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Hazen S. Pingree
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Hazen S. Pingree
Hazen Stuart Pingree (August 30, 1840 – June 18, 1901) was an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd mayor of Detroit from 1889 to 1897 and the 24th governor of Michigan from 1897 to 1901. A Yankee who migrated from New England, he was a successful Republican businessman turned politician.
Pingree was elected mayor in 1889 after a colorful campaign in which his revealed his tolerance by making a circuit of saloons. Pingree added to the old stock Yankee Republican base by making large inroads into the German and Canadian elements. He was reelected in 1891, 1893 and 1895. Warning repeatedly against the dangers of monopolistic corporations, he launched nationally visible crusades against Detroit's streetcar, gas, electric, and telephone companies. He successfully forced rate reductions that won him widespread popularity. He won public approval for a citizen-owned electric light plant and became a national spokesman for municipal ownership and public regulation of utilities and street railways.
When the nationwide Panic of 1893 caused a severe depression, Pingree gained support by opening empty lots to garden farming launching Pingree's "Potato Patch Plan", initially financed by Pingree, who sold his prize horse to pay for the farming tools and seeds. Pingree was a Republican, whose policies competed for support of the Populist Party voters and labor union members. He supported the gold standard in 1896, and worked to carry Michigan for William McKinley over silverite William Jennings Bryan in the intensely competitive 1896 U.S. presidential election.
Pingree was on the ballot too, and was elected governor of Michigan. As governor, he succeeded in forcing passage of the nation's first major statewide reappraisal of railroad and corporate property, with intent on implementing taxes. That led to a rational basis for railroad regulation and other trust busting ideas launched by the Republican Party. A survey of scholars in 1985 ranked Pingree as the third-best mayor in all of American history.
Pingree was born in Denmark, Maine, to Jasper Pingree and Adeline (Bryant) Pingree and attended the common schools in Maine. At the age of fourteen, he moved to Saco, Maine, where he worked at a cotton factory. Two years later, he moved to Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and worked several years as a cutter in a shoe factory.
In 1862, Pingree enlisted in the Union Army to serve in the Civil War with the 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery Regiment (Company F). He fought on the front line during General Pope's Northern Virginia Campaign and the Second Battle of Bull Run. The regiment in which he fought was then ordered to defend Washington, D.C., until May 15, 1864, and then was sent to the front again. He fought with the Second Brigade of Tyler's Division, Second Corps, which participated in battles at Fredericksburg Road (May 18), Harris Farm (May 19), and Spotsylvania Court House (May 19–21).
His regiment was then assigned to the Second Corps, Third Division, in the Army of the Potomac and fought at North Anna (May 24–25) where he and some other men were captured by a detachment of John S. Mosby's command. Pingree was confined in Confederate prisons at Gordonsville and Lynchburg, Virginia, and at Salisbury, North Carolina. He was then taken to Andersonville prison and, while General Sherman was on his march to the sea, he was taken to Millen, Georgia, where he later escaped by pretending to be someone else during a roll call for a prisoner exchange in November 1864. Pingree rejoined his regiment, fought in many more battles, and was present at Appomattox Court House when Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865. A few months later, on August 15, his regiment was mustered out.
Pingree was a cobbler by trade and, following the war, moved to Detroit and briefly worked for Henry Porter Baldwin's shoe company. In 1866, Pingree and his accountant, Charles H. Smith, purchased Baldwin's shoe-making machinery and formed the Pingree and Smith company. In 1883, Smith retired from the firm and J. B. Howarth and Pingree's son Joe joined the partnership. By 1886, it was a $1 million company with 700 employees turning out a half-million shoes and boots a year. It was the second biggest shoe manufacturer in the U.S. In March 1887, a fire destroyed the entire plant, yet they were able to recover.
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Hazen S. Pingree
Hazen Stuart Pingree (August 30, 1840 – June 18, 1901) was an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd mayor of Detroit from 1889 to 1897 and the 24th governor of Michigan from 1897 to 1901. A Yankee who migrated from New England, he was a successful Republican businessman turned politician.
Pingree was elected mayor in 1889 after a colorful campaign in which his revealed his tolerance by making a circuit of saloons. Pingree added to the old stock Yankee Republican base by making large inroads into the German and Canadian elements. He was reelected in 1891, 1893 and 1895. Warning repeatedly against the dangers of monopolistic corporations, he launched nationally visible crusades against Detroit's streetcar, gas, electric, and telephone companies. He successfully forced rate reductions that won him widespread popularity. He won public approval for a citizen-owned electric light plant and became a national spokesman for municipal ownership and public regulation of utilities and street railways.
When the nationwide Panic of 1893 caused a severe depression, Pingree gained support by opening empty lots to garden farming launching Pingree's "Potato Patch Plan", initially financed by Pingree, who sold his prize horse to pay for the farming tools and seeds. Pingree was a Republican, whose policies competed for support of the Populist Party voters and labor union members. He supported the gold standard in 1896, and worked to carry Michigan for William McKinley over silverite William Jennings Bryan in the intensely competitive 1896 U.S. presidential election.
Pingree was on the ballot too, and was elected governor of Michigan. As governor, he succeeded in forcing passage of the nation's first major statewide reappraisal of railroad and corporate property, with intent on implementing taxes. That led to a rational basis for railroad regulation and other trust busting ideas launched by the Republican Party. A survey of scholars in 1985 ranked Pingree as the third-best mayor in all of American history.
Pingree was born in Denmark, Maine, to Jasper Pingree and Adeline (Bryant) Pingree and attended the common schools in Maine. At the age of fourteen, he moved to Saco, Maine, where he worked at a cotton factory. Two years later, he moved to Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and worked several years as a cutter in a shoe factory.
In 1862, Pingree enlisted in the Union Army to serve in the Civil War with the 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery Regiment (Company F). He fought on the front line during General Pope's Northern Virginia Campaign and the Second Battle of Bull Run. The regiment in which he fought was then ordered to defend Washington, D.C., until May 15, 1864, and then was sent to the front again. He fought with the Second Brigade of Tyler's Division, Second Corps, which participated in battles at Fredericksburg Road (May 18), Harris Farm (May 19), and Spotsylvania Court House (May 19–21).
His regiment was then assigned to the Second Corps, Third Division, in the Army of the Potomac and fought at North Anna (May 24–25) where he and some other men were captured by a detachment of John S. Mosby's command. Pingree was confined in Confederate prisons at Gordonsville and Lynchburg, Virginia, and at Salisbury, North Carolina. He was then taken to Andersonville prison and, while General Sherman was on his march to the sea, he was taken to Millen, Georgia, where he later escaped by pretending to be someone else during a roll call for a prisoner exchange in November 1864. Pingree rejoined his regiment, fought in many more battles, and was present at Appomattox Court House when Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865. A few months later, on August 15, his regiment was mustered out.
Pingree was a cobbler by trade and, following the war, moved to Detroit and briefly worked for Henry Porter Baldwin's shoe company. In 1866, Pingree and his accountant, Charles H. Smith, purchased Baldwin's shoe-making machinery and formed the Pingree and Smith company. In 1883, Smith retired from the firm and J. B. Howarth and Pingree's son Joe joined the partnership. By 1886, it was a $1 million company with 700 employees turning out a half-million shoes and boots a year. It was the second biggest shoe manufacturer in the U.S. In March 1887, a fire destroyed the entire plant, yet they were able to recover.
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