100 years ago, county sent a governor to Harrisburg
CHESTER >> By economic and population measures, the City of Chester reached its high points during and immediately after World War II. Its peak census population came in 1950, after Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. accounted for 40 percent of tanker output during World War II and the city and Delaware County pushed Pennsylvania to account for one-sixth of U.S. industrial output for the war effort in 1943.
A key metric to determine the city’s peak prominence in the civic life of Pennsylvania and the United States came a quartercentury earlier – 100 years ago — on Jan. 21, 1919, when city native and longtime state senator, businessman and former Chester Times President William Cameron Sproul was inaugurated as governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Sproul’s star rose quickly on the national level, garnering strong support for the Republican presidential nomination in 1920 before declining the vice presidential spot on the Warren G. Harding ticket. Given Harding’s death in office and Vice President Calvin Coolidge’s ascension to the presidency, it is possible Sproul would have been Delaware County’s sole president as well as its sole governor.
The legacy of the man who once concisely expressed the ambitions of his home city and county in 1918 by saying “Philadelphia will never annex Chester, but Chester may someday annex Philadelphia” continues to be relevant to its politicians today.
“It’s humbling to be sitting here as a state senator from Delaware County, knowing the people who have come before you – especially someone of Sproul’s stature,” said state Sen. Tom Killion, R-9 of Middletown, Sproul’s current successor in the 9th Senatorial District. “It’s a constant reminder that we’re here for a reason – to represent our constituents and the people of Pennsylvania.”
Killion was aware of Sproul
The legacy of the man who once concisely expressed the ambitions of his home city and county in 1918 by saying “Philadelphia will never annex Chester, but Chester may someday annex Philadelphia” continues to be relevant to its politicians today
from attending Cardinal O’Hara High School on Sproul Road and Sproul Hall being his first dormitory at Penn State University. “They’re all named after governors and I landed in a dormitory named after a governor from my own county – the only one,” he said.
Upon arriving at the state Capitol in 2003 as representative for the 168th Legislative District, Killion dug deeper into Sproul’s legislative and gubernatorial accomplishments and independent mindedness. “I learned he was the father of the state highway system,” he said.
“All these years later, it’s still the 9th Senatorial District; I know I work across the aisle,” Killion said, noting he and Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19 of Chester County, had reintroduced a bill to end puppy mills in the state the same day he spoke with the Times.
City officials issued the following statement regarding the anniversary: “Sproul’s political accomplishments helped to elevate Delaware County’s prestige and value to the commonwealth. His Chester roots have added to the historical narrative of importance that this city represents for the county and the state.”
Sproul won election as governor with the largest plurality in state history at the time. When he arrived to take the oath of office and deliver his address on inauguration day in Harrisburg, the United Press reported “a roar of welcome from thousands amassed on State Street,” while another 9,000 parade participants gathered into formation.
In his inaugural address, Sproul opened with the political climate of the day, cautioning against “this political distemper, called Bolshevism” and telling the crowd “we want to develop our own Democracy, made in America, for America’s needs and America’s great destiny. We will not give this splendid Republic away to its enemies.” He then outlined plans for his term, which largely aligned with his accomplishments in office: Expanding funding for education; welfare programs for both returning World War I veterans and the general population; construction and improvement of roadways; geographical surveying and forest conservation; and the shoring up of state finances – Sproul took office at one of the state’s most trying times financially. The costs of World War I were compounded by costs of growing state government and the fact that Pennsylvanians were “paying about onesixth of the entire cost of the administration of the United States government” under the federal income tax instituted six years earlier by Constitutional amendment.
His term as governor would be the final chapter in a varied life of business and civic pursuits that attracted national renown. Sproul made his last major appearance on Nov. 17, 1927 at a Union League event in Philadelphia (where he was a fourtime president) while in ill health, joining honor guest and longtime friend President Calvin Coolidge. Hearing of his ill health at a subsequent dinner, honor guest General of the Armies John J. Pershing made a point to visit Sproul at his home before departing the area. Upon Sproul’s death on March 21, 1928, the famously reserved Coolidge was reported to have “expressed keen sorrow” at the news and sent his condolences
Sproul’s views and actions as a state senator and governor could today be seen as contradictory but were mostly in keeping with the progressive wing of the Republican Party in his era: A protégé of William J. McClure – father of John J. McClure and founder of Chester’s McClure GOP organization – who opposed machine politics; an industrialist who promoted conservation and arbor days; a gentleman farmer and agricultural supporter who championed road modernization; a historic preservationist whose move from a mansion at 9th & Kerlin streets to Nether Providence Township led a trend that would change the character of the city. A proponent of women’s suffrage, he also supported the closely aligned prohibition movement.
Sproul was born in Colerain Township, Lancaster County, in 1870. The family moved to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in about 1874 before returning to Lancaster County in 1882. The following year the family moved to Chester, where Sproul entered Chester High School.
Sproul’s political ambitions took shape during his time at Chester High School. Albert Dutton MacDade, future Delaware County District Attorney and Sproul’s immediate successor in the 9th Senatorial District, recounts in his memoirs how he and Sproul organized a group of schoolmates as “The Senate” at the Young Men’s Christian Association, then located in the Old Union League at Fifth Street and Edgmont Avenue.
