1. William Frederick Lemke was an American politician who represented North Dakota in the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Republican Party.
17 Facts About William Lemke
1. 2.
William Lemke was the Union Party's presidential candidate in the 1936 presidential election.
3.
William Lemke was born in Albany, Minnesota, and raised in Towner County, North Dakota, the son of Fred Lemke and Julia Anna Kleir, pioneer farmers who had accumulated some 2,700 acres of land.
4.
William Lemke returned to his home state in 1905 to set up practice at Fargo.
5.
William Lemke was heavily involved and quickly became one of its top leaders.
6.
William Lemke is considered by many to be the brains of the operation, often being called the "bishop" or "political bishop" of the NPL.
7.
Also in 1932, William Lemke campaigned for Franklin D Roosevelt for President in North Dakota and other states in the Midwest.
8.
William Lemke tried to get the Act re-passed by Congress, but was stymied by the Roosevelt administration which privately told Congressmen that they would exercise a Presidential veto against the bill.
9.
William Lemke was a political friend and ally of Louisiana populist Huey Long prior to his assassination in 1935.
10.
In June 1936, William Lemke accepted the nomination of the Union Party, a short-lived third party, as its candidate for President of the United States.
11.
William Lemke received 892,378 votes, or just under two percent nationwide, and no electoral votes in the 1936 election.
12.
William Lemke ran again for the House in 1942 as a Republican and served four more terms, until his death in 1950.
13.
From 1943 to 1948, William Lemke was the champion for establishment of the Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park.
14.
The National Park Service did not support this proposal, and oddly enough William Lemke was no admirer of Theodore Roosevelt, but he seems to have pursued the establishment of a park in anticipation of the economic benefits it might bring to the region.
15.
William Lemke's efforts were ultimately successful, with the park established by act of Congress in June, 1948.
16.
William Lemke died of a heart attack in Fargo, North Dakota and is buried in Riverside Cemetery.
17.
Former Atlanta Braves baseball player Mark William Lemke is William Lemke's second cousin twice removed.