Chase Osborn

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Chase Osborn
Chase Osborn
In office
January 2, 1911 – January 1, 1913
Lieutenant John Q. Ross
Preceded by Fred M. Warner
Succeeded by Woodbridge Nathan Ferris
Born January 22, 1860
Huntington County, Indiana
Died April 11, 1949
Poulan, Georgia
Political party Republican
Spouse 1.Lillian G. Jones

2.Stellanova Brunt
Religion Presbyterian

Chase Salmon Osborn (January 22, 1860 – April 11, 1949) was an American politician, newspaper reporter and publisher, and explorer. He served as a Republican governor of Michigan from 1911 to 1913.

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[edit] Early life in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin

Osborn was born in a log house in Huntington County, Indiana to George A. Osborn and Margaret (Fannon) Osborn, who named him Chase Salmon after abolitionist, Salmon Chase, who would become the next U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln, and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He was educated at Purdue University,where he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, yet left before graduating. From there he moved to Chicago, Illinois and briefly worked for the Chicago Tribune. On May 7, 1881, while a reporter for the Evening Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he married Lillian G. Jones. They moved north, near the Michigan border, to Florence, Wisconsin where he ran a local newspaper and prospected for iron.

[edit] Life and politics in Michigan

Osborn later moved to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan where he ran another newspaper The Sault News and also began his involvement in politics. In 1889, he was appointed postmaster of Sault Ste. Marie and in 1895 state fish and game warden. In 1898, Governor Hazen S. Pingree appointed Osborn commissioner of railroads which he served from 1899 to 1903. After selling out his newspaper, he and Walter J. Hunsaker bought The Saginaw Courier Herald. In 1900, he was unsuccessful to win the Republican nomination for Governor of Michigan, losing to Aaron T. Bliss who won the general election. In 1908, he served as a Delegate to the Republican National Convention from Michigan to nominate William Howard Taft as U.S. President. That same year he became a member of the University of Michigan Board of Regents and served from 1908 to 1911.

In 1910, Osborn was elected the 27th Governor of Michigan and served from 1911 to 1913. His tenure as governor was focused on reforms as the state deficit was eliminated; a workmen's compensation bill was sanctioned; and a presidential primary law was authorized. In 1912, Osborn campaigned for Theodore Roosevelt for President to unseat the current President Taft. After Roosevelt lost the Republican nomination and bolted from the party to start the Progressive Party, Osborn still campaigned for him in Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma, yet not in Michigan. Osborn did not run for a second term and is to date the only governor of Michigan from the Upper Peninsula.

After his term as Governor, Osborn traveled the world and came back for another attempt to become governor again and unseat his successor, Democrat Woodbridge Nathan Ferris, but was unsuccessful. In 1918 he was a candidate in the primary for United States Senator from Michigan being defeated by fellow Republican, Truman H. Newberry. He supported Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations, and urged participation in world affairs during the 1920s and 1930s despite the consensus of isolationism during those years. Osborn met Stellanova Brunt in 1924 and she took a job as his researcher and secretary. In 1928, he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. Vice President, yet was defeated by Charles Curtis, who would win with Herbert Hoover as President in 1932. In 1930, he was again a candidate in the primary for the U.S. Senate being defeated by fellow Republican, James Couzens. In 1931, Chase and Lillian Osborn legally adopted 37-year-old Stellanova and she changed her last name to Osborn. In 1934, he was elected Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. In 1936, he was a candidate for Presidential Elector to elected as President, Alfred Landon, who would lose to Franklin Roosevelt. In 1939, he met with Roosevelt to discuss the possibility of a Mackinaw Bridge, a dream he would never witness.

[edit] Retirement, death and legacy

After politics, Osborn returned to the newspaper business, and became active in the pursuit of iron ore prospecting. He was a member of the Audubon Society, National Rifle Association, Sons of the American Revolution, Freemasons, Elks, Kiwanis, Knights of Pythias, Lions Club, Odd Fellows, Sigma Chi and Sigma Delta Chi. He was also the author of several books.

Osborn was confined to a wheelchair and Stellanova became his full time nurse. After his wife, Lillian, died Stellanova’s adoption was annulled. On April 9, 1949, at Osborn’s Georgia residence, he at 89 and Stellanova at 54 were married. He died two days later at Possum Poke, his residence in Poulan, Georgia. He is interred at Duck Island, Chase's Michigan residence on Sugar Island, near Sault Ste. Marie in the St. Marys River.

Osborn's book, The Iron Hunter (1919; republished 2002) is autobiographical. The title refers to work he did prospecting for iron ore in Wisconsin and the Michigan Upper Peninsula, and reflects his love of the outdoors. He wrote several other books and co-wrote some with his adopted daughter, Stellanova, who also wrote several books herself.

There is an undated oil painting on canvas of Governor Osborn on display at the Bay Mills Community College Library and Heritage Center in Brimley, MI. The riverfront walk in downtown Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan features a historical monument and bust of Osborn.

[edit] Sources

Preceded by
Fred M. Warner		 Governor of Michigan
1911–1913		 Succeeded by
Woodbridge Nathan Ferris
v • d • e
Governors of Michigan
Territorial
Hull • Cass • Porter • Mason • Horner
 Michigan Seal
State
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