Augustus Willson
| Augustus Everett Willson | |
 | |
| In office December 10, 1907 – December 12, 1911 | |
| Preceded by | John Crepps Wycliffe Beckham |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | James B. McCreary |
Chairman of the
National Governors Association | |
| In office May 13, 1908 – September 12, 1911 | |
| Born | October 13, 1846 Maysville, Kentucky |
| Died | August 24, 1931 (aged 84) Louisville, Kentucky |
| Resting place | Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Elizabeth Ekin Willson |
| Alma mater | Harvard University (Bachelor's and Master of Arts) |
Augustus Everett Willson (October 13, 1846 – August 24, 1931) was the 36th Governor of his native Kentucky, who served a single term from 1907 to 1911.[1] He was the first of only five Republicans in the 20th century to hold the state's highest office. By contrast, there were seventeen Democratic governors during the century.
Born in Maysville in Mason County on the Ohio River, Willson moved with his parents to New Albany in Floyd County in southern Indiana. His mother, the former Ann Colvin Ennis (1817-1856), a native of Rhode Island, died in 1856.[2] When his father, Hiram Willson (1807-1859), died three years later, young Willson was sent to New England to live with relatives. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in 1869 and 1872 from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts]. His older brother, the poet Byron Forceythe Willson (1837-1867), introduced him to literary figures James Russell Lowell, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894). When his brother was stricken at the age of forty, Augustus served as his caregiver. Willson was his brother's caregiver after Forcethye was stricken by illness.[3]
After his Harvard graduation, Willson returned to New Albany but then secured a position in Louisville at the law firm of John Marshall Harlan, I, and became Harlan's law partner and close friend. Originally a segregationist who opposed the Emancipation Proclamation and the corruption of Reconstruction, Harlan, a conservative Christian, was appointed by U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. In that capacity, he was best known for his dissent in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision in which Harlan proclaimed that the United States Constitution as colorblind. Willson and Harlan became lifelong friends, both of whom were active in the GOP.[4]
After several election defeats, Willson was elected governor in his second attempt. As governor he pardoned several men who were implicated in the 1900 assassination of Democratic Governor William Goebel. Democratic state legislators rejected most of Willson's proposed reforms. In 1914, the first year that United States Senators were popularly elected under the 17th Amendment, Willson ran unsuccessfully for the Senate. Following this defeat, Willson retired to Louisville, where he died at the age of eighty-four.[5]
Willson wed the former Mary Elizabeth Ekin (1847-1934); the couple had a son, James Ekin Willson, who died seven days after birth in 1879.[6] The Willsons are interred at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Augustus Everett Willson (1846-1931) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed September 16, 2021.
- ↑ Ann Colvin Ennis Willson. Findagrave.com. Retrieved on September 16, 2021.
- ↑ Robert A. Powell, Kentucky Governors (Danville, Kentucky: Bluegrass Printing Company, 1976), p. 80.
- ↑ Thomas H. Appleton, Jr., "Augustus Everett Willson". In Lowell Hayes Harrison (ed.). Kentucky's Governors (Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 2004), p. 141.
- ↑ James C. Klotter, Kentucky: Portraits in Paradox, 1900–1950 (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1996, pp. 217-218.
- ↑ James Ekin Willson (1879-1879) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed September 16, 2021.