Governor Augustus Owsley Stanley

AUGUSTUS O. STANLEY was born in Shelbyville, Kentucky on May 21, 1867. His education was attained at the Gordon Academy, at the Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical College, and at Centre College, where he graduated from in 1889. While studying law, Stanley taught school and worked as a principal. He was admitted to the bar in 1894, and established his legal career in Flemingsburg, Kentucky. Stanley entered politics in 1900, serving as a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket. He also served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1903 to 1915. Stanley won the 1915 Democratic gubernatorial nomination, was elected governor, and sworn into office on December 7, 1915. During his tenure, the state’s first budget program was initiated, the corrupt practices act was improved, the state’s first workmen’s compensation law was sanctioned, anti-trust measures were authorized, and a convict labor law was instituted. On May 19, 1919, Stanley resigned from the governorship, to take his seat in the U.S. Senate, an office he held until 1925. In 1930, he secured an appointment on the International Joint Commission, where he also served as chairman from 1933 to 1954. Governor Augustus O. Stanley died on August 12, 1958, and was buried at the Frankfort Cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky.