Amplias Hale Avery (1870-1950)

Portrait from the Iowa Red Book, 1931-32.

   Nine-term Iowa state representative Amplias Hale Avery rose to become a beloved figure in his adopted home city of Spencer, where he served as mayor and city school superintendent. Familiarly known as "Dad", Avery was a well-known civic leader in his community and attained further prominence in the Masonic fraternity, holding memberships in several lodges in his state. A native of Wisconsin, Amplias Hale Avery was born in Richwood, Richland County on May 20, 1870, the son of Alden Hale and Sarah (Otto) Avery. Unique in name, Avery is the first and only "Amplias" this author has located. Amplias (or its Latin counterpart, Ampliatus) is of biblical origin, recorded in Romans 16:8 as a Roman Christian greeted by the Apostle Paul.

   Avery resided on a farm during childhood, with his early education being obtained in the rural schools of his region. He was left parentless at the age of nine, with he and his six siblings being "parceled out" to various neighbors. It was Avery himself who was deposited in the hands of an "unfeeling old man", who proved a stern taskmaster. Avery was subjected to long hours of chores and verbal abuse for over a year before running away to seek his way in the world. Despite being just twelve years old, Avery traveled, lived, and worked upon several farms over the next few years, accumulating enough income to finally remove to Iowa. Locating at Osage, he enrolled at the Cedar Valley Seminary, and "worked his way through school" over four years, holding various jobs during his stay. 

   Shortly before graduating Avery saw a bright future for himself in South Dakota, and after settling in Aberdeen pursued a law degree. He supplemented his income by teaching in a country school and following the financial panic of 1893 elected to pursue a teaching career full time. After a year in Aberdeen, he removed to Ashton (residing here three years) and later removed to Woonsocket, where for seven years he was a school principal. Amplias Avery married in December 1888 to Grace Cornwall (1871-1915). The couple had one daughter, Theta Bell (1889-1965), and separated in the late 1890s. In 1899 he remarried to Grace Dunham (1878-1972), to who he was wed until his death. Their union produced three children, Margaret (1902-1931), Alden Dunham (1908-1994), and Barbara (1918-2011).

   In 1901 Amplias Avery was offered the post of principal of a high school in Spencer, Iowa, and after accepting relocated to the city that became his home for the next forty-nine years. He served as principal for one year, and following the resignation of the city school superintendent, succeeded to that post. He served thirteen years and during that time oversaw four schools in Spencer. His tenure was lauded in the 1909 History of Clay County, Iowa, noting that:

"During his incumbancy as superintendent he has introduced many substantial improvements in teaching and also in the branches taught. His labors are at all times practical and he inspires the teachers under him with much of his own his zeal and interest in the work."

  After stepping down as superintendent Avery undertook a career change and entered into the life insurance business. He advanced quickly and by the time of his entering politics had become the sales manager for "one of the largest life insurance companies operating in Iowa." Avery also owned three farms in the vicinity of Spencer, and engaged in Chautauqua work, organizing assemblies in Kossuth County. Avery also proved instrumental in the founding of the Spencer library, and sat on its board of trustees until his death. A longstanding Mason both before and after his settlement in Iowa, Avery had been a Worshipful Master of the Woonsocket Lodge #33 of Free and Accepted Masons, and in Iowa held memberships in the following:

• The Evening Shade Lodge #312 of Free and Accepted Masons
• Clay Chapter #112 Royal Arch Masons (served as High Priest)
• Temple Council #37 of Royal and Select Masters (past Illustrious Master)
• Asotus Commandry #65, Knights Templar (past Commander)
• Sioux City Consistory#5 Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite 
• A founder of the Spencer DeMolay Chapter in 1922.

From the Spencer Reporter, March 31, 1926.

   Amplias Hale Avery made his first foray into politics in 1924, announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination for state senator from the 47th district. Acknowledged as "well known and time tried" by the Kossuth County Advance, Avery's opponent that year was William J. Breakenridge, president of the Kossuth County Farm Bureau. Breakinridge defeated Avery in the Republican primary and went on to win the general election, later serving two consecutive terms in the senate.

  Undeterred, Avery continued plotting his political future and in 1926 entered into the race for mayor of Spencer. In March he defeated incumbent William Ziegler Long by 55 votes and during his term was elected as president of the Iowa League of Municipalities for 1926-27. Avery was defeated for reelection in March 1928, placing third in a field of four candidates. 

  Two years following his term as mayor Avery set his sights on a seat in the state legislature, and in June 1930 won the Republican primary. In the general election, he defeated W.J. Heikens by a vote of 2,217 to 1,754 and took his seat in January 1931. Avery proved to be busy as a first-term legislator, being named to the Committees on Appropriations, Cities and Towns, Conservation and Resources, Dairy and Food, Fish and Game, Insurance, and Roads and Highways. As the first session of the legislature came to a close in April 1931, Avery's  work was profiled in the Spencer News-Herald, which noted:

"In political affiliations in the legislature, Mr. Avery maintained the position of an independent Republican, being affiliated with no group or faction. As a result he was enabled to meet with and cooperate with almost every faction of the house during the term and advance Clay County's cause through his connections with all blocs."

