George Washington Donaghey
George Washington Donaghey | |
---|---|
Joseph Taylor Robinson | |
Personal details | |
Born | Union Parish, Louisiana, U.S. | July 1, 1856
Died | December 15, 1937 Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S. | (aged 81)
Resting place | Roselawn Memorial Park in Little Rock |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Louvenia Wallace Donaghey (married 1887–1937, his death) |
Alma mater | University of Arkansas |
Profession | Developer |
George Washington Donaghey (July 1, 1856 – December 15, 1937) was an American businessman and the 22nd Governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas from 1909 to 1913.
Early life and education
Donaghey was born as the oldest of five children to Christopher Columbus and Elizabeth (
In 1875, without letting his family know, Donaghey moved to Texas where he worked as a cowboy on the Chisholm Trail and farmer, but later moved again to Arkansas in 1876 due to cowboy lifestyle and health issues. From 1882 to 1883, he attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He was a school teacher and carpenter, and studied both architecture and structural engineering. In 1883, Donaghey established his residence at Conway, Arkansas, and adopted that city as his hometown. There, he later met his wife Louvenia Wallace; they had no children. One of the major streets there bears his name. He served one term as town marshal and was an unsuccessful prohibition candidate for mayor in 1885.[1]
Having himself lacked a formal education, Donaghey worked diligently to bring institutions of higher learning to Conway. He served on the boards of
Business
Donaghey entered business as a contractor and constructed courthouses in Texas and Arkansas, including the first bank building in Conway in 1890. Shortly afterward, he detoured into the mercantile business—for his contracting business was not profitable in its early years—and suffered significant losses after building the second Faulkner County courthouse. When he returned, he reconstructed the Arkansas Insane Asylum after a tornado in 1894. He built ice plants and roads in Arkansas, and water tanks and railroad stations for the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad, and often invested in farm and timber land.
In 1899, Donaghey was appointed to the commission tasked with constructing the new state capitol. The project was not complete until a dozen years later; during much of that time
As governor
In 1908, Donaghey won a three-way
Donaghey was reelected in 1910, defeating another Republican, Andrew L. Roland, by 101,612 votes to 38,870. Another 9,196 ballots were cast for the Socialist candidate, Dan Hogan.
Although several of the prisoners he pardoned from the convict lease program were black, Donaghey still supported segregation. In 1910 at the state Baptist Colored Convention in Little Rock, he said "It is not for any political purpose that I come to talk to you. It is not for the purpose of getting your votes, this you know as well as I do, because your people don't vote much. This, perhaps, is best for you. The greatest man in your race [Booker T. Washington] has said that you should keep out of politics and in this I agree with him. I think it is best that you stay out of politics and look after the condition of your people, and in this you have as much as you can do".[6] In autumn 1911, he appeared with Booker T. Washington at the National Negro Business League and said to an audience of one thousand black men to "not waste their time running around begging for social equality". The Chicago Defender quoted him as saying "You must ride in the last two seats in our street cars; you must not sit in a Pullman car; you must not ride on the same deck, nor eat in the same restaurant, nor drink in the same saloon as me...You are a race of degenerates, your women are lewd and we cannot afford to have our white women and children associate with you".[7]
Donaghey's progressive stance procured passage of the Initiative and Referendum Act by which Arkansans can take governmental matters into their own hands and bypass the state legislature. He recruited
The Donaghey administration focused on roads, public health, and railroads. Donaghey was vehemently opposed to
In 1912, he was eager for a third term, hoping to take care of statewide prohibition and the much-needed tax reform, but the legislature rejected his reforms and the electorate rejected his prohibition plans. During his campaign for the third term the state capitol project ran out of money, and Donaghey's appropriation plans were not successful. What also helped bring on his defeat was that former governor Jeff Davis and his allies also campaigned for governor, along with emerging powerbroker
Donaghey was the first Arkansas governor who could indisputably be labeled 'progressive' but was also within the southern progressive tradition,[5] as well as the first businessman to become governor of Arkansas.[8]
After being governor
After his bid for a third term as governor was defeated by Joseph Taylor Robinson in 1912, Donaghey persisted in his quest to complete the Capitol. A critical year was 1913. Senator Jeff Davis died two days into the year. Robinson, by this time state governor, was named by the legislature as Davis's successor. J. M. Futtrell, president of the Arkansas Senate, became acting governor. The result was that Futtrell and the Capitol Building Commission asked Donaghey to become a commission member and take charge of completing construction, which he did. The Capitol, valued at more than $300 million today, was completed in 1917 for $2.2 million,[5] ending an 18-year effort. As a hallmark to completion, Donaghey personally built the governor's conference table, which sets today as the centerpiece of the governor's conference room in the north wing of the Capitol.
As a former governor, Donaghey served on a number of boards and commissions responsible for a variety of tasks such as constructions, education, and charities. He penned the book Build a State Capitol, which details the construction of the Arkansas capitol building.
Donaghey died from a heart attack in Little Rock in 1937, and is interred there at the Roselawn Memorial Park Cemetery. His estate is managed by George W. Donaghey Foundation in Little Rock.[9]
Former Arkansas Governor (1949–1953) Sid McMath said in his memoir Promises Kept: a Memoir that Donaghey was "without a doubt, one of the great governors of Arkansas and served as an inspiration to my administration and to others, particularly in the continuing struggle for human rights, and I decided to continue what he had begun".[10] One book called him "arguably one of the best and most influential governors and philanthropists in Arkansas history".[11]
In 1999, the Log Cabin Democrat named him one of the ten most influential people in Faulkner County's history.[12]
Donaghey's Monument
In 1931, Donaghey, who felt a kinship to both Arkansas and Louisiana, established a monument at the Union Parish/
In 1975, an employee of the Louisiana Department of Transportation came across the abandoned monument and informed then-State Representative Louise B. Johnson of Bernice of his discovery.
The Monument was dedicated in 1933; Donaghey died four years later. At one time there were plans for a Donaghey State Park, but these were never implemented.[14]
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 1-61075-171-X.
- ^ "Hendrix College and Its Relationship to Conway and Faulkner County". faulknerhistory.com. Archived from the original on October 5, 2009. Retrieved June 24, 2015.
- ^ "From the UCA Archives: Factors that led to UCA being located in Conway". thecabin.net. October 16, 2011. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved June 24, 2015.
- ^ a b Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections, p. 1601
- ^ ISBN 1-55728-724-4.
- ISBN 978-0-8203-3130-0.
- ISBN 978-1-60344-661-7.
- ^ "Carpenter from Conway". The Rotarian. Vol. 165, no. 6. December 1994. p. 50. Retrieved June 1, 2015.
- ^ "George Washington Donaghey". encyclopediaofarkansas.net. Retrieved June 1, 2015.
- ISBN 1-61075-329-1.
- ISBN 0-7385-0006-2.
- ^ "Most Influential People". thecabin.net. June 24, 1999. Retrieved June 24, 2015.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Matthew Hamil, "Monument Forgotten by Time"". Monroe News Star, August 31, 2009. Archived from the original on September 3, 2009. Retrieved August 31, 2009.
- ISBN 978-0-7627-9103-3.
External links
- Encyclopedia of Arkansas
- Arkansas Secretary of State Archived 2015-09-06 at the Wayback Machine