Governors Archive
Click the governor's name below to view a biography, link to their speeches, and link to their executive orders.
As a state senator for 14 years, Kelly was a leading voice in promoting healthy families in Kansas, and the importance of top-notch public schools in communities of all sizes. She built a reputation as a no-nonsense leader who worked with Democrats and Republicans alike to get things done.
As governor, Kelly has worked tirelessly to rebuild the state’s broken foundation. Since taking office, she fulfilled her promise to fully fund public schools, she led the passage of a comprehensive 10-year infrastructure plan, and she has rebuilt Kansas’ economic development recruitment tools. All while balancing the state’s budget.
Kelly has made it her life’s work to fight for children and families in her community, on the job, as a four-term state senator, and now as Governor.
Born June 3, 1960, Jeffrey William Colyer, M.D. is a fifth-generation Kansan from Hays.
Dr. Colyer holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Georgetown University, a master's degree in international relations from Cambridge University, and a medical doctorate from the University of Kansas, School of Medicine. Colyer specializes in craniofacial plastic surgery.
Elected to the Kansas House of Representatives in 2006 and the Kansas Senate in 2008, Dr. Colyer became 47th Governor of Kansas upon the resignation of Sam Brownback.
Born in Garnett, Kansas, on September 12, 1956, Sam Dale Brownback, a Kansas State University graduate, served as secretary of agriculture for the state of Kansas before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 1994.
Two years later, he resigned his position after defeating Jill Docking, a Wichita Democrat, for the unexpired term of Senator Bob Dole. Brownback was reelected in 1998 and again in 2004. In 2010 he was elected 46th Governor of Kansas.
Governor Brownback was approved by the United States Senate on January 24, 2018 as U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Mark Parkinson, an attorney and former state legislator from Olathe,became the state's 45th governor when he assumed that position upon theresignation of Governor Sebelius, April 28, 2009. The one-time chairmanof the Kansas Republican Party changed his party affiliation toDemocratic in 2006, joined the Sebelius ticket, and became lieutenantgovernor in January 2007.
Governor Parkinson is only the third Kansas lieutenant governor totake over as chief executive upon the resignation of a governor and onlythe sixth ever to fill the state's highest office. He did not seekelection at the end of his term.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Kathleen Sebelius, an Ohio native, was elected the 44th governor in November 2002. The daughter of a former Ohio governor and a Democrat, Sebelius served eight years as a state representative in Kansas and eight years as state insurance commissioner before successfully seeking the state's highest office.
Sebelius is the second woman to hold that office and the first to win a second four-year term. She resigned on April 28, 2009, to accept appointment as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Barack Obama administration.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Bill Graves was the state's 43rd governor. Born in January 9, 1953, in Salina, Graves was elected Kansas Secretary of State in 1990. He defeated Jim Slattery, a Democratic Congressman, in his race for governor in 1994. Graves was re-elected four years later with one of the largest margins in Kansas history.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Joan Finney was the first female to serve as Governor of Kansas. Finney was born on February 12, 1925 in Topeka to Leonard and Mary Sands McInroy. She graduated from high school in Manhattan, Kansas in 1942. She later earned a bachelor's degree in economic history from Washburn University, Topeka in 1978.
She began her long political career as a staff member in the Topeka and Washington, D.C. offices of U.S. Senator Frank Carlson. She served in this position from 1953-1969.
Her next position was as commissioner of elections for Shawnee County which she held from 1970-1972, then as administrative assistant to the Topeka mayor, 1973-1974.
She was elected to serve as Kansas State Treasurer from 1972-1986. Finney became the first female to hold that position and the longest-serving Kansas state treasurer. Finney served as Governor of Kansas from 1991-1995.
