Samuel G. Cosgrove

Samuel Goodlove Cosgrove

Samuel Goodlove Cosgrove (born April 10, 1841 in Tuscarawas County , Ohio , † March 28, 1909 in Paso Robles , California ) was an American politician and in 1909 the sixth governor of Washington state .

Early years

Cosgrove grew up in Ohio and was an infantryman in the Union Army during the Civil War . After the war, he studied at Ohio Wesleyan University and then worked as a teacher at Cleveland High School . Then he moved to Nevada .

Rise in Washington State

In 1882, Cosgrove moved to the Washington Territory , where he settled in Pomeroy . There he was chairman of the school council for eight years and was elected mayor of that place five times. In the years that followed, he was mentioned several times as a Republican candidate for gubernatorial elections. But he did not manage to secure his party's nomination. In 1908, when the pre-election system was first introduced in Washington, he succeeded in asserting himself within the party in these elections and in winning his party's nomination. However, it was not a clear victory because it did not receive an absolute, but only a relative majority of the votes. The subsequent actual gubernatorial elections he was then able to clear with 62:33 percent of the votes against the Democrat John Pattison.

Governor and end of life

Shortly after winning the election, Cosgrove suffered a heart attack. He was so weakened that he couldn't even finish his inauguration speech. He was sworn in on January 27, 1909 and was given special leave to relax the next day. He went to Pablo Robles in California, where he hoped for an improvement in his health. However, this did not occur. Instead, the governor died on March 28, 1909. Lieutenant Governor Marion E. Hay ended instead of the begun, almost full term of office until January 1913. Samuel Cosgrove was married to Zephorena Edgerton, with whom he had three children.

Web links

• Samuel G. Cosgrove in the database of the National Governors Association (English)
• Samuel G. Cosgrove in the database of Find a Grave (English)