Joseph B. Ely

Joseph Buell Ely
52nd Governor of Massachusetts
In office January 8, 1931 – January 3, 1935
Lieutenant	William S. Youngman Gaspar G. Bacon
Preceded by	Frank G. Allen
Succeeded by	James M. Curley
Personal details
Born	February 22, 1881 Westfield, Massachusetts
Died	June 13, 1956 (aged 75) Westfield, Massachusetts
Political party	Democratic
Profession	Attorney

Joseph Buell Ely (February 22, 1881 – June 13, 1956) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician from Massachusetts. As a conservative Democrat, Ely was active in party politics from the late 1910s, helping to build, in conjunction with David I. Walsh, the Democratic coalition that would gain an enduring political ascendancy in the state. From 1931 to 1935, he served as the 52nd Governor. He was opposed to the federal expansion of the New Deal, and was a prominent intra-party voice in opposition to the policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In 1944 he made a brief unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Early years

Joseph Buell Ely was born in Westfield, Massachusetts, to Henry Wilson Ely and Sarah Naomi Buell Ely. His grandfather, Joseph Miner Ely, was one of the founders of Westfield's important whip industry, and his father, a lawyer, was active in Democratic party circles in heavily Republican western Massachusetts. Ely attended local schools, and then Williams College, where he helped organize student support for William Jennings Bryan in the 1900 presidential election. He graduated from Williams in 1902, and the received a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1905. He returned to Westfield, where he joined his father's law firm. In 1906 he married Harriet Zelda Dyson, a schoolteacher; they had one son.^[1]

Governor David I. Walsh appointed Ely to serve as District Attorney for the Western District of Massachusetts in 1915; he was elected in his own right to this position the next year, serving until 1920.^[1]

Political career

Ely was active in the state Democratic Party, and was in 1922 put forward as a candidate for Governor of Massachusetts; he placed a distant third in the primary, which was won by John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald. In 1924 he was delegate to the national Democratic convention, where he supported the Progressive Al Smith.^[1] In 1926 he was tapped by the party leadership as a candidate for Lieutenant Governor, but lost the primary in an unusual quirk. His primary opponent, Harry Dooley, had been asked to withdraw so that the party could present an ethnically diverse and geographically balanced ticket, but his name remained on the ballot, and he ended up winning the nomination because of the support of Irish Americans. Dooley offered to surrender the nomination in favor of Ely, but the latter refused, believing the means to be an embarrasment.^[2] Ely again supported Smith at the 1928 Democratic national convention.^[1]

In 1930, Ely challenged incumbent Governor Frank G. Allen, defeating him in the popular election by a narrow margin. Chief among Governor Ely's concerns was contending with the effects of the Great Depression. He began a series of public works projects to relieve unemployment. Highway construction in Massachusetts was accelerated by this work, which was supported by the imposition of a gasoline tax. Ely advocated substantial reductions in state salaries during the depression, but met with overwhelming legislative resistance. In concert with the City of Boston, Ely established a permanent Boston Police Academy to increase the training of public safety officers.

Ely supported Al Smith in the 1932 Democratic Primary, but shifted his support to Franklin Roosevelt after the latter won the party's nomination. Later, Ely became a member of the American Liberty League and supported Republican Alf Landon in the 1936 presidential election.

Ely declined to run for reelection in 1936 and returned to his law practice. He remained active in state and national Democratic politics, continuing to oppose Roosevelt's New Deal policies. He ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1944, ending the bid after being badly defeated in the Massachusetts primary.

Joseph Ely is well remembered in his hometown, where Westfield State University's Governor Joseph B. Ely Library is named in his honor.

References

1. Gentile, p. 474
2. Huthmacher, p. 124

Sources

• Gentile, Richard H (1999). "Ely, Joseph B". Dictionary of American National Biography 7. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 474–475. ISBN 9780195206357. OCLC 39182280.
• Huthmacher, J. Joseph (1959). Massachusetts People and Politics, 1919-1933. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. OCLC 460668046.

External links

Joseph B. Ely at Find a Grave