From the 1939-40 Iowa Red Book.

      In addition to his committee service, Avery supported seventeen of the twenty major pieces of legislation passed by the house during the 1931 session. Amongst these measures were the following:

• Supported the State Road bond constitutional amendment.
• Supported the inheritance tax increase.
• Supported oleomargarine tax increase.
• Supported a 5% tax cut by all levying bodies.
• Supported a twenty-five-year conservation program.
• Supported a state senate redistricting bill.
• Fought against the state purchase of interstate bridges.
• Fought against state control of telephone and telegraph lines.
• Fought against the appropriation of $50,000 for an Iowa exhibit at the 1933 World's Fair, "on the grounds that it was an excessive outlay of tax money."

   Avery reflected on the camaraderie of the house at the close of the session, noting that he was:

"Most impressed by the honest and sincerity of the majority of the members of the house to act and vote in accordance with their honest convictions of what was the best for the state of Iowa. Honest disposition of all matters seemed to be the first consideration on the part of the majority, no matter how determined the opposition."

  In the June 1932 Republican primary Avery was defeated for reelection but was not out of the political spotlight for long. Due to the resignation of fellow Clay County representative Frank Wenig, a special election was held in September 1933 to fill his seat. Avery entered the race and was elected that September, and two years later won a third term, defeating Democrat Roy S. LaBrant by a vote of 2,812 to 2,077. These terms saw Avery named to four new house committees, including the Judiciary, Military Affairs, Public Health, and Public Utilities, and in November 1936 lost his reelection bid to Democrat Thomas I. Kephart.

From the 1947-48 Iowa Red Book.

   Amplias Avery was returned to the legislature for a fourth term in November 1938, besting J. Russell Cook by a vote of 2,858 to 2,317. The 1939-41 term saw Avery chair the committee on Public Libraries and sat on two new committees, Old Age Assistance and Telegraphs and Express. He subsequently won reelection to five more terms in the house (1940, 1942, 1944, 1946, and 1948), and during the 1943-45 session served as speaker pro tem of the house. 

  Acknowledged as the dean of the house in his final years of service, Avery celebrated his 80th birthday in May 1950 and that July was named "Tops In Our Town" by the citizens of Spencer. In November 1950 he took ill and collapsed at his home in Spencer, and on December 7 died at the Spencer Municipal Hospital. He was survived by his wife Grace and two of his children and was interred at the Riverside Cemetery in Spencer.

Elloy Ring Ganey (1881-1950)

Portrait from the October 28, 1948 Fredonia, New York Censor.

    Every so often I receive the pleasant surprise of discovering a political figure local to my home county of Chautauqua, New York who is blessed with a peculiar name. Just a short while ago I experienced one of those surprises when I stumbled across the name of Elloy Ring Ganey, a Chautauqua County resident who was for many years prominent in local Democratic circles, being a candidate for the New York State Assembly, an alternate delegate to the 1928 Democratic National Convention, chairman of the Chautauqua Democratic Committee and Postmaster of Jamestown, New York. Despite Ganey's prominence in Chautauqua's public life several decades ago he is all but forgotten today, and the succeeding lines aim to be a proper biography of a historically neglected Chautauquan from the past.

    A native of Pennsylvania. Elloy Ring Ganey was born in Warren on December 12th, 1881, being the second of five children born to Mathew and Littie Ganey. The family would later move from Warren to the village of Carroll in Chautauqua County, and as a young man, Ganey would find work as a steam engineer under the employ of the Charles Haas Construction Company of Jamestown, New York. Ganey's obituary in the Warren Times Mirror further relates that he worked as a motorman for the Chautauqua Traction Company for a time, and would also serve as a game warden in Chautauqua County beginning in the early 1910s.

   E.R. Ganey became active in Chautauqua County political circles in the early 1920s, and in the succeeding years grew to be a prominent Democrat within the county. In 1926 he was a Democratic candidate for a seat in the New York State Assembly from Chautauqua's 1st district, and in the November election was defeated by Republican candidate Adolph Johnson, receiving 2,333 votes to Johnson's 11, 022. Two years following his defeat Ganey served as an alternate delegate from New York to the 1928 Democratic National Convention in Houston, Texas, which nominated Alfred E. Smith for the Presidency.

   Following his service as a delegate, Ganey achieved further prominence in April 1932 when he was selected to be chairman of the Chautauqua County Democratic Committee. The Silver Creek, New York News reported on his ascension to that office, noting that he was elected "without opposition." He held this post for two years, being succeeded in 1934 by Loren Lamphere. In that year E.R. Ganey received the appointment of Postmaster of Jamestown, New York, and would serve in this capacity until his death sixteen years later.

