Elliot Danforth (March 6, 1850 – January 7, 1906) was an American lawyer and politician.

Life

He was born on March 6, 1850, in Middleburgh,

Schoharie County, New York Schoharie County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 29,714, making it the state's fifth-least populous county. The county seat is Schoharie. "Schoharie" comes from a Mohawk word meaning ...

, the son of Peter S. Danforth, a justice of the

New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the superior court in the Judiciary of New York. It is vested with unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, although in many counties outside New York City it acts primarily as a court of civil ju ...

. He studied law with his father and was admitted to the bar in 1872. On December 17, 1874, he married Ida Prince, and they had a son, Edward Danforth, and a daughter. In 1878, he removed to Bainbridge, N.Y., where his father-in-law was President of the First National Bank. There, Danforth practiced law in partnership with George H. Winsor, and was President of the Corporation of Bainbridge. He was a delegate to the

1880 Events January *January 27 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the incandescent light bulb. Edison filed for a US patent for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected ... to platina contact wires." gr ...

and

1884 Events January * January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London to promote gradualist social progress. * January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera '' Princess Ida'', a satire on feminism, premières at the Savoy The ...

1888 Events January * January 3 – The great telescope (with an objective lens of diameter) at Lick Observatory in California is first used. * January 12 – The Schoolhouse Blizzard hits Dakota Territory and the states of Montana, M ...

1892 In Samoa, this was the only leap year spanned to 367 days as July 4 repeated. This means that the International Date Line was drawn from the east of the country to go west. Events January * January 1 – Ellis Island begins processing imm ...

1896 Events January * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports Wilhelm Röntgen's dis ...

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15 ...

and

1904 Democratic National Convention The 1904 Democratic National Convention was an American presidential nominating convention that ran from July 6 through 10 in the Coliseum of the St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall in St. Louis, Missouri. Breaking with eight years of control ...

s. He was Deputy Treasurer under Lawrence J. Fitzgerald from 1885 to 1889, and was

New York State Treasurer The New York State Treasurer was a state cabinet officer in the State of New York (state), New York between 1776 and 1926. During the re-organization of the state government under Governor Al Smith, the office was abolished and its responsibilities ...

from 1890 to 1893, elected in

1889 Events January * January 1 ** The total solar eclipse of January 1, 1889 is seen over parts of California and Nevada. ** Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka experiences a vision, leading to the start of the Ghost Dance movement in the Dakotas ...

and

1891 Events January * January 1 ** A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence. **Germany takes formal possession of its new African territories. * January 4 – The Earl of Zetland issues a ...

. In November 1891, he was a member of the State Board of Canvassers (made up by the Secretary of State,

Treasurer A treasurer is a person responsible for the financial operations of a government, business, or other organization. Government The treasury of a country is the department responsible for the country's economy, finance and revenue. The treasure ...

Comptroller A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accountancy, accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior- ...

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

and State Engineer), when the

electoral fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...

in the

Dutchess County Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later org ...

senatorial election happened by which Governor David B. Hill gained control of the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, while the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Established in 1777 by the Constitution of New York, its members are elected to two-year terms with no term l ...

. The Republican candidate Gilbert A. Deane had received 78 votes more than Democrat Edward B. Osborne, but the Board changed 92 votes and declared Osborne elected by a plurality of 14. The

issued a

writ In common law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrant (legal), Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas, and ''certiorari'' are commo ...

to Danforth, ordering him to certify the election of Deane, but Danforth refused to obey. For this he and the other members of the Board were fined $500 by Justice D. Cady Herrick. The sentence was later upheld by the

New York Court of Appeals The New York Court of Appeals is the supreme court, highest court in the Judiciary of New York (state), Unified Court System of the New York (state), State of New York. It consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeal ...

. In August 1893, it became known that Danforth had received a loan of $50,000 (about seven times the annual salary of the Treasurer) from the Madison Square Bank in New York City in exchange for keeping a large amount of State monies in that bank. Danforth managed to withdraw the State's $250,000 from the bank in the early hours of August 9, the day the bank (of which Fitzgerald was a director) closed. After leaving the Treasury, he resumed the practice of law at New York City. From 1896 to 1898, he was Chairman of the

New York State Democratic Committee The New York State Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Its headquarters are in Manhattan, and it has an office in Albany, New York, Albany.

, and in 1897 campaigned successfully for the election of

Alton B. Parker Alton Brooks Parker (May 14, 1852 – May 10, 1926) was an American judge. He was the Democratic nominee in the 1904 United States presidential election, losing in a landslide to incumbent Republican Theodore Roosevelt. A native of upstate New ...

as Chief Judge of the

. In

1898 Events January * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queen ...

, he ran for

Lieutenant Governor of New York The lieutenant governor of New York is a Constitution of New York, constitutional office in the executive branch of the Government of the State of New York. It is the second highest-ranking official in state government. The lieutenant governo ...

with

Augustus Van Wyck Augustus Van Wyck (October 14, 1850 – June 8, 1922) was an American judge and politician who served as Supreme Court Justice of Brooklyn, New York. In 1898 he received the Democratic Nomination for New York State governor against the Republican ...

but they were narrowly defeated by

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

and Timothy L. Woodruff. He died on January 7, 1906, at his home at 51, East 58th Street in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

, and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Danforth, Elliot 1850 births 1906 deaths Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) Deaths from pneumonia in New York City New York state treasurers People from Bainbridge, New York Politicians from New York City People from Middleburgh, New York Lawyers from New York City