BIOGRAPHIES
Wayne County Michigan
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EDWIN DENBY
Lawyer, member of Congress; born, Evansville, Ind., (Vanderburgh Co) Feb. 18, 1870; son of Charles and Martha (Fitch) Denby; educated in Evansville High School, University of Michigan, LL.B., Law Department, 1896;
unmarried. Went to China, 1885, with his father, then U.S. minister; joined Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service, June 1887, and served seven years; returned to U. S., 1894; resigned from customs service, 1897. Admitted to bar in Michigan, 1896, and has since practiced in Detroit; member law firm of Chamberlain, May, Denby & Webster; president Pacific Era Publishing Co. Gunner's mate U. S. Navy, war with Spain. Republican; elected to Michigan legislature, 1902; member of Congress, 1st district, 1905-07. Episcopalian. Clubs: Detroit, University, Detroit Boat. Office: Moffat Bldg. Residence: 402 Jefferson Av.
Source: The Book of Detroiters Edited by Albert Nelson Marquis 1908
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EDWIN DENBY
Denby was born February 18, 1870 in Evansville, Indiana. He was the son of Charles Denby (attorney, diplomat (U.S. Minister to China) and educator. His mother was Martha (Fitch) Denby, the daughter of U.S. Senator Graham Fitch of Indiana. His education was begun in Evansville public schools until 1885. At the age of 15 the family moved to China where Charles took up the post of U.S. Minister, Edwin’s primary education was completed in China.
In 1887 Edwin entered the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service, which he served for ten years. During this service Denby returned to the United States and attended the law school at the University of Michigan. He graduated in 1896 with the degree of LL. B. In 1897 Denby passed the bar in Michigan, resigned his customs post and became an associate with the Keena & Lightner law firm. He later became a partner in the May, Denby & Webster firm. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War Edwin volunteered to serve in the navy. He was a gunner’s mate, third class aboard the U.S.S “Yosemite”. He was honorably discharged August 23, 1898. This would not the end of his military service. Denby was elected to a term in the Michigan House of representatives (1902). At the end of that term he ran for and was elected to a seat in the U.S. House as a Republican from Detroit. He served for four years. In 1908 Denby was appointed one of two commissioners of “Land Titles for the Panama Canal Zone”.
On March 18, 1911 Edwin married Marion B. Thurber the daughter of Henry Thurber (former private secretary to President Grover Cleveland). They had two children.
Having returned to his law practice Mr. Denby also under took several civic responsibilities. He was President of the Detroit Charter Commission (1913-14), President of the Detroit Board of Commerce (1916-1917), Michigan Republican State Central Committee (1917).
In 1917 Edwin Joined the U.S. Marine Corps. as a private. He retired in 1919 as a Major in the U.S. Marine Corp Reserve. He was appointed Chief Probation Officer of the Detroit Recorders Court in 1920. He worked on the Presidential campaign of Warren G. Harding. The President appointed Denby Secretary of the Navy. He held this post for all of the Harding administration and for one year of the Coolidge administration. Denby resigned in 1924 and returned to Detroit.
Edwin Denby died February 8, 1929. Denby High School on Detroit’s East side was named in his honor. Buried: Lakeview Section, Lot 20
Source: Elmwood Cemetery
http://www.elmwoodhistoriccemetery.org/pages/denby.html
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EDWIN DENBY
DENBY, Edwin, (grandson of Graham Newell Fitch), a Representative from Michigan; born in Evansville, Vanderburg County, Ind., February 18, 1870; attended the public schools; went to China in 1885 with his father, who was United States Minister; employed in the Chinese imperial maritime customs service 1887-1894; returned to the United States in 1894; was graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1896; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Detroit in 1896; during the war with Spain served as a gunner’s mate, third class, United States Navy, on the Yosemite; member of the State house of representatives in 1903; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-ninth, Sixtieth, and Sixty-first Congresses (March 4, 1905-March 3, 1911); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1910 to the Sixty-second Congress; resumed the practice of law in Detroit; also engaged in banking and various other business enterprises; president of the Detroit Charter Commission in 1913 and 1914; president of the Detroit Board of Commerce in 1916 and 1917; enlisted as a private in the United States Marine Corps in 1917; retired as major in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1919; appointed chief probation officer in the recorder’s court of the city of Detroit and in the circuit court of Wayne County in 1920; appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Harding and served from March 4, 1921, until March 10, 1924, when he resigned in the aftermath of the Teapot Dome scandal; again resumed the practice of law and various business enterprises; died in Detroit, Mich., February 8, 1929; interment in Elmwood Cemetery.
Source: Biographical Directory Of The United States Congress
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EDWIN DENBY
Edwin Denby was born in Evansville on 18th February, 1870. After being educated in Vanderburg County he went to China with his father in 1885 and worked in the maritime customs service (1887-1894).
Denby returned to the United States to study law. After graduating from University of Michigan in 1896 he was admitted to the bar and worked as a lawyer in Detroit.
A member of the Republican Party, Denby was elected to Congress in 1905. Defeated in 1910 Denby resumed work as a lawyer in Detroit. In 1916 he was president of the Detroit Board of Commerce. The following year he enlisted as a private in the United States Marines. By the end of the First World War he had reached the rank of major.
In March 1921 President Warren Harding appointed Denby as Secretary of the Navy. Soon afterwards Albert Fall, Secretary of the Interior, persuaded Denby that he should take over responsibility for the Naval Reserves at Elk Hills, California, Buena Vista, California and Teapot Dome, Wyoming. Later that year Fall decided that two of his friends, Harry F. Sinclair (Mammoth Oil Corporation) and Edward L. Doheny (Pan-American Petroleum and Transport Company), should be allowed to lease part of these Naval Reserves.
Attempts were made to keep this deal secret but rumours began to circulate when it became known that Fall was spending large sums of money on buying new land. On 14th April, 1922, the Wall Street Journal reported that Fall had leased Teapot Dome to Harry F. Sinclair. President Warren Harding defended Fall by claiming that "the policy which has been adopted by the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of the Interior in dealing with these matters was submitted to me prior to the adoption thereof, and the policy decided upon and the subsequent acts have at all times had my entire approval."
Robert La Follette and John B. Kendrick called for a Senate investigation into Fall and the Naval Reserves. Hearings on the Teapot Dome oil lease began on October 15, 1923 before the Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys. Senator Thomas J. Walsh, a Democrat from Montana, led the committee's investigation. Over the next few months, dozens of witnesses testified before the committee. On January 24, 1924, Edward Doheny admitted that he had lent Fall $100,000.
Seven days later the Senate passed a resolution stating that the leases to the Mammoth Oil Company and the Pan American Petroleum Company "were executed under circumstances indicating fraud and corruption". Denby and Albert Fall were now both forced to resign from office.
Denby returned resumed work as a lawyer in Detroit. Edwin Denby died on 8th February, 1929.
Source: Spartacus http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAdenbyE.htm
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