Adolph Olson Eberhart
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Adolph Olson Eberhart (June 30, 1870 – December 6, 1944) was an American politician, who served as the 17th governor of Minnesota.
Background
Adolph Olson Eberhart was born in Kil, in Värmland, Sweden, the son of Andrew and Louise Olson. Because of bad economic conditions, Andrew, Louise and all of the family except Adolph immigrated to St. Peter, Minnesota. In 1882, Adolph joined the family there. Eberhart graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota (1895) and studied law in a law office in Mankato, Minnesota.<ref>Eberhart, Adolph Olson (Minnesota Historical Society)</ref>
Career
Eberhart was a member of the Minnesota State Senate from January 1903 to January 1907. He was elected the 17th Lieutenant Governor in 1906. He became the 17th Governor of Minnesota on September 21, 1909, when Governor John Albert Johnson died, and served until January 5, 1915. Eberhart was a Republican. Minnesota elected Governors and Lt. Governors on separate ballots until 1974, so it happened occasionally that the two were of different parties. Elected the youngest member of the state senate in 1902, the Republican Eberhart was chosen as lieutenant governor four years later in the administration of the legendary Democrat, John Albert Johnson. Although his first partial term as governor resulted from Johnson's death in 1909, he subsequently won the office twice on his own merits.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Minnesota Governor Adolph Olson Eberhart (National Governors Association) [1]</ref>
An efficient administrator, Eberhart was also a consummate politician, and his detractors, including many Republicans, questioned his sincerity as well as the reputation of certain close associates. To assure his re-nomination in 1912, he called a special 13-day legislative session and deflated his critics by bulldozing through such progressive reforms as rural school consolidation and primary elections. Eberhart's strategy worked; he avoided the censure of his own party and was re-nominated for a second full term in the first statewide primary.<ref>Eberhart, Adolph Olson "A.O." (Minnesota Legislators Past and Present) [2]</ref>
Eberhart lost his re-nomination bid for a fourth term as governor. A second defeat in the 1916 U.S. Senate primary marked the end of his political career. After a career as a real estate and insurance executive in Chicago, he retired to a rest home where he died of pneumonia on December 6, 1944, in Savage, Minnesota. He was buried in Lakewood Cemetery.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Open access</ref> An inventory of his gubernatorial records is maintained at the Minnesota Historical Society Library.<ref>Minnesota Governor: Eberhart. Records (Minnesota Historical Society. State Archives) [3]</ref>
See also
References
External links
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Template:Governors of Minnesota Template:MNLieutenantGovernors Template:Authority control
- 1870 births
- 1944 deaths
- Republican Party governors of Minnesota
- Republican Party Minnesota state senators
- American Lutherans
- Lieutenant governors of Minnesota
- Gustavus Adolphus College alumni
- Swedish emigrants to the United States
- People from Kil Municipality
- People from St. Peter, Minnesota
- Burials at Lakewood Cemetery
- Deaths from pneumonia in Minnesota
- 20th-century members of the Minnesota Legislature