Governor James H. Hawley papers

James H. Hawley, ninth governor of Idaho, was born January 1, 1847 in Iowa to Thomas and Annie Carr Hawley. Annie died and Thomas left young James with relatives to join the 49'er gold rush to California. Raised in Dubuque, Hawley left school in 1861 at age 14, and accompanied his uncle to California. Gold discoveries in Washington Territory drew Hawley to the Salmon River Country and the Boise Basin. Hawley lived in Placerville at the time Idaho's territorial government was organized in 1863. Hawley studied law independently, read with a law firm in San Francisco, and was admitted to the bar in 1871. He married Mary Bullock at Quartzburg, Idaho, in 1875; they had eight children. He lived in Idaho city, Hailey, and moved to Boise in 1886. He practiced mining, irrigation, and criminal law. The highlight of his legal career was his appointment as prosecuting attorney in the case of Western Federation of Miners officials for the murder of former Governor Frank Steunenberg. Clarence Darrow prepared the defense while Hawley and William Borah were among future Idaho political figures involved in the prosecution. In his political career Hawley served in both houses of the territorial legislature and as district attorney. President Cleveland appointed Hawley U.S. District Attorney from 1885 to 1889. Hawley was Mayor of Boise from 1903 to 1905. In 1910 Hawley ran as the Democratic candidate for governor against the Republican incumbent, Governor James H. Brady. Campaign issues of prohibition, conservation, and the tariff split the Republican party. Hawley won the election, becoming the first Democratic Idaho governor in nearly a decade. He lost re-election in 1912 to Republican John M. Haines. In 1914 after running unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate against James H. Brady, he returned to his law practice . During WWI he headed the first Red Cross Drive in I daho. In addition to his Red cross work, he wrote a history of Idaho published in 1920. Named the "foremost citizen of Idaho" by Governor Moses Alexander, James H. Hawley was honored in the 1920's as Idaho's Grand Old Man. He died on August J, 1929 at age 82, recognized as one of the last Idaho pioneers. His body was viewed in the Statehouse rotunda before buried in Morris Hill Cemetery in Boise, Idaho.