Horace Boies (December 7, 1827 – April 4, 1923) served as the 14th governor of Iowa from 1890 to 1894 as a member of the Democratic Party.
Early life
Horace was born in Aurora, New York to Eber Boies, a farmer and veteran of the War of 1812, and Esther (Henshaw) Boies. When he turned 16 he started working as a farm laborer in the Wisconsin Territory. He moved back to New York in 1846, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1849, setting up practice in Hamburg. In 1846, he married Adella King. Together they had 3 children. Adella died a day after giving birth to their third child, Nellie. Boies remarried to Versalia M. Barber in 1858. They had another 3 children.
Political career
He was elected to the New York State Assembly as a Republican in 1857.
Boies moved to Waterloo, Iowa, in 1867 and opened a law office. His career was successful, and he purchased large amounts of farmland in the area.
Boies left the Republican Party in 1880 due to their support of prohibition.
Iowa Governorship
He was elected governor of Iowa as a Democrat in 1889, breaking longtime Republican dominance of state politics. Reelected in 1891, he was defeated in 1893, by Frank D. Jackson, a Republican. He was a prominent populist and advocate of bimetallism, and during his term as governor proclaimed Iowa's first Labor Day holiday.
A wide range of progressive reforms were also introduced during his term. These included the holding of conferences for farmers to improve farming techniques with the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts,History of economic legislation in Iowa, by Ivan L. Pollock, 1918, P.69-70 the enactment of laws protecting and registering trademarks with the Iowa Secretary of State,History of economic legislation in Iowa, by Ivan L. Pollock, 1918, P.242 the enactment of laws designed to protect labor,History of economic legislation in Iowa, by Ivan L. Pollock, 1918, P.267-268Legislative Documents Volume 3 1892 P.156 and the creation of a tax commission to study and review the tax laws of Iowa and to make suggestions for improvements.History of economic legislation in Iowa, by Ivan L. Pollock, 1918, P.303-304
Boies was the only Democrat Iowa Governor to serve since 1855 and then until 1933.
Post Governorship Political Career
In 1893, he was offered an appointment, by Grover Cleveland to be the Secretary of Agriculture, but he declined.
As governor, Boies gained sufficient prominence to become involved in national Democratic Party politics, though his campaigns for the presidential nomination at the 1892 and 1896 Democratic National Conventions were unsuccessful as was his last political campaign, in 1902, for Democratic nomination for a Congressional seat from Iowa.
Later life
Following his retirement, Boies moved to Long Beach, California. This was a popular destination for Iowans at the time, and Boies was active in social events of his fellow Iowan transplants, participating in the Long Beach Iowa Reunion and serving as president of the Long Beach Iowa Association.
He died on April 4, 1923 in Long Beach, California, and was buried at the Elmwood Cemetery in Waterloo, Iowa.
References
External links
HONORED BY IOWA DEMOCRATS article printed September 5, 1893 in the New York Times