Iden Salathiel Romig (1865-1947)

Portrait from the South Bend Tribune, March 3, 1947.

  The Strangest Names In American Political History makes its first stop in Indiana for 2021 to highlight the life of South Bend resident Iden Salathiel Romig. An attorney in St. Joseph County for over fifty years, Romig served as city attorney for South Bend for several years and also served one year as St. Joseph County Attorney. In 1940 he was elected as a Democratic presidential elector for Indiana, having been a candidate for alternate presidential elector four years previously. A lifelong Hoosier, Iden Salathiel Romig was born in Marshall County on January 6, 1865, the son of Abraham (1841-1892) and Sarah (Ringer) Romig (1840-1928). 

  Descended from Dutch settlers who had settled in Ohio and Pennsylvania, Iden Romig attended rural schools in Marshall County as well as the Logansport Normal School. He continued studies at Valparaiso University, and after deciding to pursue a career in law enrolled at the Indiana State University at Bloomington. He earned his degree in the class of 1892, and took further study under the tutelage of Judge Albertus Clinton Capron, then Judge of Indiana's 41st Judicial circuit. Romig was admitted to the Indiana bar sometime later and briefly practiced law in Plymouth.

  In 1893 Romig removed to South Bend, where he resided for the remainder of his life. He partnered with Charles Kreighbaum in the firm of Romig and Kreighbaum, which continued until Romig partnered with his brother-in-law, W.E. Miller. Romig married in South Bend in August 1897 to Carrie Daugherty (1868-1929). The couple's three-decade union was childless.

  Romig's decades-long career in law saw him acknowledged as one "of Northern Indiana's leading attorneys", with the South Bend Tribune noting that he gained:

"A very high reputation through honesty, truthfulness and the upright practice of his profession. Most of his legal work was of an office character although at times he appeared in open court and was an open and convincing pleader. He was not of the oratorical type but convinced by sound legal reasoning, by common sense presentation and by the feeling of honesty and truth which his pleading prompted."

  A member of the St. Joseph County and Indiana State Bar Associations, Romig was active in the fraternal life of his county, being a former grandmaster of the local chapter of the International Order of Odd Fellows. He held further memberships in the Knights of the Maccabees, the Round Table, the Worth Club, and was a parishioner at the South Bend First Presbyterian Church. 

  "A born and reared democrat", Iden Romig was an influential figure in South Bend politics beginning in the early 20th century. In 1908 he was re-elected as chairman of the St. Joseph County Democratic County Central Committee, and in 1925 served as chairman of the South Bend Democratic City Committee. Additionally, Romig was elected treasurer of the county central committee, and during the administrations of mayors Charles Goetz (1910-14) and Chester Montgomery (1926-1930), served as South Bend city attorney.

From the South Bend Tribune, February 8, 1925.

  In June 1924 Iden Romig took office as St. Joseph County Attorney, succeeding Cyrus Pattee, who had been nominated for state circuit court judge. Named to that post by the St. Joseph Board of County Commissioners, Romig served a one-year term, and left office in June 1925, "having competently discharged the duties of his office." Following his term, he returned to private practice and in 1928 was named St. Joseph county chairman for the Indiana State University alumni "Founder's Day" celebration, held to honor the 108th anniversary of the university's founding.

  Romig returned to city politics when he was appointed by Mayor William Riley Hinkle to fill a vacancy in the city attorney's office. He served as city attorney until January 1932, and in June of that year was named a special circuit court judge to preside over a suit between the Colpaert Realty Corp. and George and Mabel Bachman, who had brought suit over the construction of a gas station "in a restricted residential section."

  Iden Romig continued to tread the political waters through the late 1930s, being a candidate for alternate Democratic presidential elector from Indiana in 1936. In 1940 he was elected as one of twelve Presidential electors for Indiana, representing the 3rd district. The final years of Romig's life were marred by ill health, and in the early 1940s entered a Chicago hospital for an operation. Following a battle with pneumonia, he recovered sufficiently to return to his South Bend law practice. He continued to practice until his death from cancer at a South Bend hospital on March 3, 1947, aged 82. Predeceased by his wife Carrie in 1929, Romig was interred alongside her at the Riverview Cemetery in South Bend. 

From the Indianapolis Star, March 4, 1947.