Frank P. Vazzano - Politician Extraordinaire: The Tempestuous Life and Times of Martin L. Davey

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POLITICIAN EXTRAORDINAIRE

POLITICIAN
EXTRAORDINAIRE

The Tempestuous Life and Times
of
Martin L. Davey

FRANK P. VAZZANO

THE KENT STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS KENT, OHIO

2008 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2007044978

ISBN 978-0-87338-920-4

Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Vazzano, Frank P., 1941

Politician extraordinaire : the tempestuous life and times of Martin L. Davey / Frank P. Vazzano.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-87338-920-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. Davey, Martin L. (Martin Luther), 18841946. 2. LegislatorsUnited StatesBiography. 3. United States. Congress. HouseBiography. 4. GovernorsOhioBiography. 5. OhioPolitics and government18651950. 6. BusinessmenOhioKentBiography. 7. Davey Tree Expert Company (Kent, Ohio) 8. MayorsOhioKentBiography. 9. Kent (Ohio)Biography. I. Title.

E748.D213V395 2008

328.092dc22

[B] 2007044978

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication data are available.

12 11 10 09 08 5 4 3 2 1

To Martin L. Davey,
the most interesting man Ive never met.

Contents

I FIRST ENCOUNTERED Martin Luther Davey in a graduate seminar on Ohio during the Great Depression. The former governor had already been dead for nearly a quarter-century when I chose him as the subject of my research that academic term. Im embarrassed to say that even though I am a native Ohioan, I had never heard of him. Ive racked my brain trying to recall why I selected him for my seminar paper, but no matter how hard I try, I simply cannot remember exactly how Martin and I first crossed paths.

Ordinarily my memory lapse would be of little consequence, but Martin Davey became a cottage industry of sorts for me. Over the years, Ive written three Ohio History articles about his governorship, the first in 1987 (a version of which appears as .

After the 1996 piece, I thought I was finished with Martin Davey and had gone on to write about other things. However, a number of years ago, while on sabbatical leave, I decided to revisit him, only this time starting with his English-born father, John Davey, the founder of the modern science of tree surgery. For most biographers, the earliest period of a subjects life is the hardest to recapture because generally so little evidence remains of his bib and porridge years. Fortunately, there were documentary bits and pieces of John and Martin Daveys early lives in the archives of the Davey Tree Expert Company in Kent, Ohio. Moreover, Martin Davey, during his retirement in the 1940s, penned an unpublished autobiography spanning his childhood through part of his governorship. Oftentimes the autobiography is self-serving (not surprising for the genre), but it nonetheless contains priceless accounts of ordinary events that gladden a biographers heart and enliven his writing.

I confess to being an unabashed storytellernot in the mendacious sense, but in the sense that I believe history is essentially a story, albeit one substantiated by extensive documentation. Nothing less would satisfy the scholar in me. At the same time, I hope that my account of Martin Daveys life appeals to a wide audience, the sort that enjoys the kind of history that tells a good story. Martin Davey, after all, was a very, very interesting man, and he deserves nothing less.

Of course, researchers are invariably indebted to any number of helpful individuals, and I am no exception. Undoubtedly I have forgotten some who assisted along the way, but I shall do my best in thanking those of whom I have kept specific record.

Several years ago, Bill Birkner of the Kent, Ohio, Historical Society related some of his boyhood recollections of the Davey family and provided tips about where I might find local information on Martin Daveys early life. Bob Browne, the director of purchasing and properties for the Davey Tree Expert Company and my old high school chum, introduced me to a number of knowledgeable Davey employees who let me hunt through box after box of papers at the companys headquarters in Kent. Those records were essential as I put together the earliest chapters of Martin Daveys life.

I am also grateful to Linda Mauck, the clerk of Kents city council, for allowing me to sift through the old ledgers and village council minutes so necessary in reconstructing Martin Daveys mayoral career as the Boy Wonder of Kent. I am equally indebted to Roland Baumann of the Oberlin College Archives, who gave me free access to Martin Davey materials at the Mudd Center on Oberlins campus. I would also like to thank the staffs at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York; the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus, Ohio; and the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio, for their unstinting assistance through various stages of my project.

I am indebted as well to friends and colleagues at Walsh University and elsewhere. Jonnie Guerra for years urged me to push ahead with Martin Davey, and Larry Bove has long understood the importance of scholarship and encouraged it. Richard Jusseaume, like Martin Davey, knew how to extend a kind word just when someone needed it most and expected it least. And I owe an especial thanks to my friend and colleague, Beth Secrest. Without her computer and typing skills, this book would never have been more than 1,212 handwritten pages of illegible scrawl. To all, I am grateful.

Last, but by no means least, I would like to thank the nameless but not entirely faceless little old librarian at the Reed Memorial Library in Ravenna, Ohio, who showed me the scrapbook containing a photograph of Martin Daveys 1900 high school graduation class. Because of that photograph, I know exactly what a scared sixteen-year-old valedictorian looked like as he stood onstage in toe-pinching shoes and with knees knocking to deliver the first and most important speech of his life.

I have tried to make this book as readable, factual, and accurate as possible. Even so, since anything struck off by the hand of man is likely flawed, I apologize in advance for any errors of fact or omission and hope that my sharp-eyed readers will be kind enough to recall Horaces observation that even mighty Homer nods.

FROM THE STREET, the three-storied, gabled white house with peeling paint at 453 West Main in Kent, Ohio, looks tired even when viewed through the scarlet maples reaching into the clear October sky. Three brick chimneys, an ornate railing, six substantial porch columns, and intricate carvings atop the gables attest that this was once a grand house, one that knew better times. The expansive grounds, with soaring pines and tulip trees, still command a regal presence, although everything is overgrown, the sad result of too many years of neglect.

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