William Lemke
| William Frederick Lemke | |
|---|---|
| William Frederick Lemke | |
| 11th Attorney General of North Dakota | |
| In office 1921–1922 |
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| Governor | Howard R. Wood |
| Preceded by | William Langer |
| Succeeded by | Sveinbjorn Johnson |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Dakota's at-large district |
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| In office March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1941 |
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| Preceded by | Olger B. Burtness |
| Succeeded by | Charles R. Robertson |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Dakota's at-large district |
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| In office January 3, 1943 – May 30, 1950 |
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| Preceded by | Charles R. Robertson |
| Succeeded by | Fred G. Aandahl |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 13, 1878 Albany, Minnesota |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Fargo, North Dakota |
| Resting place | Riverside Cemetery Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Isabelle McIntyre |
| Children | William F. Lemke, Jr., Robert Lemke, Mary Lemke Ely |
| Alma mater |
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| Occupation |
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William Frederick Lemke (August 13, 1878 – May 30, 1950) was a United States politician.[1]
Life and career
He was born in Albany, Minnesota, and raised in Towner County, North Dakota, the son of Fred Lemke and Julia Anna Klier, pioneer farmers who had accumulated some 2,700 acres (11 km2) of land. As a boy, Lemke worked long hours on the family farm, attending a common school for only three months in the summers. However, the family did reserve enough money to send him to the University of North Dakota, where he was a superior student. Graduating in 1902, he stayed at the state university for the first year of law school but moved to Georgetown University, then to Yale Law School, where he finished work on his law degree and won the praise of the dean. He returned to his home state in 1905 to set up practice at Fargo.
Lemke was the attorney general of North Dakota from 1921 to 1922. He later was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1932, an NPLer on the Republican Party ticket. He served four two-year terms in Congress.
While in Congress, Lemke earned a reputation as a progressive populist and supporter of the New Deal, championing the causes of family farmers and co-sponsoring legislation to protect farmers against foreclosures during the Great Depression.
In 1934, Lemke co-sponsored the Frazier–Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act, which would have provided for government refinancing of farm mortgages. President Franklin D. Roosevelt refused to support Lemke on that issue and ultimately sank the bill.[citation needed]
Later in 1936, Lemke accepted the nomination of the Union Party, a short-lived third party, as their candidate for President of the United States.[2] He received 892,378 votes, or just under 2% nationwide, and no electoral votes in the 1936 election. Simultaneously, he was reelected to the House of Representatives as a Republican. Many believe Lemke's acceptance of the Union Party nomination in 1936 was out of bitterness toward Roosevelt over the farm mortgage issue.
In 1940, after having already received the Republican nomination for a fifth House term, he withdrew from that race to launch an unsuccessful run as an independent for the U.S. Senate. He ran again for Congress in 1942 as a Republican and served four more terms, until his death in 1950.
Lemke died of a heart attack in Fargo, North Dakota and is buried in Riverside Cemetery.[1][3]
Trivia
Former Atlanta Braves baseball player Mark Lemke is a second cousin twice removed of William Lemke.
Bibliography
- Edward C. Blackorby. "William Lemke: Agrarian Radical and Union Party Presidential Candidate," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 49, No. 1. (Jun., 1962), pp. 67–84. in JSTOR
- William Lemke Papers at The University of North Dakota University of North Dakota.
- "Lemke, William" in American National Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, 2000.
References
External links
- Dakota Datebook -- August 13, 2004 from North Dakota Public Radio (via PrairiePublic.org) -- article on Lemke
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Attorney General of North Dakota 1921–1922 |
Succeeded by Sveinbjorn Johnson |
| United States House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Dakota's at-large congressional district 1933–1941 |
Succeeded by Charles R. Robertson |
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Dakota's at-large congressional district 1943–1950 |
Succeeded by Fred G. Aandahl |
| One seat at-large (1889–1903) |
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| Two seats at-large (1903–1913) |
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| Three districts (1913–1933) |
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| Two seats at-large (1933–1963) |
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| Two districts (1963–1973) |
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| One seat at-large (1973–present) | |||||||
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with unsourced statements from May 2011
- 1878 births
- 1950 deaths
- Members of the United States House of Representatives from North Dakota
- North Dakota Attorneys General
- United States presidential candidates, 1936
- 20th-century American politicians
- University of North Dakota alumni
- People from Towner County, North Dakota
- People from Stearns County, Minnesota
- Georgetown University Law Center alumni
- Yale Law School alumni
- North Dakota lawyers
- North Dakota Democrats
- North Dakota Republicans
- North Dakota Independents
- Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives
- Nonpartisan League members of the United States House of Representatives
