Preceded by Edward W. Hoch Role Former Governor of Kansas Succeeded by George H. Hodges Name Walter Stubbs Party Republican Party | Religion Methodist Education University of Kansas Political party Republican Spouse Stella Hostettler | |
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Lieutenant William J. Fitzgerald
Richard J. Hopkins Profession clerk, farmer, mule driver, banker, politician Died March 25, 1929, Topeka, Kansas, United States Previous office Governor of Kansas (1909–1913) | ||
Walter Roscoe Stubbs (November 7, 1858 - March 25, 1929) was 18th Governor of Kansas.
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Biography
Stubbs was born in Wayne County, Indiana. His early education was in the public schools. He attended Kansas University, but did not graduate. He moved to Douglas County, Kansas with his family in 1869. He married Stella Hosteller in 1886 and they had four children.
Career
Stubbs built a very successful railroad construction business and was a millionaire before he became involved in state politics.
Soon after Stubbs entered the Kansas House of Representatives in 1902, he emerged as the dominant leader of the progressive wing of the Republican Party in Kansas from 1904 to 1908. He served from 1903 to 1907. He was Speaker of the House from 1905 to 1906.
Stubbs served as governor from January 11, 1909 to 1913 and worked to crack down on bootlegging in the Crawford County, Kansas area known as the “Little Balkans,” where immigrants who were hired to work in strip mines made whiskey to supplement their incomes. During his administration, in March 1911, Kansas enacted the nation's first state blue sky law, which was promoted by Joseph Norman Dolley, the Kansas state banking commissioner, appointed by Governor Stubbs on March 3, 1909. Stubbs became a staunch opponent of alcohol consumption.
Near the end of his second term as governor, Stubbs won his party's nomination for the U.S. Senate but lost the general election in November 1912. During this period, Kansas had always had at least one Republican United States Senator. In 1912, Democrat William H. Thompson, defeated Stubbs in his bid for the office. Stubbs was again a candidate for the Senate in 1918, but was narrowly defeated in the Republican primary by Arthur Capper.
Upon leaving the governor's office, Stubbs returned to his home at Windmill Hill in Lawrence, Kansas. He was in the cattle raising business with large ranches in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.
Death
After suffering with heart trouble for some time, Stubbs died on March 25, 1929 in Topeka, Kansas. He is interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Lawrence. Stubbs' home is now the University of Kansas Sigma Nu fraternity house.