Walter Roscoe Stubbs was 18th Governor of Kansas

Governor of Kansas

The Governor of the State of Kansas is the head of state for the State of Kansas, United States. Under the Kansas Constitution, the Governor is also the head of government, serving as the chief executive of the Kansas executive branch, of the government of Kansas. The Governor is the...

.

Stubbs was born in Wayne County, Indiana

Wayne County, Indiana

Wayne County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 68,917. The county seat is Richmond.-History:...

. He moved to Douglas County, Kansas

Douglas County, Kansas

Douglas County is a county located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 110,826...

 with his family in 1869.

After leaving the governor's office, Stubbs returned to his home at Wind Hill in Lawrence, Kansas

Lawrence, Kansas

Lawrence is the sixth largest city in the U.S. State of Kansas and the county seat of Douglas County. Located in northeastern Kansas, Lawrence is the anchor city of the Lawrence, Kansas, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Douglas County...

. He was in the cattle raising business with large ranches in Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, and Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. Stubbs' home is now the University of Kansas

University of Kansas

The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...

 Sigma Nu

Sigma Nu

Sigma Nu is an undergraduate, college fraternity with chapters in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Sigma Nu was founded in 1869 by three cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia...

 fraternity house.

Stubbs built a very successful railroad construction business and was a millionaire before he became involved in state politics. Soon after he entered the state legislature in 1902, Stubbs emerged as the dominant leader of the progressive wing of the Republican Party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 in Kansas.

Near the end of his second term as governor, Stubbs won his party's nomination for the U.S. Senate but lost the general election in November 1912.

During this period, Kansas had always had at least one Republican United States Senator. In 1912, Democrat William H. Thompson

William Howard Thompson

William Howard Thompson was a United States Senator from Kansas.Born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, he moved with his parents to Nemaha County, Kansas in 1880, where attended the public schools and graduated from the Seneca Normal School in 1886. He graduated from the Lawrence Business College in 1891...

, defeated Stubbs in his bid for the office.
As Kansas Governor, he became a staunch opponent of alcohol consumption.

Stubbs served as governor from 1909 to 1913 and worked to crack down on bootlegging in the Crawford County, Kansas

Crawford County, Kansas

Crawford County is a county located in southeastern Kansas in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 39,134. Its county seat is Girard, and its most populous city is Pittsburg. The county was named in honor of Samuel J. Crawford, Governor of Kansas...

 area known as the “Little Balkans,” where immigrants who were hired to work in strip mines made whiskey to supplement their incomes.

During his administration, in March 1911, Kansas enacted the nation's first state blue sky law

Blue sky law

A blue sky law is a state law in the United States that regulates the offering and sale of securities to protect the public from fraud. Though the specific provisions of these laws vary among states, they all require the registration of all securities offerings and sales, as well as of stock...

, which was promoted by Joseph Norman Dolley

Joseph Norman Dolley

Joseph Norman Dolley was the bank commissioner of State of Kansas who pushed for the passage of the first state securities laws, known as the blue-sky laws. J.N. Dolley, as he was known, was born in Boston, Massachusetts on April 14, 1860, a son of Joseph Norman and Ellen Dolley. On Oct. 13,...

, the Kansas state banking commissioner Stubbs appointed on March 3, 1909.

External links

• Governor's Information - Biographic profile
• Kansas Characters Timeline - Progressive Era
  Progressive Era
  The Progressive Era in the United States was a period of social activism and political reform that flourished from the 1890s to the 1920s. One main goal of the Progressive movement was purification of government, as Progressives tried to eliminate corruption by exposing and undercutting political...
  
  
• Walter Roscoe Stubbs - eighteenth governor of Kansas, 1909-1913
• Find-A-Grave profile for Walter R. Stubbs