born July 9, 1858, Boonesboro, Iowa, U.S.
died June 6, 1922, Seattle, Wash.
U.S. secretary of the interior (1909–11).
As the reform mayor of Seattle, Wash. (1904–06), he attracted national attention. In 1907 he was appointed commissioner of the General Land Office, and in 1909 he became secretary of the interior. During his two years in that post he sought to make public resources more available for private exploitation. Implicated in a fraudulent Alaskan land-claims scheme, he was cleared after a congressional investigation but resigned in 1911. The episode split the Republicans between conservatives led by Pres. William H. Taft and progressives loyal to Theodore Roosevelt .