Maple Talbot Harl (1893-1957)

                                              Portrait courtesy of the website www.fdic.gov.

    Following on this week's earlier write-up on Denver based attorney and judge Westbrook Schoonmaker Decker, we continue our stay in Colorado to highlight the life of a man named Maple...an odd first name to be sure, but Maple Talbot Harl didn't let his unusual name keep him from pursuing a distinguished career in public service, building up an impressive resume in the realms of business and politics. He would serve as the State Bank Commissioner of Colorado during the early 1940s and in 1945 began an eight-year tenure as Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
   Born and raised in Missouri, the birth of Maple Talbot Harl took place in the town of Marshall on February 4, 1893, one of two children born to Baptist minister Baldwin Evans Harl (1852-1907) and his wife, the former Maxey J. Campbell. Following his early education, Harl went on to attend the William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He later enrolled at the University of Colorado and the University of Chicago's Law School for a year (1916-17) and during his time at this school served as a cadet lieutenant in the University's student corps. 
   Harl would eventually put his studies on hold at the dawn of American involvement in WWI, and after enlisting at Fort Logan Roots in Arkansas became a 2nd Lieutenant of Infantry. Harl would later become an officer in the First, Second, and Third Armies, American Expeditionary Forces, and is recorded as seeing action at the battles at Argonne and St. Mehiel. Honorably discharged from service in 1919, Harl returned to the United States in September of that year and is mentioned by the Greeley Daily Tribune as "remaining in hospitals for four years on account of disabilities received in France." Harl married in Colorado in July 1920 to Maybelle Mayfield (1895-1982), with whom he would later have one daughter, Suzanne Harl Stockmar (1923-2008).
   In the years preceding his marriage Maple T. Harl had moved from Missouri to Colorado, and in the late 1910s is recorded as establishing a "clothing store at Canon City". After serving his country overseas and returning home he reentered the Colorado business community and took on the position of Vice President of the Englewood, Colorado State Bank, serving in this position from 1923-25. Harl maintained a lengthy affiliation with the Disabled American Veterans Association, serving as National Commander of that organization from 1937 to 1938, and also served a term as district governor of the Colorado and Wyoming Kiwanis clubs.

From the Greeley Daily Tribune, January 3, 1939.

   Throughout the 1930s Maple T. Harl continued involvement with various civic organizations in Denver and Colorado, and in January of 1939 was appointed as the new Colorado State Banking Commissioner, succeeding Grant McFerson, who had died two months previously in November 1938. Harl's tenure as bank commissioner extended to 1945, and in that year was selected by President Harry S. Truman as his choice for Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Harl was later confirmed and began an eight-year tenure as the corporation's board chairman. Under Harl's watchful eye, the FDIC made headlines in 1948 when it finished paying off of a $289,000,000 debt, a "final repayment of capital furnished by the government to the FDIC" fourteen years previously. In a Spokane Daily Chronicle article on the newsworthy event, Harl is quoted as stating:

"We hold that the American system of free enterprise banking, with federal and state authority sharing credit and responsibility is the right answer to America's banking needs......As the last major system of free enterprise banking in the world, it represents not only an American way of life."

   Harl's chairmanship of the FDIC concluded in 1953 with his resignation, but he continued to serve as a regular member of the board until his death, which occurred at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. on April 17, 1957. Following his death, his body was returned to Colorado for burial at the Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, which, coincidentally, is the same burial location as Westbrook Schoonmaker Decker. Maybelle M. Harl was also interred here following her death at age 87 in 1982. 

From the Greeley Daily Tribune, April 18, 1957.

Hoxie Waldo Smith (1893-1962), Hoxie Brown (1819-1906)

  Over the past two centuries, thousands of men and women have been elected to serve in the New York State Assembly. The vast annals of the New York State Capitol have seen the likes of such oddly named men as Demosthenes C. LeRoy, Victory Birdseye, Sextus Heman Hungerford, and Beveridge Colin Dunlop, and this author can state with the utmost certainty that the hallowed halls of the New York State Assembly have yielded some of the oddest named individuals you'll ever hear about

   Among these numerous instances of strangely named New York legislators is Hoxie Waldo Smith, a representative in the Assembly from Kings County during the early years of the 20th century. While his service in the legislature may have been brief (he served from 1918-1919), Smith was nevertheless a resident of distinction in his native New York, serving during WWI and had been engaged in the brokerage business in Manhattan.

   Hoxie Waldo Smith was born on July 12, 1893, in Brooklyn, New York, one of four sons born to Clifford Hoxie (1851-1915) and Elizabeth Ward Smith (1854-1924). Clifford Hoxie Smith had been a veteran printer in New York City, being connected with the Brooklyn Typographical Union for over forty years. Hoxie W. received his education at Public School 15 and the Commercial Evening High School in New York and was later enrolled in the Dwight Private school. 

