Wilver Thurman Naragon (1871-1939)

From the Dayton Daily News, March 27, 1939.

  Featured on this site's Facebook page several days ago, Wilver Thurman Naragon's name was found via the archives of the Coshocton Tribune. The first "Wilver" this author has discovered, Naragon was in his day a leading manufacturer in Greene County, and was also politically active, serving four years as mayor of Osborn. He followed that post with his time as U.S. Postmaster at Osborn until his death in 1939. One of twelve children born to Irven and Chastina Elizabeth (Barnhouse) Naragon, Wilver Thurman Naragon was born in Harrison County, Ohio on May 5, 1871.

   Little is known of Naragon's early life or education, and on May 18, 1897, he married in Jefferson, Ohio to Eva Alverta Copeland (1873-1946). The couple's four-decade marriage produced eight children, Blanche Edith (1898-1977), Earl Keller (1899-1924), Paul Copeland (1902-1948), Dale Demarr (1903-1976), Orlou B. (1905-1993), Gladys Pearl (1906-1979), Wilver Irvin (1907-1958), Lloyd (1910-1956). In the early 1900s Naragon engaged in railroad work, being "manifest clerk at Steubenville" with the Pennsylvania railway. By 1910 he had advanced to chief clerk of that railway line in Newark, Ohio, and sometime later established himself in the hardware business in West Lafayette, Ohio.

  Following the purchase of his store in 1916 by the Gray Hardware Co., Naragon joined the West Lafayette Manufacturing Co. as a director and general secretary. This company later reformed into the Moore Enameling and Mfg Company, and during his West Lafayette residency Naragon served as a Sunday school superintendent for the Methodist Protestant church. In 1926 he entered politics with his candidacy for Democratic state representative from Coshocton County, filing his papers that June.

From the Coshocton Tribune, June 2, 1926.

  In the days following his announcement Naragon's candidacy was touted in the Coshocton Tribune, which described him as:

"A man of high conservative judgment, high Christian character and more than ordinary abilty that and will make the highest type of public official. His selection for this office will undoubtedly reflect credit upon our county and community and being a forceful and pleasing speaker, can render a real and distinctive service to his constituents. His friends bespeak for him the success due a loyal Democrat and true American citizen."

  Naragon would lose the August Democratic primary to  Coshocton school superintendent Emmett Guthrie (1892-1970), who went on to win the general election that November.  Following his defeat, Naragon removed with his family to Osborn in Greene County, Ohio. Here he would be a presiding elder in the local church and was elected as mayor of the village. He served two consecutive terms (1930-34), and in March 1934 was appointed as postmaster of Osborn. He served in that capacity until his death from a stroke on March 26, 1939, at age 67. Naragon was survived by his wife and children and was interred at the Fairfield Cemetery in West Lafayette. A decade following Naragon's death, the town of  Osborn ceased to exist, as it was merged with the neighboring village of Fairfield to form the town of Fairborn in 1950. This town, with a population of over 32,000 as per the 2010 census, is located near the famed Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. 

From the Dayton Daily News, April 17, 1932.

From the Coshocton Tribune, March 27, 1939.

San Francisco (1881-1939)

Portrait from the 1909 Kansas Legislative composite; Author's collection.

"Perhaps Mr. Shakespeare's guess is right. Just because this representative's name is San Francisco, it does not necessarily follow that an earthquake will strike him before the session closes. It is evident that his parents had a wide streak of humor about the time they named him, but it is not a bad name. "San" means Saint. This young man from the classic Cimarron may not be a saint, but he is highly respectable...Every San Francisco should have a Golden Gate, so Mr. Francisco follows the occupation of bank cashier."

   Such was the description given in the January 19th, 1909 edition of the Garden City Telegram in its write-up of San Francisco of Gray County. Before anyone accuses me of making up a name to post here, I can assure you that Mr. Francisco was an actual person, and while he shares his name with the famed California city, isn't believed to have had any connection with that area (despite the latter portion of his life being spent in the neighboring city of San Diego.) A one-term member of the Kansas State House of Representatives from 1909-11, little could be found on Mr. Francisco, hence why his article here will be on the short side!

   Born in Adair County, Missouri on April 15, 1881, San Francisco was the son of James Detroit and Mary Ellen Hilton Francisco. Research has shown that by 1900 San Francisco was a resident of Ingalls in Gray County, Kansas, and married there in December 1902 to Enid Studebaker, with whom he would have one daughter, Enid Elaine (1915-1996). 

  Sometime following his marriage San Francisco moved to the neighboring town of Cimarron and was still a resident of that town when he became the Democratic nominee for the Kansas State House of Representatives. Remarked as being one of the youngest candidates ever to run for representative, the 1908 Topeka Journal (article below) notes that Francisco's name would be of aid during the upcoming campaign!