The boys held debates and acted in roles of state and federal politicians. Sproul portrayed state Sen. Simon Cameron, for whom Sproul was given his middle name. MacDade writes in his memoirs that “from this experience (Sproul) aimed for a United States Senatorship, which he never acquired and this was the greatest disappointment in his life.” Of Sproul’s close brush with the presidency, MacDade wrote that Sproul shared 19th century statesman Henry Clay’s sentiment – “I’d rather be right than be president.”
Sproul’s journalism career held already taken shape in Michigan at age 10, where in 1881 he and a friend had purchased a small printing press and began to issue a paper called the Amateur. Soon the paper was profitable, and from 1883-1884 Sproul was publishing “The Sun” in Chester, joining the Pennsylvania Amateur Press Association.
During his first year in Chester High School, Sproul began writing for the Chester Times, befriending publisher and future business partner John A. Wallace. A year later he became the Chester correspondent for the Philadelphia Press. According to Times archives, Philadelphia Press Editor R.E.A. Dorr “loved to tell in later years” his surprise when he summoned his Chester correspondent to his office and was greeted by a 15-year-old.
After his 1887 graduation from Chester High School, Sproul attended Swarthmore College where he was editor of the Swarthmore Phoenix student newspaper and the Halcyon yearbook. He was a member and manager of the football team and a charter member of the college’s chapter of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
Shortly after graduating Swarthmore, Sproul purchased a one-half interest in the Chester Times. He enlisted the help
of prominent friends to make it the leading daily in the city, with MacDade working on the reportorial staff for free.
In the five years between his 1891 graduation from Swarthmore College and his election to the state Senate in 1896, Sproul began to develop a wide range of business interests that continued during his years in the Senate. The Times wrote that “soon after leaving college he became a banker, a publisher, a shipyard executive and a traction official, and in the course of the years, he played large part in developing the natural resources of the state of West Virginia, where he had extensive mining and traction holdings.” Along with farming land on his grounds in Nether Providence, he also owned 2,000 acres of orchard land in the upper Susquehanna Valley.
When he was elected to the state Senate in 1896, he headed to Harrisburg as the state’s youngest legislator.
Sproul, along with MacDade, had apprenticed in local politics under William J. McClure, who supported MacDade in his district attorney run and Sproul’s run for state Senate. Following McClure’s death in 1907, the two often found themselves at odds with his son and successor, John J. McClure. Sproul would come to a truce with the younger McClure following his term as governor in 1923.
While the McClure organization became synonymous with the Delaware County Republican Party in post-World War II politics, the late 19th and early 20th century saw competition between organizations within the party. William J. McClure built his organization around what would today be termed a strong ground game, creating a coalition of independent Republicans and Democrats around business and political influence including retail, hotels and liquor license control, while many of Chester and Delaware County’s socially elite families’ stature came from large scale industry, farming and GOP roots tracing to the formation of the party.
Through his experiences in Chester politics, Sproul developed an independent mindedness and a support for what he called “good, clean elections” that guided him through the competition of Republicans factions at the state-level.
During his second term in the state Senate, Sproul refused to support state Sen. Matthew Stanley Quay for U.S. Senator (before the 17th Amendment, state legislators voted for U.S. senators). At the time, Quay was Republican boss of Pennsylvania – heading the organization founded by Lincoln administration official Simon Cameron (whom Sproul portrayed in his high school Senate club and was in part named after) – and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
U.S. Sen. Boies Penrose succeeded Quay upon his death in 1904, bringing state control to the powerful Philadelphia GOP and serving as the last singular statewide boss. During the remainder of Sproul’s time in the Senate and as governor, the Penrose organization would be challenged by the South Philadelphia machine of U.S. Rep. William Scott Vaire and his brothers Edwin and George.
The feud culminated during the 1917 primary when sitting Mayor Thomas Smith, a Vare supporter, would be indicted (and later acquitted) of conspiracy to commit murder by the Penrosebacked district attorney when a Philadelphia police officer was shot and killed during a street fight between Vaire and Penrose supporters outside of a polling place.
Against this background and dismal state finances, Sproul – despite his refusal to be beholden to boss politics – maintained working if not cordial relations with both Philadelphia GOP faction leaders and carried a majority of over 250,000 votes in 1918 gubernatorial primary over J. Denny O’Neil of Pittsburgh. His Philadelphia margin alone could have carried his victory. Sproul swept Delaware County in the primary despite opposition from John J. McClure.
In his memoirs, MacDade wrote “It may be said here that, with all the criticisms of Penrose, he was a strong advocate of family felicity and a tower of strength in support of virtue… he wanted men with large physiques believing their presence… helped to garner in the vote.” Sproul fit Penrose’s criteria and took 61.05 percent of the vote with 522,537 in the 1918 general election to defeat Democrat Eugene C. Bonniwell, with 33.74 percent with 305,315 votes, and three third-party candidates.