According to the Web site of the Ohio secretary of state, the Republican nominee in the 1944 election for lieutenant governor of Ohio was someone called Herbert Hoover. I’m assuming this wasn’t the same person as Herbert C. Hoover (R-Iowa/California), who was president of the United States from 1929 to 1932.
Does anyone know anything about this Herbert Hoover?
A quick web search turned up nothing on him except one small little tidbit about that race. The Republican candidate for governor that year was a fellow named James G. Stewart.
What a ticket that must have been: Jimmy Stewart and Herbert Hoover!
Zev Steinhardt
To continue the presidential theme, the man’s full name was James Garfield Stewart, and he was mayor of Cincinnati when defeated by Cleveland mayor Frank Lausche in the 1944 gubernatorial race. In 1952, Lausche won a fourth term (after sitting out the 1948 race because of Ohio’s two-consecutive-term limit) in Columbus by defeating Charles Phelps Taft, son of the William Howard Taft who had been President of the United States from 1909 to 1913. More info on this page.
As for the Hoover who served as Stewart’s running mate, my guess is that he was a scion of the Hoover family renowned for vacuum cleaners. In 1908, the Hoovers set up shop in North Canton, Ohio. Earlier this year, the company (now a subsidiary of Maytag) sent shock waves through the community by announcing its plans to close the headquarters.
Several members of the vacuum cleaner family were named Herbert. The company is based in Ohio. I don’t know if any of them was involved in politics. They are not related to President Hoover.
President Hoover did have a son named Herbert Hoover Jr. He was Under Secretary of State during the Eisenhower administration, 1954-57. But Junior was a resident of California, not Ohio.
A search of newspapers from the time indicates that M(arion) Herbert Hoover from Akron, OH was a Democratic loser, perrenially running for one office or another.
If you were named Marion Herbert Hoover, wouldn’t you run for office under the name “Herbert Hoover?”
Wait, don’t answer that. You might have at the time, just not today.
I doubt that Mr. Hoover was very high in the food chain if he was indeed connected to the Hoovers of Canton.
My mistake. M. Herbert was a Republican.
Oddly enough, here in Texas there’s a Warren Harding who runs (unsuccessfully, so far) for state office on a regular basis.
Ah, but did he speak fluent Gamalielese?
(Damn, I wish I could find Mencken’s piece online…)
Adding to the trivia, James G Stewart is the father of Potter Stewart, ex-Supreme Court Justice.
So, North Canton will no longer suck? 
Thanks, guys, this is great!
SamClem, do you have access to info on which offices R. H. Hoover ran for and in what years?
That would make Charles, only a congressman, one of the less-successful Taft family members. President (and Chief Justice) Taft was the son of Grant’s Secretary of War, Alphonso Taft. “Big Bill” 's son Robert, “The Great Isolationist”, was one of the most influential Senate members into the Fifties. His son, Robert Jr., was a more-obscure Senator, and *his * son, Robert III, is now the Governor. W.H. Taft III was an ambassador, and WHT IV is a State Department official. link.
Slight corrections:
The U.S. Rep. was Charles Phelps Taft I. The guy who lost the governor’s race in 1952 was Charles Phelps Taft II. CPTII served as the Charterite mayor of Cincinnati from 1955 to 1957 and served on the Cincinnati city council as a Charterite for many years (he became a Republican only when he was running for statewide office).
The U.S. senator in the 1950s was Robert Alphonso Taft I
The U.S. senator in the 1970s was his son, just plain Robert Taft, with no “Alphonso” He is usually referred to as Robert Taft Jr. for the sake of convenience.
The current governor is Robert Taft (Jr.)'s son, Robert Alphonso Taft II (not III, because his name is identical to his grandfather’s name but not identical to his father’s name.
Buddy, you owe me big time!
This political hack was the Rodney Dangerfield of Ohio politics. He was described in a death notice(1952) as a “nine time loser.” Actually, they used the euphemism “unsuccessful candidate.”
All of the below represent losses by our subject.
[ul]
[li]1925 city council Akron [] 1926 (R) State Treasurer primary [] 1934 (R) primary, congressman-at-large []1936-same [] 1938 State Treasurer primary [] 1940 State Auditor (This is when he changed his name to Herbert Hoover. All previous races were run as M. Herbert Hoover) [] 1942 entered Rep. primary against incredibly popular 4-term governor Bricker(no–not our Bricker). Ruled off ballot for too many bad signatures. [] 1944, now residing in 'Columbus instead of Akron(as if it would make a difference :D) he lost as candidate for Lt. Governor. [] 1946 lost in R. primary for Sec. of State. [/li]
Other personal info. Married, one child. As the consumate party hack, he held government jobs such as 1937-38, inspector state liquor department; 1939-40, examiner-State department of taxation. 1942, made $1800/yr working in old age pension office. Scuttlebut was that he ran against Bricker because he was forced out of job, by not taking Civil Service test. He was born in Ashville, OH. So, odds are not related to Hoovers in Canton.
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Wow, SamClem, you’re right – I owe you big. Fantastic. What’s your resource? Do you have access to the archives of the Beacon-Journal or something?
http://newspaperarchive.com/DesktopDefault.aspx
I pay about $75/year for this pay-to-play site. I use it mainly in my searches for early cites of words and phrases in print.
The database has quite a few Ohio newspapers digitized from the 20th century. So that made it easy to find the info on our boy. Akron BJ is not among them.
Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.
It is a difficult language to master.