Newton Albert Kendall Bugbee (April 21, 1876 – June 1965) was an American businessman and
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
Governor of New Jersey
The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official res ...
in 1919.
Early life
Bugbee was born on April 21, 1876 in
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
to Alvin Newton Bugbee and Lucy Kendall Davis. He was raised in
Templeton, Massachusetts
Templeton is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 8,149 at the 2020 census. The town comprises four main villages: Templeton Center, East Templeton, Baldwinville, and Otter River.
Geography
According to ...
and graduated from high school there. At an early age he went to work for the Edge Moor Bridge Works of
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington ( Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...
, joining their engineering department and remaining there for two years. He then settled in
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.New Jersey Steel and Iron Company, which was acquired by the American Bridge Company in 1900. He remained with this company until 1903, when he resigned and formed his own engineering and contracting firm, N.A.K. Bugbee and Company. The firm specialized in structural steel developments in buildings and bridges. He married Florence Hancock Toms on October 9, 1900.William Starr Myers''The Story of New Jersey'' (1945). Reprinted a ''Prominent Families of New Jersey'' (Genealogical Publishing Company, 2000).
As a young man newly arrived in Trenton, Bugbee played for the Trenton Basketball Team (1896-1897), now recognized as the first professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
team. They played their first game on November 7, 1896 against the Brooklyn YMCA, winning 16-1. Bugbee played "side center" and scored the first field goal.
Political career
Bugbee was active in Trenton civic life and New Jersey Republican politics. He became Chairman of the New Jersey Republican State Committee in 1913 after the death of
Frank Obadiah Briggs
Frank Obadiah Briggs (August 12, 1851May 8, 1913) was the Mayor of Trenton, New Jersey from 1899 to 1902. He was a United States senator from New Jersey from 1907 to 1913.
Biography
He was born on August 12, 1851 in Concord, New Hampshire to ...
. In 1917, in the administration of Governor
Walter Evans Edge
Walter Evans Edge (November 20, 1873October 29, 1956) was an American diplomat and Republican Party (United States), Republican politician who served as the 36th governor of New Jersey, from 1917 to 1919 and again from 1944 to 1947, during both ...
, Bugbee was named State Comptroller, a position he would hold for twelve years.
Bugbee resigned from the party chairmanship to run for
Governor of New Jersey
The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official res ...
in 1919. The paramount issue in that election year was
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
, since the Eighteenth Amendment had already been ratified but would not be enforced until the beginning of 1920. In the Republican primary Bugbee faced
William Nelson Runyon
William Nelson Runyon (March 5, 1871 – November 9, 1931) was the acting governor of New Jersey from 1919 to 1920 and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Runyon was nominated by Pres ...
, who had served as Acting Governor following Edge's election to the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
, and Thomas L. Raymond, mayor of
Newark
Newark most commonly refers to:
* Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States
* Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area
Newark may also refer to:
Places Canada
* Niagara-on-the ...
. Runyon ran as a "dry" (supporting Prohibition), Raymond ran as a "wet" (opposing Prohibition), while Bugbee took a middle position. With the support of local party machinery, particularly in southern counties, Bugbee defeated Runyon and Raymond by a margin of 38%-34%-23%, with the remaining 4% going to Warren C. King, a relative unknown from Middlesex County.Stickle, Warren E. "The Applejack Campaign of 1919: 'As 'Wet' as the Atlantic Ocean. ''A New Jersey Anthology'' Maxine N. Lurie, ed. (
Rutgers University Press
Rutgers University Press (RUP) is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in New Brunswick, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University.
History
Rutgers University Press, a nonprofit academic publishing house operating in New B ...
Edward I. Edwards
Edward Irving Edwards (December 1, 1863 – January 26, 1931) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as the 37th governor of New Jersey from 1920 to 1923 and in the United States Senate from 1923 to 1929.
Life and career
Edwards ...
would continue to focus on the polarizing issue of Prohibition, so much so that it was known as "The Applejack Campaign." (
Applejack
AppleJack was a command-line interface for Mac OS X that provided a simplified user interface for single user mode system repairs. It allowed for permission repair, disk repair, cache cleaning, validation of preference- and property list files ...
is an alcoholic drink made from hard cider, long associated with New Jersey.) Edwards was strongly anti-Prohibition, proclaiming himself "as wet as the Atlantic Ocean." Though he was a social drinker who occasionally drank beer in public, Bugbee maintained that Prohibition must be enforced at the risk of lawlessness, even going so far as to label Edwards a Bolshevik and an anarchist. Edwards defeated Bugbee by a 49%-46% margin, as urban residents and immigrant groups shifted to the Democratic Party as a result of the Prohibition issue.
Bugbee served as Comptroller until the end of his term in 1929. He continued his business career with his engineering firm in Trenton, also becoming the director of the Trenton Savings Fund Society and the first president of the Hanover Trust Company of Trenton.
His wife died in 1937. He died in June 1965 at the age of 89 in
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.Social Security Death Index
The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) was a database of death records created from the Social Security Administration, United States Social Security Administration's Death Master File until 2014. Since 2014, public access to the updated Death Mas ...
The Political Graveyard
The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations of ...