Frank R. Gooding

Infobox Senator
name = Frank R. Gooding


jr/sr =United States Senator
state = Idaho
term_start = January 15, 1921
term_end = June 24, 1928
preceded = John F. Nugent
succeeded = John W. Thomas
order2=7^th
office2=Governor of Idaho
term_start2=January 2, 1905
term_end2=January 4, 1909
predecessor2=John T. Morrison
successor2=James H. Brady
lieutenant2=Burpee L. Steeves (1905), Ezra A. Burrell (1907)
date of birth=birth date|1859|9|16|mf=y
place of birth=Tiverton, Devon, England
dead = dead
date of death=death date and age|1928|6|24|1859|9|16
place of death=Gooding, Idaho
residence=Gooding
spouse=Amanda Thomas
profession=Agriculture
religion=Methodist
party=Republican

Frank Robert Gooding (September 16, 1859 in Tiverton, England &ndash – June 24, 1928 in Gooding, Idaho) was a Republican United States Senator and Governor of Idaho. The city of Gooding and Gooding County, both in Idaho, are named after him.

Gooding emigrated to the United States with his family in 1867. The family settled on a farm near Paw Paw, Michigan. Gooding attended the common schools there, and moved to Mount Shasta, California in 1877, and engaged in farming and mining.

Gooding moved to Idaho Territory in 1881 and settled in Ketchum where he worked as a mail carrier, and subsequently engaged in the firewood and charcoal business. In 1888 he settled near present-day Gooding.

After Idaho became a state in 1890, Gooding emerged as a leader of the conservative faction of the Idaho Republican Party. Gooding was a powerful figure in Idaho in the early 20th Century, as demonstrated by the fact the City of Gooding and Gooding County were both named after him in his lifetime. Gooding also managed to get elected to the Idaho Legislature in 1898 and as Governor of Idaho in 1904 before he became a United States citizen. [ [http://www.senatorhill.com/articles/capitol.htm Idaho State Capitol ] at www.senatorhill.com]

Gooding had a reputation for having an off-putting and abrasive personality, and often clashed with others in the Republican Party, notably progressive Senator William E. Borah.

From 1905 to 1909, Gooding served as Governor of Idaho. During his administration the Idaho State Capitol building in Boise was constructed.

In 1918 Gooding was the Republican nominee in a special U.S. Senate election to complete the term of James H. Brady, who died in office early in the year. Gooding was defated by Democrat John F. Nugent.

In 1920 Gooding defeated Nugent for a full six-year term in the Senate. He took offce in January 1921 two months before his term began to replace Nugent, who resigned to accept an appointment on the Federal Trade Commission.

Gooding was reelected in 1926 by defeating Nugent again. He died in office in 1928 and was succeeded by a political protégé, John W. Thomas.

Gooding is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Gooding.

The Steunenberg assassination

Governor Gooding came to national attention during the trial phase of the conspiracy prosecution of three leaders of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), charged with the assassination of former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg. In 1899, Steunenberg had crushed a rebellion of miners during a labor dispute in Coeur d'Alene. Steunenberg was murdered in 1905, and Harry Orchard was arrested for the crime.

Idaho's Chief Justice Stockslager drafted a telegram which invited the Pinkerton Agency to investigate.The Pinkerton Story, James D. Horan and Howard Swiggett, 1951, page 294. Governor Gooding was persuaded to approve the request, and Pinkerton agent James McParland soon arrived to lead the investigation.Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, page 88. McParland announced his suspicion that Orchard was "the tool of others."Famous American Trials, Biographies of Key Figures in the Haywood Trial, James McParland Biography, http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/haywood/HAY_BMCP.HTM Retrieved February 22, 2007.

McParland's first order was to have Orchard transferred from the relatively comfortable Caldwell jail to death row in the Boise penitentiary, before any trial had occurred. The move was initially resisted by Judge Smith, who would be responsible for trying the case. The local judge anticipated a successful habeas corpus lawsuit against the tactic. McParland gave him "thirty precedents for the move." However, the sheriff in Caldwell also opposed the move.

Governor Gooding arranged a meeting between McParland and Chief Justice Stockslager, and then with Judge Smith. Before Smith arrived, McParland declared the county jail insecure, a potential target for dynamite. He also stated the purpose of the move to death row: "After three days I will attempt to get a confession." Chief Justice Stockslager approved of the move. In a pre-arranged plan, the Governor was called out of the room as soon as Judge Smith arrived, leaving McParland and the two judges alone. With the Chief Justice supporting the move to death row, Judge Smith also agreed.The Pinkerton Story, James D. Horan and Howard Swiggett, 1951, pages 296-297.

McParland later threatened Orchard with immediate hanging, and said that he could avoid that fate only if he testified against leaders of the WFM. [Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, page 90. Orchard confessed, and was transferred from death row to a private bungalow in the prison yard. Governor Gooding stopped by to shake his hand and congratulate him on cooperating.Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, page 92.

McParland then had WFM leaders Bill Haywood, Charles Moyer, and George Pettibone arrested in Colorado, using extradition papers which falsely claimed that the three men had been present at Steunenberg's murder.Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, page 93.

The investigation and trial were financed with "deficiency certificates." In his book "Big Trouble", J. Anthony Lukas recorded that with the use of these certificates,

In effect, the bank acted as a mere conduit for the passage of money from the mining industry to the state for use in the Haywood prosecution.Big Trouble, J. Anthony Lukas, 1997, page 350.

Thousands of dollars were also provided directly from the mine owners to the prosecuting attorneys in the case.Big Trouble, J. Anthony Lukas, 1997, pages 350-351. Thus, mine owners were deliberately financing the state's prosecution of leaders of the union which had been organizing their mines. Upon hearing of this circumstance, President Theodore Roosevelt issued a particularly stern rebuke to Governor Gooding, describing such a state of affairs as the "grossest impropriety." President Roosevelt wrote:

[Idaho's government would] make a fatal mistake—and when I say fatal I mean literally that—if it permits itself to be identified with the operators any more than with the miners... If the Governor or the other officials of Idaho accept a cent from the operators or from any other capitalist with any reference, direct or indirect, to this prosecution, they would forfeit the respect of every good citizen and I should personally feel that they had committed a real crime.Big Trouble, J. Anthony Lukas, 1997, page 369.

Governor Gooding's response to the President provided a "severely distorted" account of the financial arrangements for the trial, shifted the blame to others, and promised to return money contributed by the mine owners. Gooding then:

...kept the narrowest construction of his promise to the president... [He then proclaimed publicly and often that no] dollar has been or will be supplied from any private source or organization whatsoever, [and then] went right on taking money from the mine owners.Big Trouble, J. Anthony Lukas, 1997, pages 370-372.

George Pettibone, Bill Haywood, and Charles Moyer were found not guilty of conspiracy in the killing.The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood, William Dudley Haywood, 1929, page 224 ppbk. Orchard was convicted and sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted, and he spent the rest of his life in an Idaho prison.

ee also

* Frank Steunenberg, murdered ex-governor of Idaho
* Harry Orchard, convicted murderer in the Steunenberg assassination
* James McParland, Pinkerton Detective responsible for the investigation
* Bill Haywood, WFM union leader accused of conspiracy
* Coeur d'Alene miners' dispute, alleged reason for the Steunenberg murder

Notes

References

*CongBio|G000288