's Cabinet and
held that position a little over five years -- the longest term in
that office since 1841. He resigned in 1907 and was engaged in
banking in New York City and Philadelphia until 1913, when he
retired. He died in 1932.
Edwin T. Meredith
Edwin T. Meredith, Secretary of Agriculture in the cabinet of
President Woodrow Wilson, was born in Avoca, Iowa, in 1876. He was
educated at Highland Park College, in Des Moines and published the
Farmer's Tribune from 1896 to 1902. He started Successful Farming, a
monthly agricultural paper, on a national basis, in 1902 and later
on added Better Homes & Gardens, another national publication. He
became a director of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank and busied
himself in finance and politics, in addition to his publishing work.
He was a candidate for Governor of Iowa and United States Senator
from Iowa, on the Democratic ticket, but was unsuccessful. President
Wilson appointed him Secretary of Agriculture, in which post he
served from January, 1920, to March 4, 1921. Secretary Meredith died
in 1928.
Henry C. Wallace
Henry Cantwell Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture in the cabinets of
Presidents Harding and Coolidge, was born in 1866, son of Henry
Wallace, whom President Theodore Roosevelt appointed as a member of
his country life commission and who was one of the most famous
agricultural editors and educators in the United States for many
years. Henry C. Wallace was graduated from Iowa State College at
Ames. Following which he became a tenant on one of his father's
farms, on the same terms as the last tenant, who had failed. He
succeeded. Specializing in dairy farming, he returned to Ames, after
five years of farm work, and completed two years of college work in
one. He was appointed an assistant professor in the dairy
department. Then, securing a small farm paper, in conjunction with
Dean Charles F. Curtiss, he embarked upon the profession of the
agricultural journalism. Five years after the unexpected death of
his father, "Uncle Henry," as he sat in the front pew of a church in
Des Moines, Henry Cantwell Wallace was appointed Secretary of
Agriculture by President Harding. Upon the death of the latter,
Secretary Wallace was reappointed by President Coolidge. He died in
1924.
Herbert C. Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover served as Secretary of Commerce in the cabinets
of Presidents Harding and Coolidge, 1921 to 1929. He was born at
West Branch, Iowa, August 10, 1874. Becoming an orphan at an early
age he was brought up in the Pacific West, attending Lee Leland
Stanford University. He engaged in mining in various parts of the
world, with marked success. During the World War he was chairman of
the American Relief Commission in London and later was Chairman of
the Commission for Relief in Belgium. He served as United States
Food Administrator 1917 to 1919. After his Cabinet services he was
elected President of the United States in 1928, the first man born
west of the Mississippi River to have attained this high position.
He was defeated for reelection in 1932.
Curtis Dwight Wilbur
Curtis Dwight Wilbur, born at Boonesboro, Iowa, on May 10, 1867,
served as Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of President
Coolidge. Most of his public career found him a resident of the
state of California, but he never lost opportunity to pay tribute to
the state of his birth. He served as an associate justice of the
Supreme Court of California; was appointed Secretary of the Navy, by
President Coolidge, in 1924, and served until 1929; following which
he became judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ray Lyman Wilbur
Ray Lyman Wilbur, born in Boonesboro, Iowa, on April 13, 1875 (a
brother of Curtis D. Wilbur, Secretary of the Navy in the cabinet of
President Coolidge) was Secretary of the Interior in the cabinet of
President Hoover. Little of his mature life was spent in Iowa, but
he is claimed by the state, by reason of his nativity. He was
president of Leland Stanford University in California, securing a
leave of absence in order to accept the cabinet portfolio tendered
him by President Hoover on March 4, 1929. He was connected with
United States food administration and in various ways rendered
splendid public service.
James William Good
James William Good, born near Cedar Rapids in 1866, became Secretary
of War in the cabinet of President Herbert Hoover. He was elected to
Congress in 1909 and served until 1921. He was chairman of the
Appropriations Committee during the World War, voted for the
increase of soldier's pay but against the soldier's bonus. He was
Secretary of War from the day of President Hoover's inauguration,
March 4, 1929, to the day of his death, November 18, 1929.
Henry Agard Wallace
Henry Agard Wallace, son of Secretary Henry Cantwell Wallace, and
grandson of Henry Wallace, editor for many years of Wallace's
Farmer, served as Secretary of agriculture in the first two terms of
President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was born in Adair County in 1888
and educated in Iowa State College at Ames. He served as editor of
Wallace's Farmer for many years and later as editor of the combined
Wallace's Farmer and Iowa Homestead. He was Secretary of the
Cornbelt Meat Producers Association for a number of years. When
President Roosevelt assumed office on March 4, 1933, he tucked Henry
A. Wallace into his Cabinet and continued him there on his second
term. He was elected vice president in 1940.
Harry L. Hopkins
Harry L. Hopkins, who became secretary of commerce under President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, in February 1939, was born in Sioux City in
1890. He was graduated from Grinnell College and began his career in
the service of the poor and needy as supervisor of the Association
for Improving the Condition of the Poor; later was executive
secretary of the board of child welfare from 1918 to 1922; division
manager of the American Red Cross at New Orleans for 1922 to 1924;
director of the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association and
executive director of the New York State temporary relief
administration. President Roosevelt appointed him federal
administrator of emergency relief in 1933. Two years later he placed
him in charge of the Works Progress Administration, where he
continued until he became secretary of commerce in the President's
Cabinet, resigning in 1940. |