  San Francisco would win election to the Kansas legislature in late 1908 and served during the 1909-11 session. During this term, Francisco held seats on the committees on Irrigation, Horticulture and Forestry, and Banks and Baking. Around this same time, he became affiliated with the Capricorn Mining Company in California, of which he would serve as President. 

From the Topeka State Journal, April 22, 1908.

   Following his time in state government, San Francisco served as a Vice President and director of the Gray County State Bank at Cimarron. San Francisco later removed to San Diego, California, where he died in 1939. He was later interred at the Greenwood Memorial Park in that city and was survived by his wife Enid, who died in 1945.

You Can Help!

 I am currently searching for further information on San Francisco (the man, not the city) and need your assistance!! If there are any readers or possible relatives who have further information on Mr. Francisco to share, please don't hesitate to contact me here or via the Strangest Names In American Political History Facebook page!

Oswin Hart Doolittle Fowler (1857-1939)

From the "Souvenir History of Wallingford, Connecticut:, 1895.

   Recorded by the "Souvenir History of Wallingford, Connecticut" as being one of the youngest practicing lawyers in that city's history, Oswin Hart Doolittle Fowler would go on to further distinction in the mid-1900s when he was elected to serve as judge of the Borough Court of Wallingford, holding that office for several years. Although his reputation was largely confined to New Haven County, Connecticut, it was his service as a judge (as well as his unique name) that earns him a place here. 

    Born in North Haven, Connecticut on January 17, 1857, O.H.D. Fowler (as most sources list him) was the son of Henry Baldwin and Lucy Eloise Doolittle Fowler. A family with its roots in Connecticut extending back to the mid-17th century, the Fowler family could count among its relations one Sir Richard Fowler de Foxley, a crusader Knight who accompanied Richard Coeur de Lion (the future Richard I of England) into battle in the Holy Lands. O.H.D. Fowler's unusual name can be traced back to his maternal uncle Oswin Hart Doolittle (1818-1851), a resident of New Haven County who represented that area in the Connecticut state legislature for three terms in the late 1840s before dying of "lung fever" at the age of 32.

   A student in the local schools of Wallingford, O.H.D. Fowler would attend high school in New Haven and later studied at the Hopkins Grammar School, completing his studies there in 1875. Shortly thereafter he entered Yale University and during the 1878-79  year also taught school in Wallingford. In 1879 he began to study law at the Yale Law School and graduated in the class of 1881. He was shortly thereafter admitted to the state bar of Connecticut and removed to Wallingford in September 1881 to open a law practice. Three years following his removal he married Carrie B. Parmelee (1860-1938) and later had three daughters, Mabel E. (birth-date unknown),  Ethel (1888-1953), and Helen (birth-date unknown).

  Over the course of the next twenty years, Fowler's law practice continued to grow "steadily in  volume and importance" and he would gain a reputation as being "numbered among the ablest representatives of the bar in this section of the state." In 1888 he purchased a palatial home in Wallingford (shown below) and through various renovations built it into one of the city's most "attractive residences".  

                              The Fowler home in Wallingford, from the "Souvenir History of Wallingford."

   Fowler experienced his first taste of political life when he served a two-year term as judge of probate for the Wallingford district, holding that post from 1893-95. Several years later he would win election as Prosecuting Attorney for Wallingford's borough court and occupied that post for the remainder of the decade. During his term, Fowler was a prominent booster for the establishment of a municipal electric light plant in the city and took on the task of authorizing and compiling the resolutions necessary for its construction. 

   In April 1911 Fowler's public profile continued to rise when he was named as Judge of the Borough Court of Wallingford. He would be reappointed to the bench in 1917 and would also serve Wallingford as town counsel, counsel for the town's First National Bank, and counsel for several businesses in Wallingford. Fowler also maintained affiliation with the St. Paul's Episcopal Church, the New Haven County Bar Association and the Wallingford Club. The Yale Obituary record of 1938-39 also notes that Fowler served in the Connecticut state legislature. Despite this brief mention, I could find no other source that records his service in that body or however long he may have served. 

   Fowler left the office of borough court judge in 1925 but continued to serve as town counsel until 1931. In 1920 he served on the celebration executive committee for Wallingford's tercentenary and pulled double duty as chairman of the reception's committee. Widowed in February 1938, Judge Fowler died just over a year later on March 3, 1939, at age 81, his cause of death being attributed to "arteriosclerosis". He was later interred alongside his wife Carrie at the In Memoriam Cemetery in Wallingford.

O.H.D. Fowler at the 250th anniversary of the founding of Wallingford, 1920.

Lodovica Ramage Clements (1851-1939)

Portrait from the 1937 Iowa State Register.

