Upton Upton (1878-1951)

   Upton A. Upton was for many years a prominent figure within the Socialist Labor Party of the United States and was that party's candidate for high office in Oregon on several occasions throughout the 1920s and 30s. The above picture of him (featured in the Socialist Labor Party's official paper, The Weekly People) is rather blurry, but it stands as the only available portrait of the man that I could find.

  Upton Alma Upton was born in the village of Springerton, Illinois on September 6, 1878, and moved to Oregon with his family in 1886. For many years he was employed as a post office worker and first joined the Socialist Labor Party in 1905. Nothing could be found on Upton's personal life, although mention is given of his having at least one son, Keith Upton. Over the succeeding years, Upton worked his way up the hierarchy of the Socialist Labor Party, serving terms as Oregon State Secretary, and was a member of the SLP's National Executive Committee for two terms beginning in 1928.

  In 1920 Upton became the Industrial Labor candidate for Secretary of the State of Oregon. During that year's contest, he faced off against Republican candidate Samuel Kozer and Socialist candidate J.P. Sears. On election day Upton managed to poll 11,318 votes to Kozer's winning total of 178,722. A result from that contest appeared in the November 30, 1920 edition of the Morning Oregonian and is shown below.

  Undeterred by the lopsided electoral results, Upton A. Upton mounted a candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon in 1924, this time running on the Socialist Labor ticket. He received only 3,061 votes in this contest compared to the winning total of 72,910 for Republican incumbent Willis Chatman Hawley. Upton made three further attempts at a house seat, running in the elections of 1928, 1932, and 1940, but polled low numbers each time. 

  While unsuccessful at gaining political office, Upton was still considered a prominent figure within the Socialist Labor party ranks, and sources of the time denote that he was frequently sought after to lecture on problems plaguing the working class, as well as to tout the party platform to interested persons. Upton was also a regular contributor to The People, authoring columns on such topics as "Pacific Coast Strikes" and "Election Day Aftermath Exposes Shoddiness of Capitalist Reform". 

  Upton continued to be involved in Socialist Labor affairs until illness curbed his activity. He died in Portland shortly after his 73rd birthday on September 30, 1951, and was memorialized by The People in the following quotation: "Our comrade felt that he had a mission to perform in life, and like to think of himself as born into this world to fulfill this mission. He discovered in the Socialist Labor Party his field of activity. He often stated that when we come into contact with the true Socialist thought, a whole new world is opened to our vision."

From the November 17, 1951 Weekly People.

Giboney Houck (1878-1960)

   A lifelong resident of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri (made famous by native son and radio commentator Rush Limbaugh), Giboney Houck was a highly regarded attorney and one-term legislator who is also notable for being the first Spanish-American War veteran to be profiled here on the site. 

  Born on January 15, 1878, in Cape Girardeau County, Giboney Houck was one of three children born to Louis Napoleon (1840-1925) and Mary Hunter Giboney (1848-1944). Louis Houck was a multifaceted man who made his name as a businessman, lawyer, and journalist and is referred to as the "Father of Southeast Missouri" due to his extensive involvement in laying hundreds of miles of railroad tracks through that region, thereby opening it up for industrialization. Louis Houck chose to bestow his wife Mary's maiden name upon his firstborn child, and the end result is one of the more unusually named persons ever elected to the Missouri legislature.

  Giboney Houck received his schooling at the Cape Girardeau Normal School and later went on to enroll at St. Vincent's College in Cape Girardeau. Houck later joined the Missouri National Guard and after the war was declared on Spain in April 1898, enlisted in the 6th Missouri Volunteer Infantry. Houck eventually deployed to Cuba for "occupation duty" and saw no part of any battles fought during the four-month war. His regiment is recorded by the History of Southeast Missouri, Vol. I as remaining in Havana until May of 1899, whereafter it was "returned to Georgia and mustered out at Savannah." Houck is listed as being a First Lieutenant during his service and eventually rose to the position of Major. 

  After returning to civilian life Houck began attending the University of St. Louis Law School and graduated from this institution in 1901 with his law degree. Soon afterward he returned to Cape Girardeau to open a law practice, and in the succeeding years built up a clientele that included numerous local businesses. Houck also participated in his father's various business ventures and was responsible for executing his father's estate after Louis Houck's death in 1925.

  In 1918 Houck became a candidate for the Missouri State House of Representatives and ran as a Democrat in a largely Republican district. A major part of his campaign platform (listed in an election notice in the November 1918 Cape Girardeau Weekly Tribune) was a drainage law then on the books that stated that the cost of bridges being erected in the Little River District of Cape Girardeau County would be fielded by the counties themselves, and not the Little River Drainage Corporation. Sources of the time estimated that this would cost Cape Girardeau (and other counties in the area) hundreds of thousands of dollars, and Houck's platform notes that if elected he would try and have the "law amended in the new legislature so as to take the cost of the building of the bridges across the Little River Diversion Channel from the people of Cape Girardeau County, thus saving the county from $300,000 to $500,000."

From the November 1, 1918 Cape Girardeau Weekly Tribune.

