20 Facts About Frank Merriam

Frank Finley Merriam was an American Republican politician who served as the 28th governor of California from June 2,1934, until January 2,1939.

Frank Merriam served as the State Auditor of Iowa from 1900 to 1903, and served in both the Iowa and California state legislatures.

Frank Merriam was born in 1865 in Hopkinton, Iowa, the eldest of 11 children.

Frank Merriam next became the editor of the Hopkinton Leader, a newspaper.

Frank Merriam moved to Long Beach, California in 1910 with his second wife, Nellie, to attend to family obligations.

Frank Merriam was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives as a Republican at the age of 31 in 1896.

Two years later, Frank Merriam was elected as Iowa State Auditor, a post he would hold until 1903.

In 1910 at the age of 44, Frank Merriam moved to California.

In 1922, while still serving in the Assembly, Frank Merriam presided over the successful election campaign of former Bull Moose member and Republican candidate for governor Friend Richardson.

Name recognition from Richardson's successful campaign among fellow Republicans helped Frank Merriam be elected by the Republican majority in the Assembly as its Speaker in 1923.

Frank Merriam returned in the 1928 elections after he was elected to the California State Senate.

Less than three years later, Governor Frank Merriam was called upon to intervene in another labor dispute, the Stockton Cannery Strike of 1937 in which one person died and 50 injured.

Frank Merriam refused to call up the National Guard this time, but did play a significant role in mediating between the two sides after the violence to get the canneries open and save the $6 million spinach crop.

Frank Merriam had threatened not to deploy the California National Guard to San Francisco if the party would not nominate him.

Frank Merriam's campaign rallied state conservatives into the so-called "Stop Sinclair" movement.

Also during the campaign, Frank Merriam frequented football games and public events, and on one occasion, attended a hospital talking to deaf mutes through an interpreter.

Frank Merriam proceeded with appeasing the closely divided Legislature by praising the federal Townsend Plan, while complaining to conservatives and other capitalist supporters that he was surrounded by fanatics.

Frank Merriam lost to Olson by 220,715 votes, ending the Democratic isolation from the governorship that had lasted for forty years beginning with the election of Governor Henry Gage.

Frank Merriam resided in the Bluff Park neighborhood of Long Beach, California.

Frank Merriam died at home in Long Beach of a heart attack, at age 89, on April 25,1955.