Frank Steunenberg
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Frank Steunenberg (August 8, 1861–December 30, 1905) was the governor of the U.S. state of Idaho from 1897 until 1901.
Born in 1861 in Keokuk, Iowa, he was elected in 1896 as a candidate of both the Populist Party and the Democratic Party, and with the support of labor unions. As a result, many corporations, fearing that Steunenberg's government would not support them if there was a strike, increased their wages for workers.
The Bunker Hill Mining Company, however, did not, and the miners working for that company went on strike. Steunenberg ignored his campaign promises and sent out the militia to crush the strike. He did not run for reelection in 1900.
On December 30, 1905, he was assassinated outside his house in Caldwell, Idaho. Teamster Harry Orchard was arrested for the murder but he implicated Big Bill Haywood (general secretary of the Western Federation of Miners) and two other labor leaders, Charles Moyer (president of the Western Federation of Miners) and George Pettibone. The trial took place in Boise, the state capital. Due to lack of evidence, and representation by Clarence Darrow, a lawyer who specialized in defending trade union leaders, those three men were acquitted, but Orchard received a sentence of life imprisonment (in a separate trial), and he died in jail in 1954. The trial received national attention. It is most likely that Steunenberg was in fact killed by a labor union sympathizer angry because he betrayed the unions while he was governor.Template:Fact
References
See also
Further reading
- The Trial of Bill Haywood - a detailed account of the murder trial