Wikipedia

H. B. Wilkinson

Henry Bannister Wilkinson (July 31, 1870 – August 22, 1954) was an American lawyer and politician who served three consecutive terms in the Arizona State Senate from 1918 to 1922,[1] serving as the President of the Senate in his third term, during the 5th Arizona State Legislature. He unsuccessfully ran for several other offices, including in 1933, when Wilkinson lost in the first special election held in Arizona, for Arizona's sole congressional seat. He lost in a landslide to Democrat Isabella Greenway, who garnered 73% of the vote to become the first woman from Arizona to go to Congress.[2][3] He was instrumental in bringing main line railroad service to Phoenix, Arizona; was one of the founders of what is known today as Banner - University Medical Center Phoenix; was a member of the Arizona State Bar for over fifty years, serving as its president one year; and was very active in the movement to improve the roads in Arizona.

H. B. Wilkinson
Wilkinson c. 1916
Member of the Arizona Senate
from the Maricopa County district
In office
January 1917 – December 1922
Preceded byO. S. Stapley
Sam F. Webb
Succeeded byH. C. Gilbert
J. C. Phillips
Personal details
Born
Henry Bannister Wilkinson

July 31, 1870
Brookville, Indiana, U.S.
DiedAugust 22, 1954(1954-08-22) (aged 84)
Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Mary Eleanor Adams
​
(m. 1903)​
Children3
EducationNorthwestern University
ProfessionLawyer

Personal life edit

Wilkinson was born in Brookville, Indiana, on July 31, 1870.[4] His parents were R. H. Wilkinson, a minister, and Adelia Quackenbush, a schoolteacher.[5] Wilkinson did his undergraduate work at Northwestern University.[6] He also graduated from Northwestern with a law degree in 1898, after which he moved from Evanston, Illinois, to Phoenix, Arizona, where he remained the rest of his life.[4] He was a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity.[7] He married Mary Eleanor Adams of Dundee, Illinois, on September 19, 1903.[8][9] The couple had three children, all girls: Eleanor, Harriet, and Barbara.[4][10] Wilkinson died on August 22, 1954, at a rest home in Phoenix. He had been ill for several years but had only entered the facility four days before his death.[4]

Political career edit

In 1913 he became a member of the Committee of the One Hundred and Twenty Five, a citizen's representative group to discuss and help decide the framing and organization of Phoenix.[11] One of the items discussed by the committee was the creation of a new charter for the city. As part of the process, the committee nominated fourteen of their number to run for the Board of Freeholders, who would draft the new charter. Wilkinson was chosen as one of those fourteen, and in May was elected to the Board.[12][13][14] As a freeholder, he was a member of the subcommittee which crafted the powers and duties of the new position of city manager, as well as the members of the council.[15] The freeholders proposed the new charter in August 1913, and it was accepted by the citizens, changing Phoenix's form of government from a mayor-council system to council-manager.[16][17]

Wilkinson was a member of the Progressive Party, serving as county chairman in Maricopa County.[18] However, in 1916, the Progressives did not field a separate ticket from the Republicans, and Wilkinson was one of three nominees from the Republican party for the two State Senate seats from Maricopa County.[19] Dickinson and Ernest Hall became the Republican nominees.[20][21] Wilkinson and Hall defeated O. S. Stapley, an incumbent, and H. A. Davis, who had served in the first Arizona State Senate, in the November general election.[22][23] He ran for re-election in 1918; he and newcomer C. C. Green received the Republican nomination, being unopposed in the primaries.[24] Both Republicans won in the general election in November.[25] During the 4th Arizona State Legislature, Wilkinson authored a bill which created the Arizona Resources Board, which was enacted in 1919. The board was responsible for overseeing the water resources in Arizona, particularly for irrigation use.[26]