Joan Finney died in 2001.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
The state's 41st governor was born in Atwood on March 15, 1944. John Michael Hayden, a veteran of the Vietnam War, was a state legislator when he won the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 1986. In the subsequent general election, Mike Hayden defeated Lieutenant Governor Tom Docking, the son and grandson of former Kansas governors. Denied a second term in 1990, Hayden accepted a position as an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of the Interior and then returned to Kansas and served as secretary of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks from 2002 - 2011.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
John Carlin, a Democrat and the state's youngest 20th-century governor, was born in Salina on August 3, 1940. Carlin ran a dairy farm near Smolan when he was elected to the state legislature. In 1979, he moved to the governor's office after defeating the incumbent, and four years later, Governor Carlin became the first person to win a second four-year term. A constitutional provision, which prohibits three consecutive terms, ruled out the possibility of a third Carlin candidacy in 1986. After nearly a decade in Washington, D.C., where he served as Archivist of the United States, Governor Carlin once again resides in the state of his birth.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, on May 23, 1927, Robert F. Bennett practiced law in Johnson County and held several local offices before winning election to the state senate in 1964. He was president of the senate when he won the Republican Party's 1974 gubernatorial nomination and the subsequent general election contest. This was the first election in which candidates for Kansas governor and lieutenant governor ran as a team and were elected to four-year, instead of two-year, terms. Bennett was an unsuccessful candidate for a second term in 1978. He returned to his Johnson County law firm and home, where he died on October 9, 2000.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
The son of the state's 35th governor, Robert Docking was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on October 9, 1925. Like his father, he entered banking and in 1956 moved to Arkansas City. At the age of 41, just a decade after George Docking won his first gubernatorial election, Robert Docking won the first of four two-year terms as Kansas' chief executive. In 1970, he won an unprecedented third term and two years later set a new record by winning yet another. After eight years in Topeka, Docking returned to Arkansas City where he died on October 8, 1983.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
William H. Avery was born in Wakefield, Clay County, Kansas, on August 11, 1911, and graduated from University of Kansas at Lawrence in 1934. He engaged in business as a farmer and stockman near Wakefield, was director of the Wakefield Rural High School Board of Education, served two terms in the Kansas state house of representatives (1951-1955), and was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1954. After a decade on Capitol Hill (served, January 3, 1955-January 3, 1965), Avery chose to return to Kansas and run for governor. He won the Republican primary and general election in 1964, but the incumbent governor was defeated in his bid for reelection in 1966 by Robert Docking.
- (See also William Henry Avery Collection.)
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
John Anderson, Jr. was born in Johnson County on May 8, 1917, John Anderson, Jr., was a 1944 graduate of the University of Kansas law school. He practiced law in Olathe and served as county attorney, state legislator, and attorney general before winning the gubernatorial election in 1960. After finishing his second term, Anderson returned to the practice of law. In 1972, he unsuccessfully sought his party's nomination for governor a third time. That year, Republicans chose Morris Kay who lost in the general election to Robert Docking.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
George Docking was born on February 23, 1904 in Clay Center and raised in Lawrence, George Docking was only the sixth Democrat elected to the state's highest office. When he was reelected in 1958, he became the first Democrat ever elected to a second term. Two years later he failed in an effort to win an unprecedented third term, a feat accomplished by his son ten years later. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Docking director of the Export-Import Bank in Washington, D. C. The 59-year-old former Kansas governor died at home in Kansas City, Kansas, while holding that position on January 20, 1964.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
John McCuish was born on June 22, 1906 in Leadville, Colorado. In 1953, McCuish was elected Lieutenant Governor of Kansas, and served under Governor Fred Hall. Hall resigned on January 3, 1957, making McCuish governor of Kansas for the 11 days remaining before Docking's inauguration.
Fred Hall was born in Dodge City on July 24, 1916. He received a law degree from the University of Southern California and eventually returned to Dodge City to establish his own firm. He was elected lieutenant governor in 1950 and defeated Democratic candidate George Docking in the 1954 gubernatorial election. Unsuccessful in the 1956 GOP primary, Governor Hall resigned less than two weeks before the end of his first term to accept appointment as chief justice of the state supreme court. He died at Shawnee on March 18, 1970.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Born in Kansas City on May 19, 1907, Edward F. Arn was the first Kansas governor born in the 20th century. A World War II veteran and Republican activist, Arn served as state attorney general and as a state supreme court justice before his election as governor in 1950. Arn returned to Wichita to practice law after completing his second term in January 1955. He died there on January 22, 1998.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Frank Leslie Hagaman was born on June 1, 1894 in Bushnell, Illinois. Hagaman entered the governor's office when Governor Frank Carlson replaced Senator Harry Darby in the United States Senate. His term in office lasted forty-one days until he was replaced by Edward Arn.
Frank Carlson, the son of Swedish immigrants, was born January 23, 1893. Prior to entering politics he made a living as a farmer in his native Concordia, Kansas. Anecdotally, Carlson was in a wheat field, cutting wheat, when four businessmen approached him in 1928 urging him to run for the Kansas House of Representatives. He won that election and served two terms. Following his tenure in the Kansas Legislature, he ran for election for the U. S. House of Representatives, winning three elections in 12 years. From there, Carlson turned his sights on the Kansas governor's office, winning in 1946 and in 1948. After four years as governor, Carlson continued his political career in the U. S. Senate, serving there for eighteen years. In all, Carlson won 13 out of 13 elections and spent 34 years in public office.