A young Hoxie Smith and his father Clifford, photo courtesy of Tim Smith.

   After leaving school Smith began pursuing a career in law but after a few months of study "abandoned it to enter the brokerage business." Smith proved successful in this new venture, finding employment with the Goodbody and Co. brokerage firm in Manhattan during the mid-1910s. Smith also became active in New York Democratic political circles during this time and was remarked as having made "campaign speeches for many Democratic nominees" during the previous four years.

   Hoxie Smith was eventually nominated for a seat in the New York State Assembly, and in November 1917 narrowly defeated Republican candidate Malcolm Matheson to represent Brooklyn's Tenth district in the legislature. A campaign profile for Smith appeared in an edition of the Brooklyn Standard Union newspaper towards the end of the contest and is shown below.

  

   At the age of twenty-four, Hoxie W. Smith was the youngest assemblyman to be elected in 1917, and with his youth came a rather unexpected hangup! As mentioned in the Brooklyn Standard article below, Smith's youthful appearance caused some confusion in Albany when the 1918 legislative term began. Shortly after being elected, Smith was mistaken for a page boy by two Tammany Hall Democrats, one of whom palmed Smith a two-dollar bill. Smith (being the honest public servant that he was) shortly thereafter informed the men of his assemblyman status and returned the money.

  

  A similar incident occurred in January 1919 after Hoxie Smith had won re-election to the assembly. After arriving at the capital to be sworn in, Smith ventured to the office of Deputy New York  Secretary of State Charles Taft to take his oath. Secretary Taft (unaware of who Smith was) mistook the assemblyman for a page boy and told him to leave, stating that New York Secretary of State Francis Hugo had "no time to see a page boy" and that Smith should come back the following day.

   Understandably indignant, Smith replied "I am not a page. I am an assemblyman and want to be sworn in." Secretary Taft (unmoved by Smith's plea) evidently laughed at the annoyed assemblyman, who then left the office and later returned with witnesses who could verify who he was! Once the matter had been ironed out, Secretary Taft is remarked as "apologizing profusely" to Smith, who eventually took his oath of office. A write-up on this humorous incident appeared in the Oswego Palladium on January 8, 1919, and has been posted below.

   While Smith's legislative tenure got off to a rather interesting start in 1918, he immediately set about doing the best job possible for his constituency. He was named to the House Committee on Social Welfare and the Committee on Banking, and later introduced a bill during his second term that would require people or corporations that gave trading stamps or premium coupons to pay a $1,000 license fee for "each place or store in the county owned by such person or corporation where such stamps are used." 

   Hoxie Smith won a second term in the assembly in November 1918 and midway through his second term is recorded as introducing legislation that would provide "license and license fees for elevators and elevator operators." Mention is also given to Smith resigning during this term to enter military service in WWI, but no elaboration is given as to his rank, length of service, or area of deployment.

  Smith was unsuccessful in his bid for a third assembly term in November 1919, losing to Republican candidate Leo V. Doherty by a vote of 10, 287 to 7,329. Not one to let a loss get the best of him, Smith continued to actively follow state politics, even being talked of as a potential state senate candidate in the late 1920s. In August 1921 Smith married in Cedarhurst, New York to Elenore Agnes Madden (1896-1985). The couple are believed to have been childless.

  In late 1926 Smith returned to Albany as the newly installed statistician and market reporter for the New York State Department of Public Markets. His tenure in this post (listed as paying over $5,500 a year) lasted only a few months, with Smith resigning in mid-1927. His resignation proved to be a hot subject that year (as evidenced by the Brooklyn Standard article below) and the news of his resignation completely mystified the Democratic bigwigs in his native Brooklyn!

   After leaving the Department of Public Markets, Smith continued to be involved in New York Democratic politics, becoming the vice chairman of the campaign for Manhattan borough president Samuel Levy, then running for the office of President of the City Council in 1942. 

   Hoxie Smith's life after 1942 is quite sketchy, with very little information being located on him after this date. He died at age 69 on July 17, 1962, in Hackensack, New Jersey, and was shortly thereafter interred at the George Washington Memorial Cemetery in Paramus. Elenore Madden Smith survived her husband by over twenty years, dying at age 89 in 1985, and was later buried in the same cemetery as her husband.

   Another "Hoxie" who made his name known politically is Mr. Hoxie Brown, a resident of Colchester in the county of New London, Connecticut. Born in the town of South Kingston, Rhode Island on November 1, 1819, Brown removed to the village of Lebanon, Connecticut with his family when he was still a child. He attended schools in both South Kingston and Connecticut and married in 1847 to Ms. Esther Hoxie (born 1822), with whom he would have two sons, Henry H. (1849-1915) and Edwin L. (1858-1930). In his early residency in Connecticut, Brown is mentioned as having involvement with the state militia, although no elaboration is given as to the length of his service.

