[Louis B. Hanna] [Lynn J. Frazier] [Ragnvold A. Nestos]

[Arthur G. Sorlie] [Walter J. Maddock]

Born in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, Louis B. Hanna grew up and received his education in Massachusetts and New York.

In 1881 L. B. Hanna and his brother, Robert C. Hanna, came to Dakota Territory and began farming near Hope. L. B. Hanna sold his land in 1882 and moved to Page where he began his career as a businessman. He started a retail lumber company, then expanded into grain handling. Soon he needed banking facilities, so he opened a private bank at Page. The bank became a state bank, then became the First National Bank of Page. Hanna served as president.

Hanna moved to Fargo in 1899, serving as vice president of the First National Bank of Fargo. During his second term in the State Senate he represented the Ninth (Fargo) District.

During Hanna's term as governor, he, his family, and a committee went to Norway. On July 4, 1914, at Christiania, they presented the people of Norway with a statue of Abraham Lincoln. Later, King Haakon VI of Norway decorated Governor Hanna with the Grand Cross of Saint Olaf of the First Rank.

Governor Hanna served as chairman of the Liberty Loan drives in 1917 and 1918. During World War I he served in France as a captain in the American Red Cross. He was cited as an officer of the French Legion of Honor by the French government.

Hanna continued his business interests in agriculture, banking, and other enterprises until his retirement.

Louis Benjamin Hanna had successful lumber, grain handling, and banking businesses in the Red River Valley.

Several interesting details can be observed in Governor Hanna's office. Notice the stenciled design on the walls, above the wood wainscoting. There is a telephone beside the governor's desk, and pencils and quill pens are scattered near his documents and correspondence.

An interior view of the capitol, 1913.

Lynn Joseph Frazier was the first Nonpartisan League governor of North Dakota. He was elected in 1916, 1918, and 1920. However, he was removed from office in 1921 in a recall election.

Frazier was governor during a very turbulent time in North Dakota's history. Between 1915 and 1921, citizens of the state were caught between bitterly opposing political forces--particularly those of the Nonpartisan League (NPL) and Independent Voters' Association (IVA). Farm prices were down, crops were poor because of weather, and the state was left in an economic depression following World War I.

The NPL successfully sponsored a number of radical changes in legislation during Frazier's administration. Some of these changes included the establishment of state-owned industries: the Bank of North Dakota and the State Mill and Elevator. An Industrial Commission, consisting of the governor, attorney general, and commissioner of agriculture and labor, was established to oversee the operations of the state-owned industries. The state hail insurance system was overhauled, and a graduated income tax and an inheritance tax were introduced. One constitutional amendment established a procedure for the recall of public officials. Ironically, this procedure was immediately put to use in the recall of Governor Frazier and the rest of the Industrial Commission.

The year after Frazier's expulsion from the governor's office, he successfully ran for the United States Senate, and served from 1923 to 1940. During his seventeen years in the Senate he was known as a spokesman for agriculture.

Prior to his career in state and national politics, Frazier was a farmer and school teacher. He graduated from Grafton High School in 1892 and Mayville Normal School (teachers' college) in 1895. He completed his bachelor's degree at the University of North Dakota, graduating with honors in 1902.

As a young farmer, Frazier became involved in local politics, serving on the township board and school board. When the Nonpartisan movement began in 1915, Frazier became an active participant.

Although he was a popular governor (elected three times), Lynn J. Frazier became the first public official in the United States to be removed from office by recall election.

Women became enfranchised voters during Frazier's administration. He is shown here signing the Women's Suffrage Bill in 1918. Governor Gilbert A. Pierce had vetoed a women's suffrage bill in the 1800s.

Governor Ragnvold Anderson Nestos was a native of Norway. One of ten children, he was sixteen and spoke no English when he came to the United States to live with his aunt and uncle at Buxton, North Dakota. He entered the first grade at Buxton and attended school in between working odd jobs and working at lumber camps out of state.

Four years later, in 1884, he passed the teachers' examinations and taught in a country school. He completed studies at Mayville Normal School (teachers' college) while homesteading in Pierce County. In 1904 he graduated from the University of North Dakota and moved to Minot, where he began practicing law with attorney C. A. Johnson.

Nestos was elected governor in a recall election that removed Governor Lynn Frazier and the other two members of the Industrial Commission from office. It was a time of bitter political discontent and bickering between the NPL (Nonpartisan League, which supported state-owned industry) and the IVA (Independent Voters Association, which opposed state ownership of Industries).

Nestos worked hard to make the new state-owned businesses (State Mill and Elevator and the Bank of North Dakota) a success. He also campaigned against illiteracy. During his administration, North Dakota came into national compliance for registering births and deaths, and North Dakota had a full-time health officer for the first time. He ran for and completed a second term of office.

Governor Nestos never married. He received national recognition for his work on behalf of the Boy Scouts of America and the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America.

Governor Nestos was North Dakota's only governor voted into office in a recall election.

Governor Nestos with George Bangs, Will O'Connor, Alice Nelson Page, and other state officials. Nestos (second from left, back row) was elected to a second term as governor. He supported state-owned industries, even though he was backed by the Independent Voters' Association IVA), a group which opposed state ownership of industries.

Arthur Gustav Sorlie defeated incumbent Ragnvold A. Nestos in the 1924 gubernatorial race. The big political news at that time was the struggle between the Nonpartisan League (NPL) and the Independent Voters' Association (IVA). The NPL membership (primarily farm and rural) bitterly opposed big business interests. They favored state-owned industries such as the Bank of North Dakota and the State Mill and Elevator. The IVA considered the NPL platform to be too radical and socialistic. They did not support state ownership of industry.

When NPL-backed Sorlie replaced IVA candidate Nestos, the Nonpartisan League returned to power in the state. However, Sorlie did not have complete support from the League. Some (such as his own lieutenant governor, Walter Maddock) disliked Sorlie because he was a conservative businessman. During the 1927 legislative session, Sorlie's political enemies conspired to embarrass him by publicly investigating the State Mill and Elevator and calling for its removal from the governor's influence because of inefficient management.

Governor Sorlie died in office in 1928. His body lay in state in the rotunda of the capitol.

Governor Sorlie was part of the Nonpartisan League (NPL), but some of the more radical League members did not support him.

Governor Sorlie and the governor of Idaho speaking to school children at Bonner's Ferry, Idaho.

Lieutenant Governor Walter J. Maddock became governor when Arthur G. Sorlie died in office. Maddock was a very strong supporter of the Nonpartisan League, and he supported state-owned industries (Bank of North Dakota and the State Mill and Elevator).

In 1928 Maddock ran for re-election, after switching from Republican to Democratic politics. He was defeated by Republican George F. Shafer. Maddock returned to farming and was active in organizing farmers' cooperatives.

In 1933 Maddock became senior administrative officer of the regional Agricultural Adjustment Administration. From 1937 until his retirement in 1950, he served as head of North Dakota's Farm Security Administration office.

Maddock was the first North Dakota governor born in the state.

Lieutenant Governor Walter Jeremiah Maddock became governor when Arthur G. Sorlie died in 1928.

In 1883 the Dakota Territory capitol location was changed from Yankton to Bismarck. A capitol building was under construction by 1883. In 1889 this building became the state capitol of North Dakota, and South Dakota constructed its own building at Pierre.

This North Dakota capitol burned on December 28, 1930, and the present-day skyscraper was constructed in the early 1930s.

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