While governor, Carlson presided over the removal of prohibition in Kansas. "I'm a teetotaler," claimed Carlson. "I don't smoke or drink, but I have no quarrel with those who do. I'm a great believer in letting the people decide."
When U. S. Senator Clyde Reed died in 1949, Governor Carlson appointed Harry Darby, a prominent Kansas City industrialist, to fill the vacancy.
Carlson's administration as governor was known for extensive highway building programs, rural health programs, and reforms and improvements to Kansas' mental hospitals. Prior to Carlson's administration, Kansas had been rated as being in 40th place nationally in terms of the condition of its mental hospitals. By the summer of 1950, Kansas jumped to 11th place as a result of Carlson's efforts to improve Kansas' state mental health facilities.While in the U. S. Senate, Carlson served on the committee that investigated the tactics of Senator Joseph McCarthy, censuring him in 1954. Carlson developed a reputation as being opposed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs and supportive of President Lyndon Johnson's civil rights legislation. Carlson attributed his success to his serious attitude in handling matters of state and having a "common touch" in dealing with people.
After 18 years in the Senate, Carlson retired to his Cloud County farm where he died May 30, 1987. Governor Mike Hayden remarked that Carlson was "one of [Kansas'] finest statesman and citizens." Senator Bob Dole claimed that Carlson "wrote the book when it came to class," and former Kansas governor and presidential candidate Alf Landon said that Carlson was "an outstanding Kansan, a faithful and dedicated public servant."
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Andrew Frank Schoeppel was born on a farm near Claflin, Barton County, Kansas, on November 23, 1894, to George J. and Anna (Phillip) Schoeppel. He attended grammar school in Ness County and Ransom High School. After graduation in 1915 he enrolled in the University of Kansas in 1916. While in college he was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity, and was elected to the Phi Alpha Delta honorary law society. With American entrance into World War I, Schoeppel left K.U. in 1918 and enlisted in the Naval Reserve Flying force. After the war he enrolled in law school at the University of Nebraska where he received a law degree in 1922. While in law school Schoeppel played football for University of Nebraska and won an "honorable mention" from Walter Camp's All-American Team.
Following his admission to the Kansas Bar in 1923 Schoeppel established his law practice in Ness City, in a partnership named Peters & Schoeppel; later to become Schoeppel & Smith. He married Marie Thomsen on June 1, 1924. In Ness City Schoeppel served as city attorney, county attorney, and mayor. In addition he also served as chairman of the Kansas State Corporation Commission.
In his first experience in state-level political campaigns Schoeppel was drafted against his wishes by the Republican Party. He lost a bid for state representative because he made no effort to campaign, though the margin of votes was very small. After this experience Schoeppel vowed it would never happen again.
In 1942 Schoeppel ran for governor. Among all the Republicans in the primary election Schoeppel was the least experienced in politics and at that phase of the election was considered a dark horse. Nevertheless, he won the nomination. Once past the primary, Newsweek stated "It looks like an easy victory for the clean cut and respected lawyer from a small city in Western Kansas." Still, this victory over William H. Burke was a close one, with a margin of only 7,000 votes, and Schoeppel became the 29th governor of Kansas.
His 1944 re-election bid was a different matter. This time it was a Republican landslide in the most sweeping Republican victory at any time in the state's history.
In addition to his gubernatorial duties, Schoeppel also served as the chairman of the Interstate Oil Compact Commission. This commission was formed in 1935 to deal with the problems resulting from oil and gas industries not under the control of either federal or state authority. This body was approved by U.S. Congress in 1935 and ratified by 16 states by 1945.
After leaving the governor's office in January 1947 Schoeppel re-entered private legal practice in Wichita in the firm of Foulston, Siefkin, Schoeppel, Bartlett & Powers, which specialized in corporate, insurance, oil, gas, and real property law.
Schoeppel re-entered politics in 1948 in a bid for U. S. Senate. In another stunning victory he defeated his Democratic opponent by almost 90,000 votes. The seat he filled was that of Senator Arthur Capper. For the most part Schoeppel voted along party lines on most issues debated in Congress. One notable occasion on which he left party lines was his support for Taft as the Republican Party nominee for the 1952 presidential race. He was twice re-elected.