   Hoxie Brown spent the majority of his life as a successful farmer, eventually removing from Lebanon to the village of Colchester in the mid-1860s. He was elected to the Connecticut State House of Representatives in 1879 from New London County and is also remarked as receiving "many recognitions from his townsmen" both before and after his stint in state government.

   After his brief service in the legislature, Brown continued to operate his farm in Colchester,  later serving as a member of the Colchester Board of Health in 1886. Esther H. Brown died in 1901 at age 79 and Hoxie himself died on July 31, 1906, at age 86. Both were later buried in the Linwood Cemetery in Colchester. The rare portrait of him above was featured in the Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut, published in 1891. This informative work has also yielded portraits (and information) on Luzon Burritt Morris and Supply Twyng Holbrook, both profiled on the site in past articles.

Lansdale Ghiselin Sasscer (1893-1964), Lansdale Ghiselin Sasscer Jr. (1926-2020)

From the Annapolis Capitol, November 3, 1948.

    A seven-term member of Congress from Maryland, Lansdale Ghiselin Sasscer had earlier represented Prince George's County in the state Senate for fifteen years. He was born on September 30, 1893, in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, the son of Frederick (1856-1929) and Lucinda Ashton Claggett Sasscer (1857-1921).  Sasscer attended schools local to Prince George's County and later graduated from the Tome School in Port Deposit.
   After graduating high school, Sasscer continued his education at the Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He graduated from here in 1914 and passed his bar exam the same year. Within three years of opening a law practice, Sasscer signed on to serve his country overseas during World War I, being a first lieutenant in the 59th Artillery. In 1919 he married to Agnes Goffren (1891-1984), to whom he was wed for over forty years. The couple would have three children, Agnes Lansdale, Lucy Claggett, and Lansdale Ghiselin Jr. (born 1926). Of these children Lansdale G. Sasscer Jr. would follow his father into public life, being an attorney and four-term member of the Maryland House of Delegates.
   Following his return from military service Sasscer recommenced with his law practice and in November 1921 won election to the Maryland State Senate. He would serve in that body for sixteen years (1922-1938) and was the president of this body during the sessions of 1935 and 1937, as well as chairing the committees on Finance and Judicial Proceedings. In addition to his tenure in the state senate, Sasscer served as part of the Maryland delegation to the 1924 and 1936 Republican National Conventions.
  In 1938 Lansdale Sasscer announced that he'd be seeking the Democratic nomination for Governor of Maryland in that year's September primary. As one of four candidates vying for the nomination, Sasscer faced an uphill battle and placed fourth on election day, polling 23, 587 votes to Herbert O'Conor's winning total of 147,613.  O'Conor would go on to win the general election that November and served as Maryland Governor until being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1946.
   Fate intervened in Sasscer's political fortunes in December 1938 when seven-term Maryland Congressman Stephen Warfield Gambrill died in office in Washington, D.C. A few weeks following Gambrill's death, a special election was held in February 1939 to fill the vacant seat, with Lansdale G. Sasscer being the Democratic nominee. Running against Sasscer in this special election was Albert Kingsley Love, who had run three earlier losing candidacies for Congress. When the votes were tallied it was Sasscer who won out, besting Love by a vote of 23, 287 to 4, 742.

                           This painting of Sasscer is in the possession of the Maryland State Archives.

   Sasscer would win his first full term in the house in November 1940, beating Republican nominee John Torvestad by over 30,000 votes. He successively won his reelection bids in 1942, 1944, 1946, 1948, and 1950, serving nearly 14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. In early 1952 Sasscer entered the Democratic primary for U.S. Senator from Maryland, and in May of that year lost out to state senator George Perry Mahoney, 122,679 votes to 136, 932.
   Following his senatorial defeat, Sasscer finished his final term in Congress, which concluded in January 1953. He wasn't a candidate for renomination and after leaving the government returned to his law practice in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. It was here that he died on May 5, 1964, at age 70, and he was subsequently interred in the Trinity Episcopal Church Cemetery in that town. Agnes Goffren Sasscer survived her husband by two decades, dying in 1984 at age 93 and was also interred in the Trinity Cemetery.

Sasscer in the latter period of his Congressional service, 1952.

                                                                   Lansdale G. Sasscer Jr.

