John Morton Eshleman

John Morton Eshleman (born June 14, 1876 in Pulaski County , Illinois , †  February 28, 1916 in Riverside County , California ) was an American politician . In 1915 and 1916 he was Lieutenant Governor of the State of California.

Career

John Eshleman grew up in Illinois. In 1896 he came to California, where he worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad . Until 1903 he studied at the University of California at Berkeley . After studying law and being admitted to the bar in 1905, he began to work as a lawyer. Politically, he was a member of the Republican Party at the time . He received the post of Deputy State Labor Commissioner . In 1907 he was elected to the California State Assembly . Between 1907 and 1910 he was a district attorney in Imperial County . He was then a member and then chairman of the railway commission of his state. In June 1912 Eshleman took part as a delegate at the Republican National Convention in Chicago , on which President William Howard Taft was nominated for re-election, which was then unsuccessful. The Republicans split at this convention. Eshleman joined the grouping around the former President Theodore Roosevelt and became a member of his newly founded Progressive Party .

In 1914, Eshleman was elected Lieutenant Governor of California alongside Hiram Johnson . He held this office between 1915 and his death on February 28, 1916. He was Deputy Governor and Chairman of the State Senate . He died of tuberculosis at the age of 39 at a train station in Riverside County. In his place, Governor Johnson appointed William Stephens as the new lieutenant governor. Had Eshleman survived, he would have become governor after Johnson resigned in March 1917 to join the Senate . Instead, Stephens became the new head of government.

Web links

• John Morton Eshleman in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• The Political Graveyard