He was a member of a wide variety of fraternities, and civic organizations, including the Masons, the Shriners, Knight Commander of the Court of Honor, the American Foreign Legion and the Forty Eight. He received an honorary LL.D. from Baker University in 1946. He was a member of the Southwestern Kansas Bar Association, the Kansas Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. He was also a member of the Ness City Lions Club, the Rotary Club and men's honorary society known as the Innocents. In addition, he served on the Ness City School Board, and the Chamber of Commerce.
Andrew F. Schoeppel died while in office at Bethesda Naval Hospital, Bethesda, Maryland, on January 21, 1962.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Born in Casey, Illinois, on October 13, 1896, Payne Ratner moved to Parsons in 1920. A Republican lawyer who held several elective offices prior to his elevation to the state's highest in 1939, Governor Ratner oversaw the state's transition to a wartime economy. On December 27, 1974, soon after his 78th birthday, the two-term Kansas governor died in Wichita.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
The state's 27th governor, Walter A. Huxman, was born on February 16, 1887, in Reno County, Kansas. He taught school, received a legal education at the University of Kansas law school, and won election as a Democrat in 1936. After one term as Kansas; chief executive, Huxman was appointed judge of the Tenth U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a position he held until 1962. Judge Huxman died in Topeka on June 26, 1972.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Alfred Mossman Landon was born September 9, 1887, in West Middlesex, Pennsylvania to John Manuel and Anne (Mossman) Landon. The elder Landon was an oilman and moved the family to Marietta, Ohio, where Alfred Landon attended preparatory school. When he was 17 Landon moved with the family to Independence, Kansas. He graduated from the University of Kansas in 1908 with a law degree. Landon married Margaret Fleming on January 9, 1915. They had one child, Margaret. After her death in 1918, Landon devoted himself to managing his oil interests and raising his young daughter.
A supporter of Theodore Roosevelt, Landon's help with the Bull Moose campaign earned him the respect of the progressive arm of the Republican Party. After a short stint as Governor Henry Allen's secretary in 1922, Landon became a leader in the state's progressive faction and in 1928 won election to the state Republican chairmanship.
Landon married Theo Cobb on January 15, 1930. They had two children, Nancy and John. He ran a successful campaign for the governorship in 1932. During the time of the Great Depression, Landon was the only Republican west of the Mississippi to win a gubernatorial contest. He introduced programs to bring economic relief that included tax reductions, a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures, state supported local relief, and a series of emergency banking laws; all without increasing the state debt.
The national Republicans looked to Landon to challenge President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was selected as the party’s nominee for the 1936 presidential election. Roosevelt proved invincible in 1936, and Landon was defeated. Landon continued to be an adviser for the Republican Party. He marked his 100th birthday with a visit from President Ronald Reagan. Landon died October 12, 1987. His daughter Nancy was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1978 and served until 1996. The Landon State Office Building is named in his honor.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Harry Woodring was born in Elk City on May 31, 1887 and because of his father's financial straits he was contributing to the family income by the time he was in the fourth grade. After high school he entered the banking world-at Elk City and then Neodesha. Following World War I army service he returned to banking and a variety of civic activities. He became the American Legion's state commander and that recognition provided him with a base for political candidacy.
Although he was a Democrat in an overwhelmingly Republican state, Woodring managed to defeat his friend and fellow Legionnaire Frank Haucke in 1930 when the colorful and unique Doctor John R. Brinkley disrupted the vote for governor by running as an independent.
Woodring's one term as governor was not marked by any great accomplishments. He was the only Democrat elected to a statehouse office and his efforts to cut back state expenditures were blocked by Republican legislators. The governor reduced his own salary, and the highway department, the one place where the Democrats held control, managed to reduce expenditures. He ran again in 1932 (as did Brinkley) but Alfred M. Landon, the Republican candidate, put the G.O.P. back into the governor's office.
For seven years Harry Woodring was a valued member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's team. Woodring was Assistant Secretary of War for three years and then Secretary of War from 1936-1940. He left the cabinet after a falling out with the president. Although he never got the headlines that some of his New Deal colleagues did, he played an important role in the federal government as World War II approached.
Woodring returned to Kansas and engaged in many activities-political and non-political-but he never again successfully pursued elected office. He ran strong but lost gubernatorial campaigns in both 1946 and 1956.
