The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 50, December 9, 2007, Article 22

WILLIAM H. WOODIN'S 1898 CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN

Regarding Leon Worden's query, Pete Smith writes: "William
H. Woodin ran for Congress in 1898 (11-8-98) representing
the seventeenth congressional district of Pennsylvania.
The Democratic candidate, Rufus K. Polk, won with 14,792
votes. Republican Woodin got 12,487 votes. A Prohibition
candidate, John M. Caldwell, received 1265 votes.

"The site was the Wilkes University Election Statistics
Project. My search gave me a page within a large number
of similar pages for Pennsylvania elections.
Full Story

"This is from the first item found with an Internet search.
Perhaps it would take a little longer to prove this is 'our'
Woodin but this is something I already knew. Woodin is one
of my pet projects.

"I have a campaign button for Woodin and have seen other
examples on eBay. Mine has the backpaper from Whitehead and
Hoag. I also have a campaign card about 5.4 x 3 inches with
his photo. This appears to be the same photo that appears
on the campaign button."

Thomas P. Van Zeyl writes: "I'm a Woodin fan from his
signature on my CU $1 Series 1928 Legal Tender note that
I occasionally visit at my bank.  Mr. Worden's query got
me doing some Internet research in my spare time; I believe
I have an answer (as well as a link) to Leon's query:

"In the November 8, 1898 Congressional elections, specifically
Pennsylvania, three candidates from the 17th District (serving
the counties of Columbia, Montour, and Northumberland; I'm
guessing about 120 miles west of Philadelphia) ran for a seat.
They were: Rufus K. Polk, Democrat; William H. Woodin, Republican;
and John M. Caldwell, Prohibition Party.

According to my source,
Full Story
which sources directly from Dubin, Congressional Elections,
pp.327, 329, apparently no incumbent ran from the 17th District;
thus, either the incumbent did not run for re-election, or,
perhaps, this may have been a newly-created district with
candidates running for the first time?  (Anyone else have
better information?)  Polk won election with 14,792 votes;
Woodin was "first loser" with 12,487 votes; the Prohibitionist,
Caldwell, "drank up" the spoils of a third place finish with
1,265 votes.  Winners joined the 56th Congress (1899-1901)
in Washington, D.C."

Marc Charles Ricard also found Woodin election information
He writes: "I found a source on the Internet that describes
the U.S. Congressional Election of the 56th Congress held
on November 8, 1898, whose Representatives served from
1899 to 1901.

"For those unfamiliar with William H. Woodin's achievements
later in life, (as I was!), the following is taken from a
biographical essay of his life:

William Hartman Woodin was born May 27, 1868, in Berwick,
Pennsylvania. He attended the School of Mines at Columbia
University but left before finishing a degree. Woodin spent
most of his career in the private sector, starting as president
of the American Car and Foundry Company in 1922 and serving
as chairman of the board of the American Locomotive Company,
the J. B. Brill Company, the Montreal Locomotive Works, and
the Railway Steel Spring Company. He would also become a
director of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City.
Along the way, Woodin became an accomplished songwriter.

He was appointed secretary of the treasury in 1933 but
resigned after only one year because of illness and a
minor scandal: the Senate Banking Committee had found his
name on a list of J. P. Morgan's preferred customers and
discovered that he had been given preferred stock options.

Woodin also presided over the Roosevelt Administration's
withdrawal from the international monetary conference in
London and decision to take the United States off the
international gold standard.

While he was Secretary of the Treasury, the Administration
also began the decision-making process that eventually led
to the Administration's decision to buy all the gold in
private hands in the United States (other than that used
by dentists and jewelers) and to devalue the dollar. Under
Secretary Acheson was so opposed to the latter two decisions
that he resigned in protest.

Woodin was also an avid coin collector, and when gold was
withdrawn from private hands, he made certain an exception
was put in place for "rare or unusual" coin types.

William Woodin died on May 3, 1934, in New York City. He
is buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, in Berwick, Pennsylvania,
the town where he was born.

References:

millercenter.virginia.edu/.../essays/cabinet/524

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hartman_Woodin

 QUERY: DID WILLIAM H. WOODIN EVER RUN FOR CONGRESS?
 esylum_v10n49a17.html

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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