In mid 1920, there was some discussion of Wilkinson running for Arizona's United States Senate seat.[27] However, he chose to run for re-election to the State Senate instead and easily won re-election in November.[28][29] When the 5th Arizona State Legislature was convened, the Republicans were in control of the senate, 10–9. Wilkinson was nominated and won the Presidency of the Senate by a vote of 10–9, although not along strictly party lines, since W. D. Claypool, the Democrats' choice for president, voted for Wilkinson, while Wilkinson voted for Claypool.[30][31] Through the 1930s, Wilkinson would be the only Republican to serve as either the Senate President or Speaker of the House.[32] During the 5th legislature, Wilkinson introduced Senate Bill 125, the "Governor's Cabinet Measure", which was a massive reorganization of the state government. The existing 35 boards were to be abolished and replaced with eight new departments: Military Affairs, Finance, Agriculture, Public Welfare, Public Works and Buildings, Reclamation and Irrigation, Education and Registration, and Labor and Industry. While the bill passed the Senate with a party-line vote of 10–9, it never made it out of the House's Committee on Efficient Government, which was controlled 4–3 by the Democrats.[33][34] He did not run for re-election to the State Senate in 1922.[35]

In 1932 Wilkinson ran for Arizona's lone Congressional seat.[36][37] He won a hotly contested Republican primary against Benton Dick.[38] However, he was soundly defeated in the November general election by the Democratic incumbent, Lewis W. Douglas, by more than a two-to-one margin, 75,469 to 29,710.[39] In 1933, Douglas resigned from Congress to take the position of the United States Budget Director.[3] A special election was held to replace him, the first in the history of Arizona. Wilkinson was chosen by the Republicans to represent them and went up against Isabella Greenway, representing the Democrats, and Dillworth Sumpter, representing the Socialists.[40] Greenway won in a landslide with 73% of the vote.[3] The Socialist, Sumpter, came in second. The election was also historic in that it was the first time in state history that a candidate of a minor political party received more votes than a candidate from one of the two major parties. The final tally was Greenway, 24,163; Sumpter, 5,556; and Wilkinson 3,123.[41][42] In 1936 he ran for the Maricopa County Superior Court.[43] While he won the Republican nomination, he was easily defeated by the Democratic incumbent, G. A. Rodgers.[44][45]

Career outside politics edit

He was one of the founders of the Phoenix Title and Trust Company, becoming its first president when it was incorporated in 1910.[4][46] He was one of the founders of Banner - University Medical Center Phoenix, helping to raise the $40,000 needed to begin the construction of the hospital, and served as its chairman of the board from 1911 through 1921.[4] At the time of its founding, it was called the Deaconess Hospital.[47][48] He practiced law in Phoenix as a partner in the firm of Chalmers and Wilkinson.[49] He was a president of the Arizona Bar Association, having served in that capacity in 1914.[4][50]

 
Opening of construction on Phoenix's Main Line

He was also the president of the Arizona Good Roads Association.[4] In 1921 Wilkinson proposed the development of an economic bloc between Phoenix and Los Angeles, California. The first step to begin the process would be the creation of a highway running between the two cities, in order to promote commerce.[51][52] The road was to run for 102 miles (164 km), between the Hassayampa River just west of Phoenix, and the Ehrenberg ferry on the Colorado River, outside of Ehrenberg, at a cost of $2.5 million.[53] Wilkinson managed to get an amendment, Amendment 100, to the state constitution on the November 1922 ballot, which would allow the state to issue bonds to raise the money needed to build the road.[54][55] However, the amendment did not pass.[56]

In 1924, Wilkinson led the effort to get a main line railway through Phoenix. He was the president of the Tidewater Association, which spearheaded the project.[57] The line would need to have had the Southern Pacific and El Paso and Southwestern railways merge, which needed approval from the Commerce Commission in Washington, D.C.[58] The hearing took place in September, and Wilkinson was part of the Arizona contingent which traveled to the U.S. Capitol to argue in favor of the proposal. The requested merger was approved.[59][60] Construction on the new line commenced in January 1925 near Picacho, with Wilkinson, along with F. J. Elliot, president of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, throwing out the first shovelful of dirt.[61] The rail line was completed on June 6, 1926, when the last rail was laid about 72.5 miles (116.7 km) west of Hassayampa, linking the two sets of tracks being laid. Freight trains began operating over the line on June 17, and the passenger train service began on October 15.[62]

