Henry B. Metcalf
Member of the Rhode Island Senate
In office
1885–1886
Personal details
Born
Henry Brewer Metcalf

(1829-04-02)April 2, 1829
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedOctober 5, 1904(1904-10-05) (aged 75)
Pawtucket, Rhode Island, U.S.
Political partyProhibition (1888–1904)
Other political
affiliations		Whig before (1856)
Republican (Before 1888)
Liberal Republican (1872)
EducationTufts University (MA)

Henry Brewer Metcalf (April 2, 1829 – October 5, 1904) was an American prohibitionist and politician from Rhode Island, who served as the Prohibition Party's gubernatorial candidate thrice and vice presidential nominee in 1900.

Life

Henry Brewer Metcalf was born in Boston, Massachusetts on April 2, 1829, and attended public schools in the city. When he was 15 he was apprenticed to a dry goods importing and jobbing company in Boston to aid his family's finances. In 1856, he received a Master of Arts degree from Tufts College in Massachusetts. In 1867, he helped to form the Boston Button Company as the firm's senior partner and in 1874 he moved to Rhode Island where he established the Pawtucket Haircloth Company. He later formed the Campbell Machine Company in Boston which made machinery to make shoes. He later served as a Trustee of Tufts College and also as President of the Trustees of Tufts College.[1]

He was a member of the Whig Party until its dissolution and then joined the Republican Party until 1872 when he joined the Liberal Republicans and supported Horace Greeley for president although he later returned following the party's dissolution. In 1874, he assisted in the reorganization of Pawtucket, Rhode Island's city government, being elected to the Winchester city council. In 1885, he was elected to Rhode Island's state senate and served for one term.[2]

Despite his unsuccessful attempt at reelection to the state senate he was a leader in pushing for a constitutional amendment to ban the sale of liquor in Rhode Island and served as the president of the Rhode Island Temperence Union. In 1886, he joined the Prohibition Party and served as its gubernatorial candidate in 1893, 1894, and 1900.

In 1900, he served as a delegate to the Prohibition national convention and aided in the nomination of John G. Woolley for the party's presidential nomination. He won the Prohibition Party's vice presidential nomination with 349 delegates against Thomas R. Caskardon's 132 delegates and E. L. Eaton's 113 delegates.[3]

Shortly before his death he was a member of the American Protective Tariff League of New York and vice president of the American Anti-Imperialist League. In 1904, he was selected to be the Prohibition Party's gubernatorial candidate again, but he died in Pawtucket, Rhode Island on October 5, 1904, after suffering a series of strokes at the age of 75 and was replaced by William E. Brightman.[4]

Electoral history

1893 Rhode Island gubernatorial election[5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Daniel Russell Brown 21,830 46.40% -3.82%
Democratic David S. Baker 22,015 46.73% +0.22%
Prohibition Henry B. Metcalf 3,265 6.93% +4.01%
Total votes '47,110' '100.00%'
1894 Rhode Island gubernatorial election[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Daniel Russell Brown 29,157 53.15% +6.75%
Democratic David S. Baker 22,650 41.29% -5.44%
Prohibition Henry B. Metcalf 2,241 4.09% -2.84%
Socialist Labor Charles G. Baylor 592 1.08% +1.08%
Populist Henry A. Burlingame 223 0.41% +0.41%
Total votes '54,863' '100.00%'
1896 Rhode Island Second Congressional District election[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Adin B. Capron 16,612 63.50% +2.91%
Democratic Lucius F. C. Garvin 8,088 30.92% -3.34%
Prohibition Henry B. Metcalf 1,207 4.61% +0.75%
Socialist Labor James Jefferson 254 0.97% +0.12%
Total votes '26,161' '100.00%'
1900 Rhode Island gubernatorial election[8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican William Gregory 26,043 54.33% -2.03%
Democratic Nathan W. Littlefield 17,184 35.85% +1.99%
Socialist Labor James P. Reid 2,858 5.96% -0.86%
Prohibition Henry B. Metcalf 1,848 3.86% +0.89%
Total votes '47,933' '100.00%'
1900 United States presidential and vice-presidential election[9]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican William McKinley (incumbent) & Theodore Roosevelt 7,218,283 51.66%
Democratic William Jennings Bryan & Adlai Stevenson 6,358,149 45.51%
Prohibition John G. Woolley & Henry B. Metcalf 209,132 1.50%
Social Democratic Eugene V. Debs & Job Harriman 86,973 0.62%
Populist Wharton Barker & Ignatius Donnelly 50,892 0.36%
Socialist Labor Joseph F. Malloney & Valentine Remmel 40,968 0.29%
Union Reform Party (1900) Seth H. Ellis & Samuel T. Nicholson 5,696 0.04%
United Christian Party (United States) Jonah Leonard & David H. Martin 518 0.00%
write-ins others 1,236 0.01%
Total votes 13,971,846 100.00%

References

  1. ^ "Hon Henry B. Metcalf Dies at Pawtucket". The Boston Globe. 9 October 1904. p. 6. Archived from the original on 20 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "H. B. Metcalf Dead". The Tribune. 11 October 1904. p. 1. Archived from the original on 20 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "The Prohibitionists Name Their Ticket". The Times. 29 June 1900. p. 7. Archived from the original on 20 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Henry B. Metcalf Dead". Baxter Springs News. 13 October 1904. p. 6. Archived from the original on 20 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "RI Governor 1893". 6 October 2005.
  6. ^ "RI Governor 1894". 1 October 2009.
  7. ^ "RI District 02 1896". 15 April 2009.
  8. ^ "RI Governor 1900". 1 October 2009.
  9. ^ 1900 Presidential Election, Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections, retrieved December 25, 2022
Party political offices Preceded byHale JohnsonJames H. Southgate Prohibition nominee for Vice President of the United States 1900 Succeeded byGeorge Carroll
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