Officially plucked from the depths of obscurity, Clermonte Getman Tennant was a leading attorney in Cooperstown, New York, a town known more for baseball than for yielding oddly named political figures. A practicing lawyer for nearly fifty years, Mr. Tennant was an unsuccessful candidate for the New York State Senate in 1908, running on the Democratic ticket. In addition to his Senate candidacy, Tennant would also serve as Deputy Attorney General of New York for several years.
Born in Richfield Springs, New York on September 19, 1880, Clermonte G. Tennant was the son of Judge Albert Clermonte and Lizzie Harter Getman Tennant. Clermonte attended the Albany Academy as a youth and went on to enroll at the Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, graduating in the class of 1904. Following his graduation, Tennant studied at the Albany Law School and after the death of his father in 1905 returned to Cooperstown to establish a law practice. He married in that village on September 5, 1908, to Florence S. Bundy (1885-1961), with whom he would have one son, Robert Clermonte Tennant (1909-1972). Shortly after establishing his career as an attorney, Tennant was named to the position of Deputy Attorney General of New York, serving in this post for "a number of years", according to his 1955 Otsego Times obituary. In 1908 he was nominated by the Democratic Party to represent the 37th District in the New York State Senate, and the Hamilton Literary Magazine, Volume 43 took note of Tennant's candidacy, remarking that:
"Next to Willis S. Mills '94, Mr. Tennant holds that best record for memory tests made in the College. His tenacious memory may assist him in handling the intricate and diffuse problems of a political campaign. All success to the Hamilton man in politics."
Tennant's Republican opponent in that year's election was another oddly named man, Jotham Powers Allds (1865-1923) of Chenango County. A seasoned politician, Allds had served in the state assembly from 1896-1902 (including three years as majority leader) and had been the senate incumbent since 1903. Despite a spirited contest, Tennant came up short in the vote count, losing to Allds by a vote of 14,623 to 18,775. Despite his defeat, Tennant continued in his public career for many years afterward, while Jotham Allds' political career was derailed in 1910 by his resignation from the senate on account of bribery. An electoral result from the 1908 Tennant-Allds Contest appeared in that year's New York State Red Book and is shown below.
While coming out on the losing end in his state senate candidacy, Tennent continued to be politically active, serving as a member of both the New York State Democratic Committee and the Otsego County Democratic Committee. He would hold a seat on the New York State Tax Commission as a representative for the county of Otsego, and in 1937 formed the law firm Tennant and Tennant with his son Robert, which continued until the senior Tennant died in 1955. In addition to this partnership, Clermonte Tennant served as village attorney for Cooperstown for over two decades.
Busy as an attorney and with local political affairs, Tennant was also active in several local fraternal organizations, holding memberships in the Oneonta Lodge of Elks, the Otsego Lodge #134 of Free and Accepted Masons and the Cooperstown Rotary Club. He was a past president of the Otsego County Bar Association and is noted by his Utica Observer obituary as being "widely known as a stamp collector and had a valuable collection including many commemorative U.S. issues on which he concentrated in recent years." Clermonte G. Tennant continued an active schedule well into his 75th year until illness took a toll on his health. He died at his home in Cooperstown on October 28, 1955, after "an illness of six weeks" and was later interred at the Lakeview Cemetery in Richfield Springs, New York.
From the Utica Observer, October 30, 1955.
From the Indianapolis News, January 13, 1925.
A one-term member of the Indiana House of Representatives from Marion County, Claremont Rennison Smith spent a good majority of his 88 years as a Hoosier but was not born a resident of that state; his birth instead occurring in Fairfield County, Ohio on December 17, 1859. The son of Seneca A. and Nancy Ellen (West) Smith, Claremont Rennison Smith married in Morrow County Ohio in December 1881 to Eva May Bennett (born 1859) and later had two sons, Harry Crawford (1882-1962) and Frank Clairville (1885-1960).
Prior to 1891, Smith suffered the death of his wife Eva and in May 1891 remarried to Agnes V. Murphy (1860-1927) in Morrow County. This marriage would see the birth of a third child, Nellie Mildred, in 1895, and by this time Smith and his family were residents of Shelby County, Indiana. By 1910 the family had resettled in Marion County, where Smith is recorded as a "master mechanic in Indianapolis."
Acknowledged by the Indianapolis News as a "Republican worker for over forty years", Smith launched his political career in 1924 at age 64 when he won the primary vote for state representative from Marion County. He would win the election that November and after taking his seat at the start of the 1925-27 session made note that he was:
"Prepared to support legislation in favor of the farmer's co-operative marketing plan, for a better school program, for economy in taxation, for the abolishment of useless state boards, and for the re-establishment of local self government so far as possible."
From the Indianapolis News, January 13, 1925.
Smith proved to be busy as a first-term legislator, chairing the House Committee on Statistics and Immigration, as well as serving on the committees on the Affairs of Indiana, Benevolent and Scientific Institutions, Public Printing, and Rights and Privileges. Smith's term in the legislature concluded in January 1927 and was widowed for a second time in February of that year with the death of his wife Agnes. Little else could be found on Smith's life after 1927, except mention of his removal back to Ohio, where he died aged 88 on January 25, 1948, in Columbus. He was later interred at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.
From the Indianapolis Star, November 6, 1924.
Portrait courtesy of the Iowa Legislative Database.
Hailing from the county of Butler in Iowa, Clermont Colfax Smith represented the aforementioned county in the Iowa State Senate for three terms in the late 1930s, dying in office in December 1939. The son of Josephus and Elizabeth Lambert Smith, Clermont Colfax Smith was born in Adair County, Iowa on November 28, 1868. He attended the public schools of that county and graduated from high school in the city of Harlan, Iowa.
During his adolescence, Smith taught school for a time and after a short period at college assumed the superintendency of the Fontanelle, Iowa school system. He would later resign from this post and begin the study of medicine, attending the Northwestern Medical School, and graduating in the class of 1904. Smith would later marry Ms. Rachel C. Corrough (1871-1944) and the couple would become parents to two daughters, Selma Louise (1899-1984) and Marian Elizabeth (1904-1970).
After spending a good majority of his life as a practicing physician, Claremont Smith won election as a Republican to the Iowa Senate in the 1934 election year, serving during the session of 1935-37. He was reelected to the Senate in 1936 and 1938 and was a sitting senator at the time of his death on December 5, 1939, several days following his 71st birthday. Following his death, Smith was interred at the Lynwood Cemetery in Clarksville, Iowa.
No comments:
Post a Comment