References edit

  1. ^ "History of the Arizona State Legislature 1912–1966". State of Arizona. pp. 8–9. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
  2. ^ "Special Elections". Arizona Daily Star. March 25, 2012. p. C005. Retrieved May 28, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  3. ^ a b c "October 4, 1933: Mrs. Greenway Is Victor Over Two Opponents". Arizona Daily Star. October 24, 2019. p. F3. Retrieved May 28, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h "Private Rites To Be Held Today For Henry Bannister Wilkinson". Arizona Republic. August 24, 1954. p. 3. Retrieved May 29, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  5. ^ "Funeral Services Will Be Conducted Today at Family Home For Mrs. Wilkinson". The Arizona Republican. June 10, 1925. p. 16. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  6. ^ "University Days at Evanston". The Inter Ocean. February 23, 1892. p. 7. Retrieved May 29, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  7. ^ "Society at Evanston Gridiron". Chicago Tribune. November 27, 1896. p. 4. Retrieved May 29, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  8. ^ "Wilkinson-Adams". The Arizona Republican. September 6, 1903. p. 5. Retrieved May 29, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  9. ^ "Returned With Bride". The Arizona Republican. October 13, 1903. p. 6. Retrieved May 29, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  10. ^ "Height of the Season at Iron Springs Finds Things Lively". The Arizona Republican. August 2, 1922. p. 4. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  11. ^ "Representative Citizen's Body". The Arizona Republican. November 24, 1913. p. 3. Retrieved May 30, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  12. ^ "Fourteen Men Nominated For Charter Board". The Arizona Republican. March 12, 1913. p. 1. Retrieved May 30, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  13. ^ "City Election Is On Today". The Arizona Republican. May 6, 1913. p. 3. Retrieved May 30, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  14. ^ "Work On New Charter Begun". The Arizona Republican. May 24, 1913. p. 3. Retrieved May 30, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  15. ^ "Freeholders Meet Tonight". The Arizona Republican. June 17, 1913. p. 6. Retrieved May 30, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  16. ^ "Proposed Charter of The City of Phoenix". The Arizona Republican. August 23, 1913. pp. 11, 13. Retrieved May 30, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  17. ^ "Heart of New City Charter Is Revealed". The Arizona Republican. December 18, 1913. pp. 1, 2. Retrieved May 30, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  18. ^ "Progressives Name Men And Women To Go To Convention". The Arizona Republican. April 4, 1916. p. 3. Retrieved May 30, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  19. ^ "Maricopa Has A Strong Ticket". The Arizona Republican. August 24, 1916. p. 6. Retrieved May 30, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  20. ^ "Here Are Men for Whom Parties Will Vote Today". The Arizona Republican. September 12, 1916. p. 4. Retrieved May 26, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  21. ^ "Republican County Ticket". The Arizona Republican. October 15, 1916. p. 8. Retrieved May 26, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  22. ^ "Olney's Lead Is Swelled By Late Returns". The Arizona Republican. September 15, 1916. p. 1. Retrieved May 26, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  23. ^ "Who's Who in Legislature Of Arizona This Year". Tombstone Weekly Epitaph. November 19, 1916. p. 1. Retrieved May 26, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  24. ^ "Republicans Get Part Of Ticket Ready For Race". The Arizona Republican. August 21, 1918. p. 2. Retrieved May 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  25. ^ "Personnel Of New Legislature". Bisbee Daily Review. November 15, 1918. p. 4. Retrieved May 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  26. ^ "Splendid Legislative Record Of Senator H. B. Wilkinson". The Arizona Republican. October 27, 1920. p. 4. Retrieved May 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  27. ^ "Wilkinson To Run For U.S. Senate". The Coconino Sun. July 23, 1920. p. 2. Retrieved May 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  28. ^ "Canvass Alters No Results in Primary Race". The Arizona Republican. September 17, 1920. p. 2. Retrieved May 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  29. ^ "Election Winners And Losers in Maricopa County". The Arizona Republican. November 5, 1920. p. 9. Retrieved May 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  30. ^ "History of the Arizona State Legislature 1912–1966". State of Arizona. p. 63. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
