Monday, January 26, 2015

Governor John Gardiner Richards, Jr.

I had posted previously that there were two governors of Georgia in the Dunagan Family Tree, Zell Miller and Nathan Deal. I have recently learned from Catherine Bankhead Dunagan, who is married to my nephew, David Dunagan, that she is the great granddaughter of a former governor of South Carolina. This is his story.



John Gardiner Richards, Jr. (1864 – 1941) was the 96th Governor of South Carolina from 1927 to 1931.Born in Liberty Hill, Kershaw County, on September 11, 1864, Richards was the son of the Rev. John G. Richards and Sophia Edwards Smith. Richard's father served in the Civil War as a CSA Chaplain having graduated from Oglethorpe University, Georgia in 1850, and Theological Seminary, Columbia, S.C. in 1853, becoming a Presbyterian minister, later moving his family to Liberty Hill, Kershaw County, SC, to pastor a church.

John G. Richards, Jr., the future governor, grew up in Liberty Hill and attended the common schools of Liberty Hill, later spending two years at Bingham Military Institute in Mebane, North Carolina, before returning home at age nineteen to manage the family farm. In June 1888, Richards married Betty Coates Workman. The couple had eleven children.

In 1890 Richards supported “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman in his agrarian crusade against the conservative leaders of the Democratic Party, the so-called “Bourbons.” Tillman triumphed and Richards became a Kershaw County magistrate. After serving for eight years, he won a seat in the state House of Representatives in 1898. Over the next twelve years, Richards championed agriculture, conservative budgets, public education for whites, and liquor control. The son of a Presbyterian minister, Richards was a staunch advocate of prohibition.

After an unsuccessful bid for the governorship in 1910, Richards was appointed to the state Railroad Commission, where he sat for twelve years between 1910 and 1926. During that time, he shifted his political allegiance from Tillman to Cole Blease, the victor in the 1910 gubernatorial election. Richards failed to succeed Blease as governor in 1914, and lost a third run for the office 1918. Finally, in his fourth attempt, Richards won the governorship in 1926.

In office, Richards declared war on the board of public welfare, evolution, and the highway and tax commissions, proclaiming the latter “a veiled effort to establish an oligarchy.” He urged strict adherence to the Ten Commandments and ordered the state constabulary to close businesses that violated the Sabbath and even arrested golfers for ignoring state Blue Laws. Appalled, the New York Times editorialized in March 1927 that “There is another sport in South Carolina which is not seriously interfered with. This is lynching.” A month later, a Columbia Record poll revealed 249 respondents favored the governor’s position on Sunday activities while 3,943 opposed his interpretation of the Ten Commandments. The legislature and the state supreme court responded by curtailing Richards’ authority, while popular opinion rejected his actions.

By 1928, the governor had abandoned his persecution of golfers and concentrated on rallying support for a $65,000,000 road construction project and the upgrading of public schools. Both of these endeavors were tremendously successful under Richards’ stewardship, but were overshadowed by his zealous moral crusade. By the time he left office in 1931, South Carolinians enduring the Great Depression were far more concerned with obtaining the basic necessities of this life than with the narrow moral code of their governor. Retiring to his farm in Liberty Hill, Richards remained a loyal Democrat and supported Franklin Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential campaign, although he simultaneously led opposition in the state to the repeal of national prohibition. Richards died on October 9, 1941, and was buried in Liberty Hill Cemetery.

Sources:

Cann, Katherine D. “John G. Richards and the Moral Majority.” Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association, 1983.

McClure, Charles F., Jr. “The Public Career of John G. Richards.” M.A. thesis, University of South Carolina, 1972.

Friday, January 23, 2015

Governor Zell Miller and Governor Nathan Deal of Georgia

Two Georgia governors from the same family tree is not that common. Former Governor Zell Miller(also former U. S. Senator) with his wife Shirley and the current Governor Nathan Deal(former U. S. Congressman) with his wife Sandra Dunagan Deal, my oldest sister. Zell is the great grandson of Lydia Dunagan Miller and James Miller. Lydia Dunagan was the daughter of Joseph Ellis Dunagan, my third great grandfather and the oldest son of Ezekiel Dunagan and Lydia Ann Brown of Hall county, Georgia. Joseph Ellis Dunagan was elected to the Georgia State Senate and served 24 consecutive years in the Georgia Legislature in the early 1800s. Sandra likes to point out that Nathan has never lost an election except when he ran for President of the Jaycees of Gainesville/Hall County.


Photo taken January 12, 2015, Governor Deal's swearing in ceremony, Georgia State Capital, for 2nd term. Governor Zell Miller also served two terms as Governor and later served in the U. S. Senate for 6 years before retiring from politics.


January 12, 2015, Nathan is sworn in as Governor of Georgia, by his eldest son, 
Superior Court Judge Jason Deal, surrounded by his family.