Until his death in 1957 he maintained contacts with political friends, both Democrat and Republican. His political career had peaked when he was still in his forties and he remembered those days fondly. Keith McFarland, Woodring's biographer, wrote that Woodring may have written his own most fitting epitaph upon his return to Kansas in 1940 when he said:
"The fact that a Kansas country boy could be elected governor of this great commonwealth of ours, and subsequently serve in the Cabinet of the President, is further evidence that our great democracy does work. ... A Kansas boy has dined with kings and queens, with princes and princesses, ambassadors and foreign diplomats, and has sat at the right hand of the President. But, truly, a Kansas boy has seen Utopia from the mountaintops. But today a Kansas boy returns to heaven."
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Clyde Reed was born on October 19, 1871 in Champaign County, Illinois. A journalist and a Republican, Reed served 10 years in the U. S. Senate (1939-1949) after a single term as governor (1929-1931). The 78-year-old senator died in Parsons on November 8,1949 before the end of his second term.In 1875, when Reed was just four years old, his family left Illinois for Kansas. In 1917, after a number of years with the U. S. Post Office Department, Reed took over as manager and editor of the Parsons Sun. In 1938 he defeated the incumbent George McGill in the senatorial race and was reelected in 1944. Senator Reed died in Parsons, during his second term, on November 8, 1949.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Governor Benjamin S. Paulen was born on July 14, 1969 in Illinois but moved with his family to Wilson County, Kansas, in 1867 when he was just a year old. Elected lieutenant governor in 1922, Paulen captured the Republican nomination for governor in 1924 and won the general election contest, which featured the independent candidacy of William Allen White. Governor Ben Paulen signed the 1927 Kindergarten bill into law. He died in his hometown of Fredonia on July 11, 1961.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Allen's Democratic successor, Jonathan M. Davis, signed the eight month minimum school term bill. The state's twenty-second governor was born in Bourbon County on April 27, 1871. Davis served in the state legislature prior to his election as governor in 1922 and remained active in politics after his defeat in 1924. He died in Fort Scott on June 27, 1943.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Henry Justin Allen, born on September 11, 1868 in Pennsylvania, was editor and publisher of the Wichita Beacon and one of the leaders among Kansas newspapers. The Allen family came to Kansas in the 1870s, settling in Clay County.
Allen attended Baker University where he became interested in journalism as a staff member of the Baker Orange. Allen left the university before graduating and in 1891 was hired to manage the Salina Republican. When the newspaper was sold three years later, Allen bought the Manhattan Nationalist. Allen partnered with with Joseph L. Bristow to purchase the Ottawa Herald and the Salina Republican, which became the Salina Journal. Allen served as editor and manager of both newspapers until 1907. Bristow kept the Journal and Allen the Herald, which he sold the next year to purchase the Wichita Beacon.
The Republican party nominated Allen as their candidate for governor while he was in France during World War I, where he was head of communications for the American Red Cross. Allen was elected the 21st governor of Kansas and served two terms from 1919 to 1923. While Allen was in office the national prohibition and woman's suffrage amendments were ratified by the Kansas legislature. As governor, Allen called for the ouster of the Ku Klux Klan in Kansas, after the organization planned to parade. With the state in the midst of a coal strike, Allen was concerned that the Klan's visibility would intimidate the African American coal workers who were refusing to strike. Allen also created the Kansas Court of Industrial Relations to push collective bargaining but prohibit strikes. When his friend, William Allen White, wrote an editorial in protest, Governor Allen had White arrested. Before the Kansas Supreme Court could rule on the anti-Klan action, White campaigned for governor on an anti-Klan platform. White lost his bid and the ruling finally came in 1925, finding the Klan to be a "foreign corporation" that could be legally ousted, making Kansas the first state to take such a stand.
In 1929 Allen was appointed to fill a vacancy in the U.S. senate, where he served from 1929-1930. From 1928-1932 Allen was director of publicity for the Republican National Committee. He served one year in 1931 as assistant to the president of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. In 1915 Allen and his wife, Elsie J. Nuzman Allen, hired architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design a house for them in Wichita. The Allens lived in the Prairie style house until 1947. It is the only structure designed by Wright in Kansas. Allen died on January 17, 1950.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Arthur Capper was born July 14, 1865, in Garnett, Kansas, to Herbert and Isabella (McGrew) Capper. At the age of 14 he became a "printer's devil" with the Garnett Journal. After graduation from high school Capper went to work as a typesetter for the Topeka Daily Capital. Worked his way up at the newspaper, he became an editor and served as correspondent for the state legislature and U.S. Congress. On December 1, 1892, Capper married Florence Crawford, daughter of Governor Samuel Crawford, for whom Florence, Kansas, was named.
