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Thomas Hart Benton (1782-1858)
He served in the War of 1812 as a colonel under General Andrew Jackson, an early friend of his. They soon after had a falling out, facing off with guns and daggers in a barroom brawl in which Jackson was seriously wounded. Benton moved to St. Louis in 1815, became a newspaper editor, and upon Missouri's statehood in 1820 he was elected as one of its first U.S. Senators, serving for 30 years. He came to be recognized as a great orator and Senate leader . Benton's anti-slavery views cost him his Senate seat in 1850.
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Walter Q. Gresham (1832-1895)
He was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1854 and elected to the State Legislature in 1860. As the Civil War broke out, Gresham recruited his own military company, and rose in rank to Brigadier General. A gunshot wound in battle in Georgia ended his military career. He returned to practice law in Indiana, and ran unsuccessfully for both the U.S. House and Senate. He was appointed Postmaster General in 1883 by President Arthur. Gresham later served as Secretary of the Treasury, U.S. Circuit Judge, and Secretary of State.
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James C. Dahlman (1856-1930)
Born in Texas, he learned to ride a horse and herd cattle at an early age. In 1878 he went to Nebraska and found employment as foreman of a cattle gang, and later as brand inspector for the Wyoming Cattle Association, work that later earned him the nickname "Cowboy Jim". He entered municipal and state politics, served as county sheriff, and in 1906 was elected mayor of Omaha, leading the city for 21 of the next 24 years through a period of rapid growth and development. He died in office.
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Fred Busse (1866-1914)
He served as Illinois state treasurer between 1903 and 1905. He was elected as the first German-American mayor of Chicago in 1907. Corruption and organized crime were prevalent in the city, and its gambling and bookmaking operations, headed by the gangster Mont Tennes, were considered to be the biggest in the country. A grand jury investigation determined that Mayor Busse and Chief of Police George Shippy were under the control of Tennes syndicate.
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John Sharp Williams (1854-1932)
His grandfather was a U.S. Congressman from Tennessee. He attended private schools and a military academy, and later the University of Virginia and University of Heidelberg in Germany. Studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1877. He served as Democratic U.S. Congressman from Mississippi between 1893 and 1909, and United States Senator from 1911 to 1923.
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Samuel Kirkwood (1813-1894)
Born to a wealthy Maryland family, he studied Greek and Latin as a child. As a young man he taught school and became a lawyer. In 1855, he moved to Iowa at his wife's urging, and was soon elected to the Iowa Senate. He served as Governor of Iowa during the Civil War from 1860 to 1864. Afterward he served as a U.S. Senator, and was re-elected Governor in 1876. He also served as Secretary of the Interior, and in 1886 was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for President.
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Elihu Root (1845-1937)
In his early career he was a leading corporation lawyer. As U.S. attorney
in New York (1883-85) he met Theodore Roosevelt, and became his friend and
legal adviser. Root served as Secretary of War under Presidents McKinley
and Roosevelt. He was instrumental in establishing the framework of U.S.
expansion and governance in the Philippines and Puerto Rico following the
Spanish-American War. He negotiated treaties with more than 20 nations and
arbitrated many international disputes, work which led to a Nobel Prize for
Peace in1912. He also served as a U.S. Senator and as a jurist for the
League of Nations. In his later years Root worked closely with Andrew
Carnegie on programs for international peace.
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William Seward (1801-1872)
He served as state senator and as Governor of New York. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1848, he promoted anti-slavery views, defended runaway slaves in court, and in 1850 predicted that unless slavery was abolished America would suffer civil war. He joined the Republican Party in 1855 and supported Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential campaign. When elected, Lincoln appointed him as Secretary of State. He was Lincoln's close adviser throughout the Civil War. He continued as Secretary of State under President Andrew Johnson. Seward is perhaps best known for arranging the 1867 purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000, which was popularly referred to as "Seward's Folly" by short-sighted contemporaries.
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