   Politics continued in the Sasscer family with Lansdale Ghiselin Sasscer Jr. (born September 25, 1926) who represented Prince George's County in the Maryland legislature for two four-year terms. A veteran of World War II, Sasscer served in the Coast Guard and was a graduate of the University of Virginia in the class of 1950. Admitted to the Maryland bar in 1951, Sasscer won election to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1954 and would serve in that body from 1955-1963. 
   In 1962 Sasscer was an unsuccessful candidate for the state senate, and after his service in the house of delegates returned to the practice of law until his retirement in the 1990s. A member of the Maryland and District of Columbia Bar Associations, Sasscer was also a member of the board of directors for the Bank of Brandywine. He died at the Sasscer family home on April 13, 2020, aged 93.

Wankard Pooser (1893-1978)

  I'm sure anyone who is reading this article got an immediate chuckle out of the strangeness of this man's name, but make no mistake, Florida politician Wankard Pooser was an actual person! One can wonder if this two-term Florida state legislator had to endure some teasing about his curious name. The rare portrait of him shown above was discovered via the Florida Memory historical website and is in all likelihood the only portrait of him to be found online.
  Wankard Pooser was born on September 27, 1893, in DeFuniak Springs, Florida, and little else could be found concerning his early life, the exception being a WWI draft registration card denoting that he'd attended "rural schools". Pooser married his wife Maude in the mid-1910s and became parents to a family of eleven children. Of these children, his son Wankard Lucius Pooser died aged 91 in 2008 and was an attorney for five decades, being a member of both the Florida and New York bar.

    A resident of Jackson County, Florida beginning in 1903, Pooser was a farmer and school teacher prior to his time in state government. Pooser abandoned teaching in 1937 and engaged in house moving, in addition to farming. He entered politics in 1935 with an unsuccessful run for state senator, and in 1944 Jackson County elected him to the first of two terms in the Florida House of Representatives, where he served from 1945-1949. The following Florida Humanities Council link denotes that Pooser was elected on a single campaign promise, which was to vote no on every single bill that passed before him. It is also mentioned that he broke this promise only once (it isn't elaborated on what bill he voted for) and that the "voters rejected him at the next election". Pooser's frequent "nay" votes were highlighted in the June 1, 1949 edition of the Miami Herald, which described him as red-faced, bespectacled, and "often irascible."

  During his two terms, Pooser was frequently at odds with veteran house members and government officials, referring to them as "those Tallahassee bureaucrats". The Herald detailed that Pooser's cantankerousness carried over into a lack of legislative accomplishment, having "failed with a couple of general bills to help the house moving business." Despite his record of little-to-no legislation, Pooser remained non-plussed, with the Herald remarking:

"Pooser's defense is that he is doing--and has been doing all along--precisely what he told his people he would do if elected."

   Pooser's two terms in the house weren't without controversy, however. In May 1945 Pooser began preparations to introduce a constitutional amendment that aimed to "abolish" the Florida legislature and turn its duties over to the Governor. Pooser noted that his bill would save "many thousands of dollars to the taxpayers of the state formally endowing the executive with the complete lawmaking powers he already is exercising and abolishing entirely the figurehead body now known as the legislature." 

From the May 11, 1945, Sarasota Herald.

From the Pensacola News, March 4, 1960.

    Later in May 1945, the Saint Petersburg Times reported on a remark Pooser had made during a debate in the house with fellow representative John Lambe. In this debate, Rep. Lambe had made known his objections to a bill Pooser had introduced that proposed "strict regulation" of the Jackson County Hospital, located in Pooser's hometown of Marianna. During the debate proceedings between them, Pooser made a remark about the death of one of Lambe's children two years previously. Lambe is recorded as becoming emotional and being unable to continue his debate with Pooser, who was later admonished by his fellow representatives for his remarks. The legislature then "immediately killed his bill by a loud voice vote."
  Pooser is later quoted in the same paper as excusing himself from further house proceedings, noting that "I'm withdrawing from politics, for which I feel myself totally unfitted anyway." As noted earlier, Pooser was elected to two terms in the house, which proved that he did not make good on his statement. During his second term, Pooser continued to be the "great dissenter" of the house, and sources of the time frequently picked up on his consistent voting pattern. In the Miami News edition of July 2, 1949, an editorial referred to Pooser as "out of tune" with the times, noting that:

" Representative Pooser went to great lengths during the legislative session to explain practically all of his votes. There is no telling how much it cost the state to have spread in the legislative journal, his lengthy explanations for saying either aye or nay, and yet, with all of his explanations, his service to the state was negligible."

  Pooser flirted with a state senate run in 1950 and 1952, being described as a man who "set was is believed to be a record for negative votes." In March 1960 he announced his campaign for his old House seat but failed to make his candidacy extend past that year's primary. After many years of being out of the political spotlight, Wankard Pooser died on February 22, 1978, at age 84, and was subsequently interred at the Pope Cemetery in Sneads, Jackson County, Florida. 

                                               Would you vote for a man named Wankard Pooser?