In search of broader experience, Capper left Kansas and took a position with the New York Tribune. He later worked as a congressional correspondent in Washington, D.C., before returning to his native state. In 1893 and 1895 Capper purchased two Topeka newspapers Mail and Breeze. When the Daily Capital suffered financial difficulties, Capper was encouraged to return as editor and publisher. In 1901 he purchased controlling interest and reestablished the newspaper. By 1911 the Saturday Evening Post called Capper's Capital "one of the best and brightest dailies in the West."
Capper was defeated by a slim margin in his only unsuccessful campaign as the Republican candidate for governor in 1912. Two years later he was elected the 20th governor of Kansas, the first native-born Kansan to hold the office. He served two terms, 1915 to 1919. Capper served five terms as U.S. senator, 1919 to 1949.In 1927 Capper purchased WIBW, among the first radio stations in the state. An advocate of children's welfare, Capper established a number of events and programs to assist the state's youth. The Capper birthday party was a popular summer event from 1908 until 1951, when the flood forced its cancellation. He established agricultural clubs that loaned money to students so they could start modest businesses. These clubs eventually merged into the 4-H movement. To benefit children with disabilities, Capper formed a foundation in Topeka in 1920. He also organized the Goodfellows' Club of Topeka.
Capper became one of the nation's leading publishers of the decade and was featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1926. He served as chair of the Senate's agriculture and forestry committees during the 80th Congress, and chose not to seek reelection in 1948. Capper died December 19, 1951, in Topeka.
It is our duty to see that our future citizens are well born; . . . and are reared in that environment most likely to develop in them their full capacity and powers. - Arthur Capper
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
George H. Hodges was born in Richland County, Wisconsin, on February 6, 1866, and moved to Johnson County when he was just three years old. He operated a lumber business in Olathe before and after becoming Kansas' second Democratic governor. During the 1912 election that saw Hodges defeat Republican Arthur Capper in the gubernatorial contest, Kansas women were granted equal suffrage under the state's constitution. Hodges died in Kansas City, Missouri, on October 7, 1947.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Walter R. Stubbs was born in Wayne County, Indiana, on November 7, 1858. At the age of eleven, he moved to Douglas County with his family. Stubbs built a very successful railroad construction business and was a millionaire before he became involved in state politics. Soon after he entered the state legislature in 1902, Stubbs emerged as the dominant leader of the progressive wing of the Republican Party.
Near the end of his second term as governor, Stubbs won his party's nomination for the U. S. Senate but lost the general election in November 1912. The former governor died in Topeka on March 25, 1929.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Born in Danville, Kentucky, on March 17, 1849, Edward Hoch first moved to Kansas in 1871. Within three years he had settled in Marion where he published the Record and earned a reputation as one of the state's leading journalists. Although a loyal Republican, Hoch split with some of the old party leaders and advocated a number of progressive reforms during the early 1900s. Hoch, a former state legislator, served two eventful terms in the statehouse (1905-1909). He died in Marion on June 1, 1925.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
The one-term congressman from Baileyville, Willis Bailey, was born near Mount Carroll, Carroll County, Illinois, on October 12, 1854, and attended the common schools, Mount Carroll High School, and the University of Illinois at Urbana. He removed to Nemaha County, Kansas, in 1879, engaged in farming, stock raising, and banking, and with his father in 1880 founded the town that took their name. A member of the Kansas House of Representatives in 1889, W. J. Bailey served as president of the Republican State League in 1893, as a member of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture from 1895-1899, and, after a successful election campaign in 1898, as a member of Congress from March 4, 1899, to March 3, 1901.
