40 Facts About Carl Hayden

Carl Hayden was Dean of the United States Senate and served as its president pro tempore and chairman of both its Rules and Administration and Appropriations committees.

Carl Hayden was the last remaining member of Congress to have served during the presidencies of William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson, as he retired in 1969.

Charles Carl Hayden was a Connecticut-born merchant and freight operator who had moved west due to a lung ailment and homesteaded a claim on the south bank of the Salt River.

Charles Carl Hayden had served as a probate judge and, following Grover Cleveland's 1884 election, had been considered for the territorial governorship.

The Carl Hayden family operated a variety of business interests including a ferry service, a gristmill, a general store, and agricultural interests.

Carl Hayden attended Tempe's Eighth Street School and Arizona Territorial Normal School.

Carl Hayden attributed his loss to overconfidence and learned to "always run scared" in future elections.

Carl Hayden met his future wife, Nan Downing, while at Stanford.

One semester from graduation, in December 1899, Carl Hayden was forced to drop out of school when his father became ill.

Charles Carl Hayden died on February 5,1900, leaving his son with responsibility for the family and control of the family business interests.

Carl Hayden sold the mercantile business to pay off outstanding debts and then rented most of the family's properties to provide an income that allowed him to move his mother and sisters to Palo Alto, California, where his sisters could attend college.

Carl Hayden was elected to a two-year term on the Tempe town council.

Carl Hayden led the Arizona Territory delegation to the 1904 Democratic National Convention in St Louis.

Carl Hayden's first run for Congress came during a 1911 special election called in anticipation of Arizona statehood.

Carl Hayden was considered an underdog to two other Democratic challengers and received an endorsement from only one Arizona newspaper.

Carl Hayden began a practice of caravaning around the state with other members of his party, a pattern that continued until war-time rationing of the 1940s ended the custom.

Carl Hayden kept a lookout for candidates with a potential to run against him, occasionally sending letters encouraging the rumored candidates to run.

Carl Hayden sponsored the Grand Canyon National Park Act, and, in honor of his mother, he introduced a joint resolution calling for women's suffrage.

In 1914, Carl Hayden secured an extension of repayment times for loans made under the National Reclamation Act of 1902 from ten to twenty years.

An additional change in the way that reclamation projects were funded came in 1922 with passage of Carl Hayden's legislation authorizing revenues from sale of hydroelectric power to be credited to repayment of project debts.

Carl Hayden voted for American entry into World War I and then successfully added an amendment to a military manpower bill that prohibited conscripted personnel from avoiding military service by buying their way out and requiring all draftees to remain in the military until the end of the war.

The campaign saw allegations of misconduct raised with incumbent Ralph H Cameron claiming Hayden had used a slush fund received from out-of-state interests.

Carl Hayden later speculated that if he had faced only one opponent, he might not have won.

Carl Hayden actively supported the Central Valley Project and acted as floor manager for the Grand Coulee Dam's appropriation legislation.

When demands for new projects during the 1930s drained the Reclamation Fund faster than repayments could replenish it, Hayden worked with Senator Joseph C O'Mahoney of Wyoming to secure new funding by allocating revenue from offshore oil reserves to the Reclamation Fund.

Carl Hayden sponsored legislation creating the Farmers Home Administration, authorizing government-insured loans to farmers.

Carl Hayden lobbied a variety of Arizona groups to make land available and touting the favorable year-round flying weather, he assisted with the creation of a number of military bases throughout his home state, including the Luke and Williams training bases.

Carl Hayden introduced amendments prohibiting payment of money to avoid military service, draftees procuring substitutes, and securing of enlistments by the paying of bounties.

In 1945, Carl Hayden suffered a personal tragedy when his wife, Nan, had a stroke.

In other reclamation efforts Carl Hayden cosponsored the Colorado River Storage Act of 1956, authorizing construction of the Glen Canyon Dam and three other water storage dams.

The stable political environment in Arizona that Carl Hayden had enjoyed during most of his career began to change by the 1950s.

In 1956, Carl Hayden was involved in a legal dispute when a United States district court judge issued a restraining order blocking the publication of a Senate pamphlet.

At the beginning of the 84th Congress, Carl Hayden gave up his chairmanship of the Senate Rules Committee in order to become chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Arizona's Republican establishment felt Carl Hayden's seniority was crucial for ensuring the project would pass.

The events of the decade resulted in Carl Hayden twice advancing to second place on the presidential line of succession.

The first occurrence came on November 16,1961, with the death of House Speaker Sam Rayburn when Hayden followed Vice President Lyndon B Johnson and lasted until a new Speaker was elected.

On June 4,1963, one day after the Supreme Court issued a decision in Arizona v California favorable to Arizona, Hayden joined with the rest of his state's congressional delegation in reintroducing legislation authorizing the water project.

Carl Hayden kept a considerably lower national profile than conventional wisdom would suggest for someone who spent more than half a century in Washington, including 42 years in the Senate.

Carl Hayden believed that partisanship should end on election day, and his constituent service was performed in a nonpartisan manner.

Carl Hayden became ill in the middle of January 1972 and died on January 25,1972.