Paul Husting
Portrait from The Wisconsin Blue Book 1917
United States Senator
from Wisconsin
In office
March 4, 1915 – October 21, 1917
Preceded byIsaac Stephenson
Succeeded byIrvine Lenroot
Member of the Wisconsin Senate
from the 13th district
In office
January 7, 1907 – January 4, 1915
Preceded byWilliam Campbell North
Succeeded byByron Barwig
District Attorney of Dodge County, Wisconsin
In office
January 1, 1903 – January 1, 1907
Preceded byMartin L. Lueck
Succeeded byCharles A. Kading
Personal details
Born(1866-04-25)April 25, 1866
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, U.S.
DiedOctober 21, 1917(1917-10-21) (aged 51)
Rush Lake, Wisconsin, U.S.
Cause of deathAccidental death
Resting placeGraceland Cemetery, Mayville, Wisconsin
Political partyDemocratic
Spousenone
Childrennone
Relatives
EducationUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison
ProfessionLawyer

Paul Oscar Adolph Husting (April 25, 1866 – October 21, 1917) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician from Mayville, Wisconsin. He was the first popularly-elected United States senator from Wisconsin, serving from 1915 until his death in 1917. He previously served eight years in the Wisconsin Senate, representing Dodge County, and was district attorney for four years. He was a grandson of Solomon Juneau, the founder of Milwaukee.[1]

Background and early career

Husting was born April 25, 1866, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Husting moved with his parents to Mayville, Wisconsin, in 1876, where he received a common school education. From the age of 17 years, he became successively a retail clerk in a general store, a railway postal clerk, a mailing clerk in the Wisconsin State Prison at Waupun, and assistant bookkeeper in the office of the Secretary of State of Wisconsin under Thomas J. Cunningham.[2]

Husting entered the University of Wisconsin Law School, passed the state bar examination, and was admitted to the bar in 1895. He initially practiced law in Mayville by himself, but in 1897 associated himself with C. W. Lamoreux until the latter was elected judge, upon which the firm of Husting & Brother was formed.[1][2]

Public office

Husting was elected district attorney of Dodge County in 1902 and reelected in 1904.[2] He was elected to the state senate in 1906, and reelected in 1910. In the state senate, he advocated conservation of the state's natural resources, the income tax, the "Husting bill" establishing a maximum passenger railroad fare of two cents per mile, initiative and referendum, and direct election of United States senators. He offered the original resolution to investigate, and assisted in the investigation of, the Wisconsin primary and election of 1908, which resulted in the enactment of the state's Corrupt Practices Act.[2]

Husting was the first United States senator from Wisconsin to be elected by a direct vote of the people, defeating the incumbent Governor, Francis E. McGovern, at the November 1914 election by 967 votes.[2] He succeeded Isaac Stephenson as the United States senator on March 4, 1915, and served in the Senate from 1915 until his death. During his time in the U.S. Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Fisheries during 1917 and chairman of a special committee investigating trespasses on Indian lands during his entire time in the Senate.

Husting was the only Democrat to win a state-wide election in Wisconsin between 1892 and 1932.

Death and political consequences

Photo from the Library of Congress

Husting was killed in a duck hunting accident on Rush Lake near Pickett, Wisconsin. While rising in a row boat after telling his brother Gustav to fire, Gustav accidentally shot his brother in the back. Husting fell into a coma, and died later that same day. The New York Times described him as "the most aggressive leader" of the "loyalist" (i.e., supportive of Woodrow Wilson's pro-Allied policies) forces in Wisconsin, and contrasted him with "Senator La Follette and the pro-German constituency behind him".[3] He is interred on the Husting family plot at Graceland Cemetery in Mayville.[4]

Husting's death was of political importance. In 1919 the Senate would have been under Democratic control had he not been succeeded by Republican Irvine Lenroot, as a consequence of which in 1919 the Senate had 49 Republicans and 47 Democrats (Vice-President Thomas R. Marshall was a Democrat, and had the power to break all ties).

Personal life and family

Paul Husting was the second of seven children born to John P. and Mary M. (née Juneau) Husting. John P. Husting had emigrated to Wisconsin from the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg in 1855. Mary M. Juneau was the twelfth of sixteen children born to Solomon Juneau—the co-founder and first mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[2]

Husting's younger brother, Berthold Juneau "Bert" Husting, had a brief career in professional baseball and was later United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in the 1940s.[5]

His older brother, Charles Ottomar "Otto" Husting, served as Paul's private secretary in the U.S. Senate.[6]

Electoral history

Wisconsin Senate (1906, 1910)

Wisconsin Senate, 13th District Election, 1906[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
General Election, November 6, 1906
Democratic Paul O. Husting 4,646 61.81% +0.08%
Republican Leon Reible 2,746 36.54% +0.26%
Prohibition G. A. Paddock 124 1.65% -0.35%
Plurality 1,900 25.28% -0.18%
Total votes 7,516 100.0% -8.40%
Democratic hold
Wisconsin Senate, 13th District Election, 1910[8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
General Election, November 8, 1910
Democratic Paul O. Husting (incumbent) 4,734 62.38% +0.56%
Republican C. M. Davidson 2,612 34.42% -2.12%
Social Democratic Rae Weaver 164 2.16%
Prohibition Benjamin F. Sawyer 79 1.04% -0.61%
Plurality 2,122 27.96% +2.68%
Total votes 7,589 100.0% +0.97%
Democratic hold

U.S. Senate (1914)

United States Senate Election in Wisconsin, 1914[9]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Democratic Primary, September 1, 1914
Democratic Paul O. Husting 35,963 54.93%
Democratic Thomas Kearney 29,459 45.00%
Write-in 47 0.07%
Plurality 6,504 9.93%
Total votes 65,469 100.0%
General Election, November 3, 1914
Democratic Paul O. Husting 134,925 43.81%
Republican Francis E. McGovern 133,969 43.50%
Social Democratic Emil Seidel 29,774 9.67%
Prohibition Charles L. Hill 9,276 3.01%
Write-in 58 0.02%
Plurality 956 0.31%
Total votes 308,002 100.0%
Democratic gain from Republican

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Husting, Paul Oscar Adolph 1866 - 1917". Wisconsin Historical Society. 8 August 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Biographical Sketches". The Wisconsin Blue Book 1917 (Report). Industrial Commission of Wisconsin. 1917. p. 495. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
  3. ↑ "Husting is Killed by Brother in Hunt" (PDF). The New York Times. October 22, 1917. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Husting is buried at Mayville today, colleagues attend". La Crosse Tribune. October 24, 1917. p. 6. Retrieved March 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ "B. J. Husting, Mayville, Dies at age of 70". The Sheboygan Press. September 3, 1948. p. 1. Retrieved March 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "Paul Husting dies in hunting mishap". Wauwatosa News. October 26, 1917. p. 1. Retrieved March 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ Beck, J. D., ed. (1907). "Biographical Sketches". The Blue Book of the state of Wisconsin 1907 (Report). Industrial Commission of Wisconsin. pp. 1130. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
  8. ↑ Beck, J. D., ed. (1911). "Biographical Sketches". The Blue Book of the state of Wisconsin 1911 (Report). Industrial Commission of Wisconsin. pp. 741. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
  9. ↑ "Election Statistics". The Wisconsin Blue Book 1915 (Report). Industrial Commission of Wisconsin. 1915. pp. 234–235, 238. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
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