Bailey was not a candidate for renomination in 1900 but two years later he sought and won the Republican gubernatorial nomination and the general election, and served as governor of Kansas from1903 to 1905. In the face of the progressive insurgency that was challenging the Old Guard for control of the Republican Party, Bailey was denied the party's nomination in 1904. The former governor moved to Atchison, Kansas in 1907, where he engaged in banking until 1914 when he was elected as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Missouri; Bailey became governor of the bank in 1922, and served in this capacity until his death in Mission Hills, Johnson County, Kansas, on May 19, 1932.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
William E. Stanley was born on December 28, 1844 in Danville, Ohio. He was the first governor to live in the state's executive mansion at Eighth and Buchanan, left his native Ohio and settled in Jefferson County, Kansas, in 1870. After leaving the governor's office in 1903 , he unsuccessfully sought election to the U. S. Senate. He died in Wichita on October 13, 1910.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
John W. Leedy was born on March 8, 1849 in Bellville, Ohio. He was one of a very few real farmers among the leaders of the People's Party. He served a single term as governor (1897-1899) and then left Kansas and eventually moved to Canada where he died at age 86 in 1935.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
A one-term Republican governor of Kansas the mid-1890s, Edmund N. Morrill was born in Westbrook, Cumberland County, Maine, on February 12, 1834, and attended school in his hometown, graduating from Westbrook Seminary in 1855. Morrill then worked as superintendent of the Westbrook schools in 1856 and 1857 before moving to Kansas Territory in 1857. He settled in Brown County, where he erected a sawmill, served as a free-state member of the territorial legislature in 1857 and 1858, and enlisted on October 5, 1861, as a private in Company C, Seventh Regiment, Kansas Volunteer Cavalry-the "notorious" Charles R. Jennison and Daniel R. Anthony commanding. Morrill almost immediately was promoted to sergeant (on October 10, 1861), and within a year (on August 27, 1862) to captain and commissary of subsistence.
After mustering out of the service a major in October 1865, Morrill served as clerk of the district court of Brown County (1866-1870) and county clerk (1866-1873), and in 1871 he founded the county's first bank, serving as its president from 1887 until his death. For seven years, Morrill was also president of the First National Bank of Leavenworth; he also served in the state senate from 1872-1874 and 1876-1880 (president pro tempore in 1877) and founded the Morrill Free Public Library at Hiawatha in 1882. Elected as to the Forty-eighth Congress in 1882, Congressman Morrill was reelected three times (served, March 4, 1883-March 3, 1891). He was chairman, Committee on Invalid Pensions during his last term (Fifty-first Congress, 1889-1891) but was not a candidate for renomination in 1890. Instead, Morrill returned to banking and by the early 1890s was considered one of Kansas's wealthiest citizens.
Morrill successfully challenged the state's first Populist governor, Lorenzo D. Lewelling, in the 1892 gubernatorial election (served, 1895-1897), but lost in 1894 to Kansas's second successful Populist candidate, John W. Leedy. Morrill subsequently returned to his Hiawatha bank and other business pursuits and died in San Antonio, Texas, on March 14, 1909; he was buried in Hiawatha's Mount Hope Cemetery.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
The state's first Populist governor (1893-1895), Lorenzo D. Lewelling, was born in Salem, Iowa, on December 21, 1846. He did not move to Kansas until 1887 but quickly became a popular reform speaker. Five years after finishing his single term as governor, Lewelling died in Arkansas City, at age 53.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Lyman Humphrey was born on July 25, 1844 in New Baltimore, Ohio. Before moving to Kansas in 1871, Humphrey studied law at the University of Michigan. After finishing his second term as governor in January 1893, Humphrey returned to Independence where he died on September 12, 1915.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
John Alexander Martin, tenth governor of the State of Kansas, was born 10 July 1839 at Brownsville, Pennsylvania. At age nineteen in 1857, he moved to the Kansas Territory and settled in Atchison. In October 1861, at the outbreak of the Civil War, he was mustered into the Union Army and commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the 8th Kansas Infantry, and was mustered out of service in October of 1864. He also became an incorporator and president of the Kansas State Historical Society and incorporator of The Kansas Magazine.
In 1884, Martin won the fall election beating the incumbent governor, George Washington Click. In 1887, he was re-nominated for a second term by a large margin, and he beat the Democratic candidate, Thomas Moonlight. John Martin passed away at the age of 50 on 2 October 1889.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
George W. Glick was the first of 10 Democrats to win election as governor of Kansas. Born in Greencastle, Ohio, on July 4, 1827, Glick studied law in the office of Rutherford B. Hayes, who later became the nineteenth President of the United States. Glick moved to Kansas in 1858, settling in Atchison. There the state's ninth governor died at age 83 on April 13, 1911.
