Hugh M. Alcorn

Last updated

Hugh Mead Alcorn (born Suffield, Connecticut, October 24, 1872; died Suffield, Connecticut May 26, 1955) was an American lawyer and politician. He was the state's attorney in Hartford County, Connecticut from 1908 to 1942. [1]

Contents

Early life

Alcorn was the son of Hugh Glen Alcorn (1832–1899) and Susan (Ford) (1839–1918). His father's experiences in the Civil War, including time in Andersonville Prison, led to alcoholism and his death by drowning. Alcorn's brother William F. Alcorn (1867–1939) became a lawyer, commanded a battalion in France in World War I, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1920 as a Democrat, losing to incumbent John Q. Tilson. Hugh M. Alcorn was educated at the Connecticut Literary Institute in Suffield and then studied law.

Political career

In 1902 Alcorn was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives from Suffield; he was re-elected in 1904.

Alcorn was the Republican candidate for governor in 1934, losing narrowly to Democrat Wilbur L. Cross. [2]

Alcorn was appointed State's Attorney for Hartford County in 1908 and remained in that position until resigning in 1942; no one before or since has served longer. He prosecuted Amy Archer-Gilligan, the poisoner who may have been part of the inspiration for the play Arsenic and Old Lace, gangster Gerald Chapman, and the Waterbury corruption case which sent Lt. Governor T. Frank Hayes to jail. President Woodrow Wilson appointed him a Special Attorney General to prosecute newspaper publisher Edward Rumely during World War I. [3]

Personal life

Alcorn married Cora Terry Wells in 1900; they had three sons, politician and judge Howard Wells Alcorn (1901–1992), Republican politician and national party chairman Hugh Meade Alcorn (1907–1992), and Robert Hayden Alcorn (1909–1980), who wrote a book on his experiences as a spy in World War II. (Meade's middle name was given an extra "e" to differentiate him from his father. [4] )

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ella Grasso</span> American politician (1919–1981)

Ella Rosa Giovianna Oliva Grasso was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the 83rd governor of Connecticut from January 8, 1975, to December 31, 1980, after rejecting past offers of candidacies for Senate and governor. She was the first woman elected governor in Connecticut and the fourth woman to be elected governor of a U.S. state. She is also the first female governor to not be the spouse or widow of a former governor. She resigned as governor due to her battle with ovarian cancer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Seymour Whitman</span> American judge and politician

Charles Seymour Whitman was an American lawyer who served as the 41st governor of New York from January 1, 1915, to December 31, 1918. An attorney and politician, he also served as a delegate from New York to the 1916 Republican National Convention. He had previously served as deputy and New York County District Attorney, in addition to state judge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meade Alcorn</span> American politician (1907–1992)

Hugh Meade Alcorn Jr. was a U.S. lawyer and political figure. He was a native of Suffield, Connecticut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Moran Bailey</span> American politician (1904–1975)

John Moran Bailey was an American politician who played a major role in promoting the New Deal coalition of the Democratic Party and its liberal policy positions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connecticut's congressional districts</span> U.S. House districts in the state of Connecticut

Connecticut is divided among five congressional districts from which citizens elect the state's representatives to the United States House of Representatives. After the re-apportionment following the 2000 census, Connecticut lost one representative, reducing the state's delegation from six to five. The redistricting process was shared between the Republican governor at the time, John G. Rowland, and the Democratic-controlled General Assembly. Before the census, the state's House delegation was split evenly between Republicans and Democrats, and the solution finally agreed upon by the redistricting committee would ensure an even match-up between incumbents, the 6th district's Nancy L. Johnson, a Republican, and the 5th district's James H. Maloney, a Democrat. In the 2002 elections, Johnson defeated Maloney by a surprisingly large margin in the new 5th district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph E. Talbot</span> American politician (1901–1966)

Joseph Edward Talbot was a U.S. Representative from Connecticut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas J. Spellacy</span> American politician

Thomas Joseph Spellacy was an American politician and lawyer. He was the 47th Mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, held several other offices, and was one of Connecticut's most prominent Democrats over a period of more than 50 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 United States Senate election in Connecticut</span>

The 2012 United States Senate election in Connecticut was held on November 6, 2012, in conjunction with the 2012 U.S. presidential election, other elections to the United States Senate in other states, as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections. Primaries to elect Senate candidates from the Republican and Democratic parties were held on Tuesday, August 14, 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claude R. Porter</span> American politician

Claude Rodman Porter was an American politician and lawyer. He served in both chambers of the Iowa General Assembly and as a United States Attorney, and was a perennial Democratic Party runner-up to Republican victors in three races for governor of Iowa and six races for U.S. senator. In an era in which the Republican Party was so dominant in Iowa that Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver remarked that "Iowa will go Democratic when Hell goes Methodist," Porter twice came closer to winning the governorship than all but one other Democratic candidate of that era. He later served as a member of the U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission for eighteen years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William L. Hadden</span> American politician

William L. Hadden was an American politician who was the 87th lieutenant governor of Connecticut from 1943 to 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert K. Killian</span> American politician

Robert Kenneth Killian was an American politician and attorney from Connecticut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oz Griebel</span> American politician

Richard Nelson "Oz" Griebel was an American banker, lawyer, and political candidate. He ran as a Republican primary candidate in the 2010 Connecticut gubernatorial election, and as an independent in the 2018 gubernatorial election.

William Mills Maltbie was a lawyer, judge, and chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010 Connecticut elections</span>

Elections for state and federal offices for the 2010 election cycle in Connecticut, US, were held on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. Any necessary primary elections for the Republican and Democratic parties were held on Tuesday, August 10, 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin C. Kelly</span> American Politician and Lawyer from Connecticut

Kevin C. Kelly is an American lawyer and politician from Connecticut. A Republican, he has been a member of the Connecticut State Senate since 2011, elected from the 21st District. He was the Senate Republican Minority Leader from 2021-2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1934 Connecticut gubernatorial election</span>

The 1934 Connecticut gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1934. Incumbent Democrat Wilbur Lucius Cross defeated Republican nominee Hugh Meade Alcorn with 46.71% of the vote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winifred McDonald</span> American politician

Winifred Genevieve McDonald was an American politician and teacher who served as Secretary of the State of Connecticut from 1949 to 1951. A Democrat from Waterbury, she ousted Republican incumbent Frances B. Redick in 1948. McDonald narrowly lost her reelection bid to Republican nominee Alice K. Leopold in 1950.

Howard Wells Alcorn was an American lawyer, politician, and judge. In his long career he served as the Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1931 and Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court from 1970 to 1971.

References

  1. ↑ "Hugh Alcorn, Famed State's Atty., Dies", United Press, Naugatuck Daily News (Naugatuck, Connecticut), May 27, 1955, p. 1
  2. ↑ https://electionhistory.ct.gov/eng/candidates/view/23802/ Alcorn's election results on Connecticut Secretary of State website. Note that as of 3/2024 the site conflates his results and those of his son.
  3. ↑ https://www.suffield-library.org/localhistory/alcorn.htm Bio of Alcorn on Suffield Library website
  4. ↑ "Information", Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), November 3, 1957, p. A15
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.