Elloy Ganey (pictured on the far left), from the January 6, 1946 Jamestown Post Journal.

                           Elloy R. Ganey (pictured at left), from the Buffalo Courier-Express, July 13, 1945.

   In addition to his political and civic activities within the county, Ganey maintained an interest in a decidedly non-political subject: horse racing. As the owner of a stable of several harness racing horses, he is remarked as being "a familiar figure at the Buffalo Raceway in his striking shirts and ties" and one of his horses, a "consistent trotter" named Camilla Hanover, earned over $17,000 in purse money. Ganey was also involved in several fraternal organizations in Chautauqua County, including the Jamestown Elks Lodge, the "Protected Home Circle" and was active in the running of the annual Chautauqua County Fair, serving as its president and head of horse racing.

   Elloy Ring Ganey died at WCA Hospital in Jamestown on March 21, 1950, at age 68. A heart ailment is attributed to being his cause of death, and following his passing was interred at the Fentonville Cemetery located near Frewsburg, New York. A life-long bachelor, Ganey was survived by three siblings and had resided with the Burch family of Jamestown as a border in their home. In keeping with the sometimes exhaustive research I do on some of these oddly named folks, I made a point to seek out Elloy Ganey's gravesite at the Fentonville Cemetery, and as luck would have it, this cemetery is comparatively small when compared to several others I've visited in the past. Within two minutes of beginning my hunt for his gravesite, I located Ganey's modest headstone near the front of the cemetery (photographs below.)

Tasker Lowndes Oddie (1870-1950)

   A former Governor and U.S. Senator from Nevada, Tasker Lowndes Oddie was a New Yorker by birth, being born in Brooklyn on October 24, 1870, the son of Henry Meigs and Helen Gibson Oddie. Oddie attended public schools in the Orange, New Jersey area and is remarked as having been a sickly youth. His state of impaired health later led to Oddie being sent by his parents out west, where the sixteen-year-old would work on a Nebraska ranch in the hopes that he'd better his health. After his return home, Oddie pursued a law degree, attending night classes at New York State University. He earned his bachelor of laws degree in 1895 and after being admitted to the state bar that year found employment as a clerk with a "wholesale importing house" in New York City. 
   Three years after attaining his law degree, Oddie joined the Woodbridge Company, a real estate firm. He would become Secretary-Manager of that company and in 1896 his work with that firm took him on an extended business trip to Nevada. So taken with the state and its lucrative business possibilities, Oddie relocated to Nevada in 1898, and here began a lifelong interest in that state's mining industry. 
  Beginning his mining claim in Austin, Nevada, Oddie was "obliged to do hard manual work in and around the mines" and in 1900 joined with a partner, J.L. Butler, to develop and expand mining properties in Tonopah. The two men would eventually establish the Tonopah Mining Co., with Oddie himself taking the title of company manager, as well as being the vice-president of the Tonopah Belmont Development Co. In addition to his success at Tonopah, Oddie's reputation continued on the upswing through the early 1900s, serving as secretary and manager of the Gold Hill Mining Co., and added the title of bank president to his resume when he took on the presidency of the Nye County Bank.
   After earning substantial wealth through his mining interests in the Tonopah area, Oddie became actively involved in politics, serving as the District Attorney for Nye County in 1901-1903. While serving as District Attorney, Oddie also held the office of Superintendent of Schools of Nye County and was later elected to the Nevada state senate from 1904-1908.
   In 1911 Oddie was elected as the Governor of Nevada and served one term in office, his term concluding in 1915. While in office, he signed the city charter for Las Vegas in 1911, thereby officially making it a city. Oddie is also listed as being unmarried during his time as Governor, and his mother, Ellen G. Oddie, is mentioned as serving as official hostess during his tenure in office. In an interesting side note, "Mother Oddie" is mentioned as having "kept track of her son's paycheck until her death in 1914". 
 Three years after leaving the Governor's office, Oddie married Daisy Randall MacKeigan, a native of Los Angeles. It is unknown at the time of this writing whether or not any children were born to them.

                                                            Oddie during his senate service.

  Six years after his term as Governor concluded, Oddie was elected to the United States Senate from Nevada, where he served for two terms. During his service, he was Chairman of the Committee on Mines and Mining (reflecting his earlier business interests) as well as chair of the Post Office and Post Roads Committee. In November 1932 Oddie was defeated by Patrick Anthony McCarran (1876-1954) for a third term. McCarran would go on to serve over two decades in the Senate and is remembered today for being one of that body's leading anti-communist members during his time in office.
  Tasker L. Oddie died in San Francisco, California on February 18, 1950, and was subsequently buried in the Lone Mountain Cemetery in Carson City, Nevada. His wife Daisy survived him by four years, dying on February 6, 1955, at age 70. The rare portrait of Oddie located at the top of this article was discovered in the 1903 edition of The Successful American, Volumes 7-8.