   Lodovica Ramage Clements was a native Ohioan who migrated to Iowa at a young age and would find distinction in the realms of business and politics. Long prominent in Marion County public affairs, Clements was elected to the Iowa State House of Representatives in 1936 at the age of 85, the oldest man ever to be elected to that body in its history. The rare portrait of Clements shown above was discovered via the Iowa Red Book 1937-38 edition and many of the facts contained herein were located in his 1939 obituary in the Pella Chronicle newspaper.

   Lodovica Ramage Clements was born in Morgan (some sources say Belmont) County, Ohio on November 6, 1851, one of five children born to John Ray (1824-1888) and Malinda Ramage Clements (1825-1914). Why John and Malinda decided to bestow the unusual name "Lodovica" upon their third-born son has been lost to history, and sources also list two alternate spellings of his first name, those being "Lodovico" and "Lovodica". The middle name Ramage originates from Mrs. Clement's maiden name.

    The Clements family relocated from Ohio to the county of Jasper, Iowa in November 1855 and later settled in the village of  Newton. Lodovica Clements attended schools local to Newton and Wittenburg, Iowa, and as an adolescent enrolled at the Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. He married in October 1875 to Angeline Jacobs (1852-1907) a native of Mt. Carroll, Illinois. Four children were eventually born to the couple and are listed as follows: Lena R. (1877-1901), Josephine (1881-1969), Pearl (born 1882), and Harold (born 1892). Lodovica and his family moved to the city of Des Moines in 1881 and soon after arriving became involved in the manufacture of furniture. He continued in this line of work for a number of years and later became a producer of excelsior (wood wool) at plants in Cainsville, Missouri, and Harvey, Iowa. Clements' Pella Chronicle obituary also records him as being involved in the timber industry. 

   In 1907 Angeline Jacobs Clements died at the age of 55 and Lodovica never remarried after her death. In 1917 he was named as the deputy clerk for the district court of Marion County and served in this post until 1921. He was reappointed to this position in 1930 when he was 79 and was the incumbent until 1935. In 1924 he entered into the race for state representative from Marion County and, following his win in the Democratic primary, went on to face J.H. Johnson in that year's general election. In November 1924 it was Johnson who won out at the polls, besting Clements by a vote of 4,856 to 4,309. Clements would again run for state representative in the 1936 election year and that November eked out a narrow victory over Republican candidate A.R. Reese, 5,720 to 5, 522. 

From the 1936 Pella Chronicle.

   Taking his seat in January 1937, "Lode" Clements was the oldest member of the Iowa legislature serving in that session (being 85 at the time) and also holds the distinction of "being the oldest man to have served as an elected member of that body", according to the Pella Chronicle. During his brief term of service, Clements held seats on the committees on Agriculture; Banks and Banking; Commerce and Trade; Labor; Public Utilities; Railroads and Roads and Highways. He also served as chairman of the committee on Mines and Mining. 

  In 1938 Clements announced his reelection campaign and in June of that year was profiled in the Pella Chronicle on his previous term, which noted:

"Mr. Clements said he was not making a great deal of noise this first term, but was mostly listening; but if he came back next term he expects to have a good deal to say. That Mr. Clements was listening and thinking and studying his first term was quite evident to most any observer. And he did occasionally have something to say during his first term last winter, and what he did say was very much to the point. He was asking himself the question: "Why should the great wealth producing state of Iowa be spending more than half its time during a legislative session on the problem of relief--relief from want and the fear of want?"

   Despite approaching ninety years of age Clements ran an active campaign and came out in favor of a "real old age pension, based on matter of right, and that no liens be placed against the property of the aged." Opposing Clements that year was Republican candidate Carroll Johnson (1913-2001), a man nearly 60 years his junior! At the close of the polls that November Clements lost out in the vote count (polling 3,925 votes to Johnson's 4,337) and one can wonder if his age may have been a factor in influencing the electorate to vote for the younger Republican candidate!

A Clements camapign notice from the June 2, 1938 Pella Chronicle.

    Despite losing his seat, the 87-year-old Clements still maintained an active schedule, being a parishioner at the Newton Presbyterian church, a member of the local Odd Fellows Lodge (for over 56 years!) and was the last surviving charter member of the Center Star Lodge #588 of Des Moines. The Pella Chronicle notes that Clements was an "extensive reader and was unusually well informed about matters of public welfare and progress; and, notwithstanding his advanced age, he retained his mental faculties and memory as perfectly as in his earlier years, and did not lose interest in public affairs." 

   Lodovica Clements died on December 16, 1939, at a hospital in Oskaloosa, Iowa. He was 88 years old at the time of his death and was subsequently interred alongside his wife at the Newton Union Cemetery in Newton, Iowa. He was memorialized in the Pella Chronicle as having "keen insight into the affairs of today, and their solution often gave him ideas far in advance of his time."

Lodovica Clement's obituary from the December 1939 Pella Chronicle newspaper.