Frank R. Gooding

From 1905 to 1909, Gooding served two 2-year terms as Governor of Idaho. During his administration the Idaho State Capitol building in Boise was constructed.

Gooding came to national attention during the trial phase of the conspiracy prosecution of three leaders of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), charged with the assassination of former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg. In 1899, Steunenberg had crushed a rebellion of miners during a labor dispute in Coeur d'Alene. Nearly five years out of office, Steunenberg was murdered by a bomb outside his Caldwell home in December 1905, and Harry Orchard was arrested for the crime.

Idaho's Chief Justice Stockslager drafted a telegram which invited the Pinkerton Agency to investigate.[8] Governor Gooding was persuaded to approve the request, and Pinkerton agent James McParland soon arrived to lead the investigation.[9] McParland announced his suspicion that Orchard was "the tool of others."[10]

McParland's first order was to have Orchard transferred from the relatively comfortable Caldwell jail to death row in the Boise penitentiary, before any trial had occurred. The move was initially resisted by Judge Smith, who would be responsible for trying the case. The local judge anticipated a successful habeas corpus lawsuit against the tactic. McParland gave him "thirty precedents for the move." However, the sheriff in Caldwell also opposed the move.

Governor Gooding arranged a meeting between McParland and Chief Justice Stockslager, and then with Judge Smith. Before Smith arrived, McParland declared the county jail insecure, a potential target for dynamite. He also stated the purpose of the move to death row: "After three days I will attempt to get a confession." Chief Justice Stockslager approved of the move. In a pre-arranged plan, the Governor was called out of the room as soon as Judge Smith arrived, leaving McParland and the two judges alone. With the Chief Justice supporting the move to death row, Judge Smith also agreed.[11]

McParland later threatened Orchard with immediate hanging, and said that he could avoid that fate only if he testified against leaders of the WFM.[12] Orchard confessed, and was transferred from death row to a private bungalow in the prison yard. Governor Gooding stopped by to shake his hand and congratulate him on cooperating.[13]

McParland then had WFM leaders Bill Haywood, Charles Moyer, and George Pettibone arrested in Colorado, using extradition papers which falsely claimed that the three men had been present at Steunenberg's murder.[14]

The investigation and trial were financed with "deficiency certificates." In his book Big Trouble, J. Anthony Lukas recorded that with the use of these certificates,

In effect, the bank acted as a mere conduit for the passage of money from the mining industry to the state for use in the Haywood prosecution.[15]

Thousands of dollars were also provided directly from the mine owners to the prosecuting attorneys in the case.[16] Thus, mine owners were deliberately financing the state's prosecution of leaders of the union which had been organizing their mines. Upon hearing of this circumstance, President Theodore Roosevelt issued a particularly stern rebuke to Governor Gooding, describing such a state of affairs as the "grossest impropriety." President Roosevelt wrote:

[Idaho's government would] make a fatal mistake—and when I say fatal I mean literally that—if it permits itself to be identified with the operators any more than with the miners... If the Governor or the other officials of Idaho accept a cent from the operators or from any other capitalist with any reference, direct or indirect, to this prosecution, they would forfeit the respect of every good citizen and I should personally feel that they had committed a real crime.[17]

Governor Gooding's response to the President provided a "severely distorted" account of the financial arrangements for the trial, shifted the blame to others, and promised to return money contributed by the mine owners. Gooding then:

...kept the narrowest construction of his promise to the president... [He then proclaimed publicly and often that no] dollar has been or will be supplied from any private source or organization whatsoever, [and then] went right on taking money from the mine owners.[18]

Pettibone, Haywood, and Moyer were found not guilty of conspiracy in the killing.[19] Orchard was convicted and sentenced to death. His death sentence was commuted, and he spent the rest of his life at the state penitentiary, and died in 1954.

The Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind (ISDB) was first established in 1906 in Boise and operated there until it burned down on December 8, 1908. The Idaho Legislature passed an act on March 16, 1909 establishing a permanent state school. Governor Frank Gooding donated land for the ISDB so it was moved to Gooding and started accepting students in September 1910.[20]

The grounds and some of the dormitories at the ISDB.The school covers a 40-acre (16 ha) area and provides dormitories for many of its students and has other facilities, such as a gymnasium and park.[20][21]

In 1918, Gooding was the Republican nominee in a special U.S. Senate election to complete the term of James H. Brady, who died in office early in the year. Gooding was defeated by the appointed incumbent, Democrat John Nugent, by 970 votes.[22]

In 1920, Gooding defeated Nugent for a full six-year term in the Senate.[22][23] He took office in mid-January 1921, seven weeks early,[24] as Nugent resigned to accept a late-term appointment by outgoing President Woodrow Wilson to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).[25]

Gooding was reelected in 1926, again defeating Nugent.[22] He died in office in 1928,[3] and was succeeded by a political protégé, John Thomas, appointed by Governor H. C. Baldridge.[26][27]

In the 1920s, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) had the western two-thirds of Idaho in the Pacific Time Zone.[28] Gooding sponsored a bill in the Senate to place all of southern Idaho in the Mountain Time Zone,[29] which stands today. The dividing line is the Salmon River at about 45.5° N, approximately midway from the borders with Nevada (42° N) and British Columbia, Canada (49° N).

Source:[22][30]

• 1918 was a special election (November) to complete the term, vacated by the death of James Brady on January 13.
  John Nugent was appointed by Governor Moses Alexander on January 22.