Josiah Begole

Josiah Begole

Josiah Williams Begole (born January 20, 1815 in Groveland , Livingston County , New York , †  June 5, 1896 in Flint , Michigan ) was an American politician and from 1883 to 1885 the 19th  governor of Michigan. He also represented this state in the US House of Representatives .

Early years and political advancement

Josiah Begole attended elementary school in Mount Morris and the Temple Hill Academy in Geneseo . In 1836 he moved to Flint, Michigan. There he first worked as a farmer and teacher. Later he got into the wood and banking business. He also became a school councilor, city treasurer and justice of the peace.

Begole was a staunch opponent of slavery . Therefore he was involved in the founding of the Republican Party in 1854 , of which he was a member for many years. Begole was a chamberlain in Genesee County between 1856 and 1864 . He served in the Michigan Senate from 1870 to 1871 . In 1872 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention , where Ulysses S. Grant was again nominated as a presidential candidate. Between 1873 and 1875 Begole represented his state in Congress in Washington . Then he fell out with his party. In 1882 he was elected as the joint candidate of the Democrats and the Greenback Party for the new governor of his state.

Michigan governor

Begole began his two-year term on January 1, 1883. As a former Republican, he had a difficult time against his former party friends, who made it difficult for him to govern and blocked almost all proposals in parliament. One of the few measures the governor was able to enforce was the establishment of a State Bureau of Labor Statistics . In the gubernatorial elections of 1884 Begole was defeated by his Republican opponent Russell Alexander Alger . Therefore he had to give up his office on January 1, 1885.

After the end of his tenure, Begole largely withdrew from politics. But he was very committed to the women's rights movement and supported their demand for the right to vote . Josiah Begole died in June 1896. He was married to Harriet A. Miles, with whom he had five children. His son Josiah Begole was a board member of the Flint Wagon Works in Flint and the first president of the Buick Motor Company .

Web links

• Josiah Begole in the National Governors Association (English)
• Josiah Begole in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Josiah Begole in the database of Find a Grave (English)