J. C. W. Beckham
Governor of and U.S. senator from Kentucky
Died when: 70 years 157 days (845 months)Star Sign: Leo
John Crepps Wickliffe Beckham (August 5, 1869 – January 9, 1940) was an American attorney serving as the 35th Governor of Kentucky and a United States Senator from Kentucky.
He was the state's first popularly-elected senator after the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment.Descended from a prominent political family, Beckham was chosen as Democrat William Goebel's running mate in the gubernatorial election of 1899 despite the fact that he had turned 30, the minimum age for governor, during the campaign.
Goebel lost the election to Republican William S.Taylor, but the Kentucky General Assembly disputed the election results.During the political wrangling that followed, an unknown assassin shot Goebel.
A day later the General Assembly invalidated enough votes to give the election to Goebel, who was sworn into office on his deathbed.
Taylor claimed the election had been stolen by the Democratic majority in the General Assembly, and a legal fight occurred between him and Beckham over the governorship.
Beckham ultimately prevailed and Taylor fled the state.Beckham later won a special election to fill the remainder of Goebel's term, since less than half the term had expired, and an election in his own right in 1903.
During his second term as governor, in 1906, Beckham made a bid to become a US senator.His stance in favor of prohibition cost him the votes of four legislators in his own party, and in 1908 the General Assembly gave the seat to Republican William O.
Bradley, who had been governor from 1895 to 1899.Six years later, Beckham secured the seat by popular election, but he lost his re-election bid in 1920, largely because of his pro-temperance views and his opposition to women's suffrage.
Though he continued to play an active role in state politics for another two decades, he never returned to elected office, failing both in his gubernatorial bid in 1927 (with suspected electoral fraud) and his senatorial campaign in 1936.
He died in Louisville on January 9, 1940.Beckham County, Oklahoma, is named for him.
