John Eugene Osborne

John Eugene Osborne was born on June 19, 1858, although his passport stated that he was born on June 19, 1860, in Westport, New York, to John C. Osborne and Mary E. Rail.[1] In 1874 Osborne moved to Burlington, Vermont, where he worked at a drug store and studied medicine at the University of Vermont College of Medicine where he graduated in 1880.[2][3] Later that year he moved to Rawlins in the Wyoming Territory where he established a drug store. In 1881 he was hired as a surgeon by the Union Pacific Railroad.

Selina Smith

Osborne was a free silver supporter and during the 1896, 1900, and 1908 presidential elections he supported William Jennings Bryan. In 1896 he served as chairman of the Wyoming delegation to the Democratic National Convention, in 1898 he served as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was made a member of the national committee in 1900, and served as the vice chairman of the finance committee in 1908.[10][11] During the 1904 presidential election Bryan suggested that somebody like Osborne from the western United States should run for the Democratic nomination, but Osborne chose not to run.[12]

On April 28, 1903, Governor DeForest Richards died in office shortly after winning reelection in 1902 resulting in a special election. Osborne won the Democratic nomination by acclamation, but was defeated in a landslide in the special election by Bryant Butler Brooks.[13]

On November 2, 1907, he married Selina Smith of Princeton, Kentucky, after they met on the island of Madeira when Selina, then named Jean Curtis Smith, was on a round-the-world trip with her sister, Kate, and brother-in-law. They became engaged for marriage upon returning to the United States two months later.[14] Their honeymoon was interrupted "when his efforts to secure the 1908 Democratic National Convention for the West met with success and they were obliged to hurry to [Denver," where it was to be held. Mrs. Osborne was known as the "official hostess" for the convention.[15][16]

In 1910, he served as chairman of the Wyoming Democratic Party.[17] Osborne was appointed Assistant Secretary of State by President Woodrow Wilson and served in his administration from April 21, 1913, until December 14, 1915.[18] He was also chairman of the board of the Rawlins National Bank, and engaged in stock raising.[19] In 1913, he suggested that the remains of Christopher Columbus should be placed on a battleship and travel through the Panama Canal as a part of its opening ceremony.[20] During the 1936 presidential election he was selected as one of the three Democratic presidential electors for Wyoming and vote for Franklin D. Roosevelt and John Nance Garner when the electoral college convened.[21]

Osborne was a Freemason and a member of the York Rite. On March 2, 1942, his wife died in Louisville, Kentucky. On April 24, 1943, Osborne died in Rawlins, Wyoming, at age 84 after suffering a heart attack earlier in the week.[22] He was interred at the Smith family plot at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Princeton, Kentucky.

• John E. Osborne (D), Wyoming state archives
• The Hanging of Dutch Charley and Big Nose George, the election of John E. Osborne, Wyoming Tales and Trails
• "An Outlaw's Skin Was Made Into Shoes — Should they be on display?", by Eric Grundhauser, Atlas Obscura, December 19, 2017. Retrieved May 9, 2018.
• National Governors Association
• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• John Eugene Osborne at Find a Grave
• govtrack.us
• Wyoming State Historical Society