Oramel Hinckley Simpson (March 20, 1870 – November 17, 1932) was an
American politician
The politics of the United States function within a framework of a constitutional federal republic and presidential system, with three distinct branches that share powers. These are: the U.S. Congress which forms the legislative branch, a bic ...
from the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
of
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
. He became the
39th Governor of Louisiana in 1926, upon the death of his predecessor,
Henry L. Fuqua. He was defeatedhe ran third in the critical
Democratic primaryin his bid for a full term in 1928 by the legendary
Huey Pierce Long Jr.
Huey Pierce Long Jr. (August 30, 1893September 10, 1935), nicknamed "the Kingfish", was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a United States senator from 1932 until his assassination ...
, of
Winnfield
Winnfield is a small city in, and the parish seat of, Winn Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,749 at the 2000 census, and 4,840 in 2010. Three governors of the state of Louisiana were from Winnfield. , the seat of
Winn Parish
Winn Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 15,313. Its seat is Winnfield. The parish was founded in 1852. It is last in alphabetical order of Louisiana's sixty-four parishes ...
.
Simpson was born in
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
, a small town in
St. Landry Parish
St. Landry Parish (french: Paroisse de Saint-Landry) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 83,384. The parish seat is Opelousas. The parish was established in 1807.
St. Landry Parish com ...
in south Louisiana to Samuel F. Simpson and the former Mary Esther Beer. He was educated at
Centenary College, then in
Jackson
Jackson may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name
Places
Australia
* Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region
* Jackson North, Q ...
in
East Feliciana Parish
East Feliciana Parish (french: Paroisse de Feliciana Est, es, Parroquia de East Feliciana) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2010 census, the population was 20,267, and 19,531 in 2020. The parish seat is Clinton.
Est ...
but later relocated to
Shreveport
Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population o ...
, the seat of
Caddo Parish
Caddo Parish ( French: ''Paroisse de Caddo'') is a parish located in the northwest corner of the U.S. state of Louisiana. According to the 2020 U.S. census, the parish had a population of 237,848. The parish seat is Shreveport, which developed a ...
. One of Simpson's classmates at Centenary in the 1890 graduating class was later
State Senator
A state senator is a member of a state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature.
Description
A state senator is a member of an upper house in the bicameral legislatures of 49 U ...
Thomas Wafer Fuller, who was thereafter the
Webster Parish
Webster Parish ( French: ''Paroisse de Webster'') is a parish located in the northwestern section of the U.S. state of Louisiana.
The seat of the parish is Minden.
As of the 2010 census, the Webster Parish population was 41,207. In 2018, the ...
school superintendent.
Simpson thereafter attended the
Tulane University Law School
Tulane University Law School is the law school of Tulane University. It is located on Tulane's Uptown campus in New Orleans, Louisiana. Established in 1847, it is the 12th oldest law school in the United States.
In addition to the usual common ...
in New Orleans. He was an attorney in New Orleans from 1893–1899, when he briefly took the position of warrant clerk at the
United States Mint
The United States Mint is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury responsible for producing coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce, as well as controlling the movement of bullion. It does not produce paper money; tha ...
there. In 1899, he married Louise Ernestine Pichet of New Orleans. They had no children.
Thereafter, Simpson was the assistant secretary of the state Senate from 1900 until 1908, when he became secretary of the Senate, a post that he retained until his election as
lieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...
in 1924. He was also the secretary of the Louisiana constitutional convention of 1921.
During his brief term as governor, Simpson opposed a
toll
Toll may refer to:
Transportation
* Toll (fee) a fee charged for the use of a road or waterway
** Road pricing, the modern practice of charging for road use
** Road toll (historic)
The road toll was a historical fee charged to travellers and ...
bridge across the eastern portion of
Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from west ...
which was being built to connect New Orleans and
Slidell in
St. Tammany Parish
St. Tammany Parish (french: Paroisse de Saint-Tammany) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana named after Tamanend, the legendary Lenape Chief of Chiefs and the "Patron Saint of America." At the 2020 census, the population was 2 ...
. Simpson proposed instead that a free bridge to be built from
Chef Menteur
Chef Menteur is associated with several place names in eastern New Orleans and South Louisiana, including Chef Menteur Pass, Bayou Chef Menteur and Chef Menteur Highway (U.S. Highway 90 in Louisiana).
Etymology
Proposed etymologies for the phras ...
, but influential figures in New Orleans worked to authorize the toll bridge despite Simpson's objections. However, Simpson was able to start a free ferry service, which reduced the revenue to the toll bridge. The
Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives during the Simpson administration was
William Clark Hughes of
Bossier Parish
Bossier Parish ( ; french: Paroisse de Bossier) is a parish located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2010 census, the population was 116,979, and 128,746 in 2020.
The parish seat is Benton. The principal city is ...
in northwestern Louisiana.
The
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
reemerged during Simpson's term of office. Legislation was passed to outlaw hoods, masks, and robes excepting those worn during
Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras (, ) refers to events of the Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany (Three Kings Day) and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday, which is known as Shrove Tuesday. is French for "Fat ...
and at masked balls or parties.
The great flood in 1927 forced Simpson to order a "downriver cut" of the
levee
A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually soil, earthen and that often runs parallel (geometry), parallel to ...
to protect New Orleans. Afterwards, the affected states of Louisiana,
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
, and
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
formed a tri-state flood control commission and worked together to secure federal aid for flood prevention. Property owners from the downriver parishes were compensated by the state for losses resulting from the levee cut.
Two major candidates, Simpson and
U.S. Representative
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...
Riley J. Wilson
Riley Joseph Wilson (November 12, 1871 – February 23, 1946) was a Louisiana educator, attorney and legislator in the first half of the late 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. A Democrat, Wilson served in the United States ...
of
Louisiana's 8th congressional district
Louisiana's 8th congressional district is a defunct congressional district and no longer exists after Louisiana lost its eighth congressional seat in the 1990 U. S. Census. For its entire existence, it was based in Alexandria and included much ...
(Winn Parish), opposed Huey Long's election as governor. Long won by the largest margin in Louisiana Democratic primary history up until that time, 126,842 votes, compared to 81,747 for Wilson and 80,326 for Simpson.
After his governorship, Simpson returned briefly in 1932 to his former position as secretary of the state senate.
Simpson died of a heart seizure in New Orleans some two weeks after the election of
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
as president. He was
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
. He is interred at
Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans
Greenwood Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana. The cemetery was opened in 1852, and is located on City Park Avenue (formerly Metairie Road) in the Navarre neighborhood. The cemetery has a number of impressive monumen ...
.
Notes
References
*
Davis, Edwin Adams (1961). ''Louisiana: The Pelican State''. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. .
* "Oramel Hinckley Simpson," ''A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography'', Vol. II (1988), pp. 744–745
*
Robert Sobel
Robert Sobel (February 19, 1931 – June 2, 1999) was an American professor of history at Hofstra University and a well-known and prolific writer of business histories.
Biography
Sobel was born in the Bronx, in New York City, New York. He c ...
and John Raimo, eds., ''Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789–1978'', Vol. 2 (1978)
External links
State of Louisiana – BiographyCemetery Memorialby La-Cemeteries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, Oramel H.
Democratic Party governors of Louisiana
1870 births
1932 deaths
Tulane University alumni
Lieutenant Governors of Louisiana
Methodists from Louisiana
Louisiana lawyers
People from Washington, Louisiana
Centenary College of Louisiana alumni
Tulane University Law School alumni
Huey Long