In 1914 a marble statue of Governor Glick was placed in Statuary Hall, one of two Kansans at the U.S. Capitol. In 2003 the state of Kansas replaced this statue with one of Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
John P. St. John was born at Brooksville, Indiana, in 1833. Soon after moving to Kansas in 1869 he became involved in the crusade to rid the state of liquor and was elected governor on a prohibitionist platform in 1878. During his administration, voters approved an amendment making Kansas a "dry" state. St. John transferred his efforts to the national stage in 1884 when he ran for president as the candidate of the national Prohibition Party. The former governor died at his Olathe home on August 31, 1916.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
George T. Anthony was born on June 9, 1824 in Mayfield, New York. A Leavenworth newspaperman, Anthony moved to Kansas from New York in November 1865, at age 41. After a single term in the governor's office, he served in the state legislature and on the State Board of Railroad Commissioners. He was a second cousin of suffragette Susan B. Anthony. He died in Topeka on August 5, 1896.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Born at Meadville, Pennsylvania, on October 26, 1836, Thomas Osborn moved to Kansas during the 1850s. After two terms in the state house (1873-1877), Osborn served as minister to Chile and Brazil under Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield. The former governor died in Pennsylvania on February 4, 1898.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
James M. Harvey was born on September 21, 1833 in Monroe County, West Virginia. U.S. Senator from Kansas Robert Crozier was succeeded in the Senate by Harvey who had moved to Kansas in 1859 at age 26. A farmer and land surveyor by occupation, Harvey resided in Riley County. After the Civil War, he served in the legislature and became the state's fifth governor in 1869. Harvey returned to his native Virginia during the 1880s but after a few years moved back to Vinton where he died on April 15, 1894.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Nehemiah Green was born on March 8, 1837 in Hardin County, Ohio.
Green was the fourth Governor of Kansas, serving in that position on an interim basis from November 1868 to January 1869. He subsequently served as Speaker pro Tempore of the Kansas House of Representatives.
Born in Lawrence County, Indiana, on April 10, 1835, Samuel Crawford moved to Kansas in 1859. During the Civil War he attained the rank of Brevet Major General and won the gubernatorial election while on active duty. Toward the end of his second term in 1868, Crawford resigned to take command of the 19th Kansas Volunteers. Crawford's regiment was organized to help subdue Plains Indians resisting the expansion settlements on the state's western frontier. Crawford died in Topeka at age 78 on October 21, 1913.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Thomas Carney was born on August 20, 1824 in Delaware County, Ohio. He was the first of six native Ohioans to serve as Kansas' chief executive. Carney was denied a second term in 1864 and returned to Leavenworth to pursue generally successful business enterprises. He died in Leavenworth at age 63 on July 28, 1888.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Charles Robinson was Kansas' first state governor, serving from 1861 to 1863, and "an active and decisive participant" in the turbulent territorial history preceding statehood.
Born in Massachusetts on July 21, 1818, Robinson taught school and practiced medicine there before striking out for the California gold fields in 1849. He served in the California House of Representatives but returned to Massachusetts in 1851.
In 1854 he headed the New England Emigrant Aid Company's first colony to Kansas Territory. This group of emigrants, and many others who followed, were interested in financial opportunities, but they also sought to make Kansas a free state. Robinson established the company's headquarters in Lawrence, which became the focal point of free-state activity. Robinson's cool, detached leadership provided a stabilizing influence on the Free-State party. He was elected governor of Kansas Territory under the "illegal" Topeka Constitution in 1856, and then the state's first governor under the Wyandotte Constitution in 1859. Robinson took office just two months before the outbreak of the Civil War. He was preoccupied with wartime concerns, as well as the machinations of his chief rival, the volatile and flamboyant James H. Lane, during his single term of office. This bitter rivalry culminated in impeachment proceedings against the governor, Secretary of State J. W. Robinson, and State Auditor George S. Hillyer. Robinson ultimately was acquitted of all charges, but the other two executive officers were convicted and removed from office.
Despite these political difficulties, one early biographer heralded Robinson "as the strongest character in the history of the State. . . . Under his leadership the battle was won for the North, Kansas entered the Union a Free State, and the prestige of the South was crushed and broken forever." Robinson's remained active in Kansas affairs until his death at age 76 on August 17, 1894.
Governor biographies courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.
Contact Us
Accessibility note: If using a screen reader, utilizing the "pop out" feature in the upper right corner of the Ask a Librarian frame may improve readability if using screen reader.
How to Contact Us
- Phone: 800-432-3919 or
785-296-2149 - Email: infodesk@ks.gov
Legislative Hotline
For questions specifically about the Kansas Legislature (past or present), we offer the free Kansas Legislative Hotline at 800-432-3924. Learn more about the lawmaking process with answers to questions like:
- Who are my representatives?
- Was that tax bill passed?
- Where can I find a copy of the Kansas Constitution?
- And many more.