  31. ^ "Both Houses of the Legislature Make Quick Work Of Organization". The Arizona Republican. January 9, 1921. p. 1. Retrieved May 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  32. ^ "Keefe, Goodson Slated To Head Legislature". The Arizona Republican. January 7, 1939. p. 60. Retrieved May 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  33. ^ "History of the Arizona State Legislature 1912–1966". State of Arizona. pp. 97–98. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
  34. ^ "Wilkinson Submits Proposal For Radical Changes in Government Of State; Legislature Speeds Up". Bisbee Daily Review. February 24, 1921. p. 1. Retrieved May 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  35. ^ "Winners on the County Ticket at the Primary". The Arizona Republican. September 14, 1922. p. 1. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  36. ^ "H. B. Wilkinson Is Candidate". Arizona Republic. July 22, 1932. pp. 1, 2. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  37. ^ "Wilkinson Asks Post For Solon". Arizona Daily Star. July 22, 1932. p. 3. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  38. ^ "Mouer's Lead Is Increased". Arizona Republic. September 15, 1932. p. 5. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  39. ^ "Kinney's Votes Exceeds Hoover's". Arizona Daily Star. November 29, 1932. p. 1. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  40. ^ "Hitchcock Out As G. O. P. Head". Arizona Daily Star. August 27, 1933. p. 1. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  41. ^ "Mrs. Greenway Is Victor Over Two Opponents". Arizona Daily Star. October 4, 1933. p. 1. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  42. ^ "Canvass Has No Surprises". Arizona Daily Star. October 24, 1933. p. 4. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  43. ^ "H. B. Wilkinson Announces Superior Court Candidacy". Arizona Republic. June 13, 1936. p. 3. Retrieved June 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  44. ^ "Republicans To Fill Ballot". Arizona Republic. September 27, 1936. p. 40. Retrieved June 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  45. ^ "County Vote Is Democratic". Arizona Republic. November 4, 1936. p. 6. Retrieved June 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  46. ^ "New Promotion By Attorney Wilkinson". The Arizona Republican. February 4, 1910. p. 4. Retrieved May 30, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  47. ^ "See Only Victory at Annual Meeting Of Deaconess Hospital". The Arizona Republican. March 12, 1919. p. 6. Retrieved May 30, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  48. ^ "Past Leader To Be Guest". Arizona Republic. January 31, 1954. p. 14. Retrieved June 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  49. ^ "A Wily Book Agent". The Arizona Republican. November 24, 1903. p. 10. Retrieved May 30, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  50. ^ "State Bar Meeting in Phoenix Today". The Tucson Citizen. January 11, 1915. p. 1. Retrieved May 30, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  51. ^ "A Vital Question". The Arizona Republican. November 11, 1921. p. 4. Retrieved May 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  52. ^ "Form Phoenix-Los Angeles Alliance To Develop Interests of Both Cities". The Arizona Republican. January 22, 1922. p. 9. Retrieved May 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  53. ^ "Talk Plans For 102 Miles Paved Highway". The Arizona Republican. June 21, 1922. p. 1. Retrieved May 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  54. ^ "Three Measures Will Be Voted For at General Election This Fall; School Bill Noses Under". The Tucson Citizen. July 8, 1922. p. 8. Retrieved May 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  55. ^ "Paved Highway To California Will Be Asset To Whole State". The Arizona Republican. November 17, 1922. p. 1. Retrieved May 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  56. ^ "Defeat of Road Bonds Admitted". The Tucson Citizen. November 21, 1922. p. 2. Retrieved May 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  57. ^ "Petitions Bearing 17,000 Signatures in County Held By Tidewater Association". The Arizona Republican. March 30, 1924. p. 1. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  58. ^ "Main Line Body Appeals For Public Subscriptions To Aid Fight For Railroad Merger". The Arizona Republican. August 29, 1924. p. 6. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  59. ^ "Betts Reports Plans to Make Golden State Luxurious Flyer". The Arizona Republican. September 14, 1924. p. 4. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  60. ^ "Phoenix Citizens Rejoice in Approval Of Main Line By Commerce Commission". The Arizona Republican. October 1, 1924. p. 2. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  61. ^ "Main Line Construction Officially Opens Monday". The Arizona Republican. January 3, 1925. p. 1. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
  62. ^ "Main Line Opening To Mark New Era in Progress For Phoenix". The Arizona Republican. August 27, 1926. p. 22. Retrieved June 1, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.  
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