  On election day 1918, Giboney Houck emerged as the victor, besting the Republican nominee George F. Siemers. The Missouri Herald later noted that Houck was "the only Democrat elected in that county to any important office in 20 years." After taking his seat in January 1919, Houck was named to the House Committees on Swamp Lands, Drainage and Levees,  Immigration, and Schools.

  While serving in the legislature, Houck found a kindred spirit in another oddly named representative, Dr. Asier Jacob Speer (1874-1948), elected from the neighboring county of Bollinger. Speer's constituency was faced with the same problem as those in Cape Girardeau, and together the two representatives introduced a bill that would try and alleviate the concerns of both counties. The bill they introduced faced substantial opposition from the Little River Drainage District and its various supporters, and although Houck managed to guide the bill through the House successfully, the May 30, 1919 edition of the Southeast Missourian notes that the "owner of the St. Louis Times, a very rich man and also owner of 15,000 acres of land in the Little River Drainage District, persuaded the Republicans to stand by him and they did. Thus the bill failed." 

  Giboney Houck's short tenure in the house ended in 1921 when he wasn't a candidate for reelection. In 1922 he mounted a candidacy for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri, and a write-up on his run appeared in a 1922 edition of the Southeast Missourian and is posted below.

  Houck was unsuccessful in his candidacy and spent the remainder of his life involved in the affairs of his native county of Cape Girardeau, and is remarked by the Southeast Missouri State University as being the founder of a local telephone company as well as helping to establish the People's Theatre of Cape Girardeau. In 1958 Houck was named as Senior Counselor of the Missouri State Bar Association, noted by the Southeast Missourian as being "an honor reserved for members of long standing." He died two years later on September 16, 1960, at age 82 at a local hospital. Sources list him as being a lifelong bachelor and he was later interred in the Houck family plot at the Old Lorimer Cemetery in Cape Girardeau.

  

Houck's death notice from the 1960 Southeast Missourian.

Fort Elmo Land (1878-1927)

Portrait from the Annual Report of the Georgia Department of Education, 1915

   With a name that brings to mind a Sesame Street-themed amusement park, the humorously named Fort Elmo Land served as the Georgia State Superintendent of Education from 1925-1927 before his untimely death at age 49. I first discovered the name of Fort E. Land in my school library, listed in the Who Was Who In America, 1897-1942 edition. The brief biography allotted to him in said book amounted to just a few lines and ten years after his discovery, information on Mr. Land is still difficult to come by. 
   Fort Elmo Land was born in Twigg County, Georgia on June 30, 1878, being the son of Henry Freeman (a Confederate veteran) and Mona Land. He graduated from Emory College in Atlanta, Georgia in the class of 1901 and for two years served as a high school principal (1902-03.) Two years later he was appointed as  Superintendent of Schools for Cordele, Georgia, serving in this post until 1908. Land was later named to the superintendent position in the town schools of Sparks, Lyons, and Dawson, Georgia, serving at the latter from 1908-1912. 

  Land married on March 6, 1912, in Dawson, Georgia to Susie Barrows Gurr (1876-1950), and their union produced one son, Fort Elmo Land Jr. (1920-1945).  An officer with the U.S. Navy during WWII, Fort E. Land Jr. was killed in action in 1945 when the "Hellcat fighter" aircraft he was piloting crashed into the Pacific Ocean during a training run.

Fort Elmo Land (and his misspelled name) from the Zodiac Yearbook from Emory College, 1901.

   Throughout his short life, Land was heavily invested in many aspects of Georgia's educational affairs, becoming the Georgia State Supervisor of Rural Schools in 1912. He served in that capacity for eight years, and soon after was named as State Director of Vocational Education, serving until 1925. In the 1924 election year, Land announced his candidacy for Georgia State Superintendent of Education. He was elected in November of that year, polling 156,807 votes, and assumed office in January 1925. During his tenure Land, in the position of state superintendent, sat on the boards of the Georgia Historical Commission, the State Geological Board, and "on the board of directors of numerous colleges and secondary schools in the state."

   Shortly before his death Land was sworn in for a second term as state superintendent and served as Georgia's chief educational officer until his death at age 49 on July 25, 1927. Newspapers of the time mention that Land developed a very serious illness during his tenure in office, and one in particular (the Oconee Enterprise) gives notice that his death was caused by "an illness of six weeks resulting from an attack of ptomaine poisoning". Shortly after his passing Land was interred at the Sunnyside Cemetery in the town of Cordele in Crisp County, Georgia. His wife Susie survived him by over two decades, dying in 1950 at age 74.
    Following his passing Fort E. Land was memorialized in the Enterprise as "winning the esteem and confidence in the communities he served", and had made "an unusually efficient record in civilian rehabilitation work of the federal and state departments of education." Land was further eulogized by Georgia's Governor Lamartine Hardman, who remarked:

"In the passing of Fort E. Land, state school superintendent, the state loses one of its foremost and highly respected citizens. He was one of the outstanding progressive spirits for the cause of education in Georgia, whose life was consecrated to this service. He was especially noted for his efforts in behalf of the common schools and in behalf of equalized education."

From the Atlanta Constitution, July 26, 1927.