Irvine Luther Lenroot
Superior-born Progressive Republican; Wisconsin Assembly speaker, U.S. House and Senate; nearly Harding’s 1920 running mate
Net worth
$12,500
May 17, 1929
About
Irvine Luther Lenroot was the Superior Progressive who rose from logging camps and a Douglas County courtroom to the United States Senate, and who came within a convention roll call of the vice presidency that would have made him president when Warren G.
Harding died. Associated Press obituaries in January 1949 opened on that near miss: “the man who might have been the 30th President of the United States.”
He was born in Superior on January 31, 1869, to Swedish immigrant Lars Lönnrot (later Lenroot) and Fredrica. He attended common schools in Superior, studied at Parsons Business College across the bay in Duluth in 1889, worked as a logger, and served as a court reporter in the Douglas County courthouse. He read law, passed the bar in 1898, and practiced in Superior. In the Wisconsin Assembly from 1901 to 1907 he spent the last four years as Speaker, then won a House seat from the 11th District. After Senator Paul Husting died he moved to the Senate, serving from 1918 to 1927. He married Clara Clough of Superior, later the author of the girlhood memoir Long, Long Ago (1929).
In Chicago on June 12, 1920, after Harding locked the presidential nomination, party bosses wanted a progressive running mate. Hiram Johnson refused; Lenroot accepted; Senator Medill McCormick nominated him. Before the roll could start, Wallace McCamant of Oregon placed Calvin Coolidge in nomination. Delegates—many of the bosses already gone—gave Coolidge 674 votes and Lenroot 146. Harding died in 1923; Coolidge became the thirtieth president. Lenroot lost the 1926 Senate renomination to John J. Blaine. Herbert Hoover later appointed him to the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals. Daughter Katherine lobbied for the Fair Labor Standards Act. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Superior, the city that raised him.
Notable facts
At the 1920 Republican National Convention he was the bosses’ choice for Harding’s running mate but lost the floor fight to Calvin Coolidge, 674–146; Harding’s 1923 death made Coolidge president.
Wisconsin Assembly member 1901–07 (Speaker the last four years), then U.S. House from the 11th District and U.S. Senate 1918–27 after Paul Husting’s death.
Born in Superior on January 31, 1869; logger and Douglas County court reporter before the 1898 bar; later Court of Customs and Patent Appeals judge; buried Greenwood Cemetery, Superior.
What questions can this profile answer
- What makes Irvine Luther Lenroot notable?
- Irvine Luther Lenroot was the Superior Progressive who rose from logging camps and a Douglas County courtroom to the United States Senate, and who came within a convention roll call of the vice presidency that would have made him president when Warren G. Harding died. Associated Press obituaries in January 1949…
- What is Irvine Luther Lenroot's estimated net worth?
- Irvine Luther Lenroot's estimated net worth is $12,500 as of 1929-05-17.