Chase Osborn

Chase Salmon Osborn (1860-1949) was a newspaper publisher, explorer/traveler, conservationist, civil servant, and Republican governor of Michigan. He was Michigan's only governor elected from the Upper Peninsula.

Early Life

Chase Osborn was born January 22, 1860, to George and Margaret Osborn in Huntington County, Indiana. The Osborn family were staunch Republicans as they named their first son after the Ohio abolitionist and future Secretary of the Treasury and Supreme Court Justice Salmon P. Chase. George Osborn was a struggling entrepreneur who had gone through a couple of bankruptcies.

Osborn's early adulthood was spent wandering. He went to Purdue University but did not graduate. He left the college for Chicago and took a job as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Shortly afterward he moved to Milwaukee as a reporter for the the Evening Wisconsin. While here, he met and married Lillian Jones. Thereafter, the new family migrated to Florence in the north of Wisconsin where Chase ran a newspaper. He soon continued wandering into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, prospecting for iron and copper. He also about this time started to become active in politics.

Entry into Politics

In the mid-1880s, Osborn bought an interest in the Sault News of Sault Ste. Marie. The Sault News was a failing newspaper, and Osborn was soon in sole control of it. He began to rationalize and economize the operation. While in Sault Ste Marie, Osborn was appointed local postmaster, a job that indicates he was making inroads into the local political machine. The political appointments continued. In the 1890s, Governor John T. Rich appointed Osborn State Fish and Game Warden. As a civil servant, Osborn was highly capable and conscientious, if not also political. With his own powers of appointment, Osborn made several appointments to the fish and game service in an attempt to bolster his chances for a bid for a Congressional seat in 1896 (he lost).

In 1898, the reform governor Hazen Pingree appointed Osborn to head the State Railroad Commission. Because his civil service kept him more and more from Sault Ste. Marie, he sold the Sault News. But he did not completely turn his back on journalism. Shortly afterwards, he partnered with Walter J. Hunsaker and bought the Saginaw Courier Herald.

Osborn's tenures as both game and fish warden and railroad commissioner show his progressivism. He greatly admired Theodore Roosevelt, loved the outdoors, and promoted conservation. But unlike Roosevelt, or other progressive republicans (such as the insurgents) he did not attempt to stir up public animosity against the railroads for his political gain. As railroad commissioner, Osborn sought state control of freight and passenger rates, and more powers for the state commission. He consistently advocated for grade separation of railroad rights-of-way from streets and roads as a public safety issue. Through his job as commissioner, he came to believe that government ownership of the railroads was in the best interest of the public.

Because of his active role as state railroad commissioner, Osborn attempted to turn that into a bid for the governorship. He ran for the republican nomination in 1901 but was defeated by Aaron T. Bliss.

After his term as railroad commissioner, Osborn decided to travel, writing the The Andean Land (1909). He particularly liked to style himself as an iron ore prospector and attempted to visit every iron ore producing location on the planet. He is responsible for the discovery of the Moose Mountain deposits in Ontario, Canada. This view of himself as an iron ore prospector was so important that he titled his autobiography The Iron Hunter (1918).

After his travels in 1908, Osborn returned to politics. He served as chair of the Michigan delegation to the Republican National Convention in 1908. He also led Michigan's delegation to the National Conservation Congress in 1908. He was appointed in 1908 by Governor Fred Warner to fill the University of Michigan Regent's seat left vacant by the death of Peter White.

1910 Governor's Campaign

With his prestige at an all time high, Osborn decided to make another run at the governor's seat, this time to unseat his fellow republican, but Taft-conservative, Fred Warner. His campaign was managed by his former editor of the Sault News, Frank Knox. Osborn ran an aggressive campaign, often touring by automobile so that he could reach nearly every district. His slogan was "Osborn, Harmony, and a New Deal." Warner's popularity was waning; he won the 1908 election by narrow margins. Plus there were allegations of croneyism and corruption circulating (Frank P. Glazier, the State Treasurer in Warner's Administration had been convicted of embezzling state funds). Osborn's promise of "harmony" promised to re-unify Republicans.

Osborn's promise of a "New Deal," which echoed his admiration for Theodore Roosevelt and his "Square Deal," was a package of progressive legislative reforms, which included: efficient government, conservation, more stringent bank regulations, road construction, child and woman labor laws, workman's compensation, women's suffrage, and electoral reforms. This agenda propelled him to the Republican nomination and later into the governor's seat.

Osborn's Administration as Governor

While in office, Osborn attempted to place his agenda into practice. He was successful in gaining legislation that increased control over banks, regulated the employment of women and children, allowed for use of convict labor for highway construction, and created workman's compensation. He also oversaw Michigan's entry into prohibition. He also signed laws increasing state aid for agriculture schools, a forerunner of the Smith-Lever Act. He was unsuccessful at gaining approval of women's suffrage and a state department of agriculture. As state chief executive, he cut jobs and offices in order to make the statehouse more efficient. His frugal management turned a half-million dollar state budget deficit in 1910 into a half-million dollar surplus by 1912.

1912 Election

During the divisive election of 1912, Osborn backed his friend Theodore Roosevelt. Michigan was a particularly divided state for the Republicans that year and Osborn attempted to lock-in the state for Roosevelt by proposing a preferential primary bill. If enacted, it would have bound Michigan's delegates to the party conventions to cast their votes for the candidate selected by the people in the polls. It was a divisive bill and may have undermined Osborn's chances for a re-election bid; in any case, the troubling 1912 election did force Osborn to some difficult political decisions. At the State Republican Convention that year, Osborn worked behind the scenes (from Lansing) for Roosevelt. The contentious state convention eventually endorsed Taft. Upon loosing the nomination at the Republican National Convention, Roosevelt bolted from the party and ran as a third-party Progressive candidate.

Osborn, however, was too committed to the party to follow Roosevelt out of it and so would not campaign for him in the state. But Osborn did make campaign speeches at Roosevelt rallies in Illinois, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Come November, for the first time since the formation of the Republican Party, Michigan did not cast its electors for the Republican nominee; the electors voted for Roosevelt.

Out of Politics

Osborn chose not to run in 1912 and left the governor's seat in 1913. He then took to traveling again. He made three other political runs: the governor's race in 1914, and the U. S. Senate in 1918 and 1930. All ended in defeat. The state Republican committee put him forward as a vice-presidential nominee at the 1928 national convention; but the convention did not endorse him.

After leaving the statehouse, Osborn continued to campaign for and advocate progressive concerns. His traveling led him towards internationalism in foreign affairs. He supported Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations and continued to support a U.S. presence in international affairs after 1920.

He continued to advocate for Michigan at the national level. He sought national park designation of Isle Royale, and in 1939, opened discussions with Franklin D. Roosevelt for federal funding for a bridge over the Straits of Mackinac

Second Marriage and Death

Osbort met Stellanova Brunt in 1924, and she became his secretary and research assistant. In 1931, Osborn and Lillian adopted the 37-year-old Stellanova as their daughter. Lillian died sometime between the mid-1930s and mid-1940s. By the 1940s, Osborn, now living in Georgia, had become confined to a wheelchair and Stellanova was his nurse. About this time, too, Osborn had the adoption of Stellanova annulled. Osborn died April 11, 1949, two days after marrying Stellanova.