Ohio Governor Gravesites: #42 Myron T. Herrick

Myron T. Herrick

Born: October 9, 1854
Died: March 31, 1929
Political Party: Republican
Term of Office: January 11, 1904- January 8, 1906
Buried: Lake View Cemetery Cleveland, Ohio
No. 37 of 58

Myron T. Herrick was born in Huntington, Ohio in 1854 to a farming family. As a young adult, he taught school and worked as a newspaper journalist in St. Louis. After awhile he earned enough money to start attending Ohio Wesleyan University. After a couple of years he started to study law in Cleveland, gaining admittance to the Ohio bar in 1878 and setting up his own law practice.

On top of his law practice, Herrick started staking claims in a number of other business ventures, including the National Carbon Company (in which one of his partners was Webb Cook Hayes, son of President Hayes) and Cleveland Hardware Company. Along the way he became director of Euclid Avenue National Bank. Cleveland Republican political boss Marcus Hanna took notice of Herrick and got him elected to Cleveland City Council in 1885. Hanna had been a driving force behind James A. Garfield's successful Presidential campaign in 1880, and later to William McKinley's in 1896.

   Through his connection to Hanna, Herrick became a more influential member of the Republican party at the state level. So much so that Herrick became the Republican candidate for Governor in 1903. He won the election by a healthy margin. His Lt. Governor was future President Warren G. Harding. Herrick served as Governor at a time of division in the state Republican party, and so he received opposition from Democrats and the other wing of the Republican party, which made it difficult to get anything done. After Governor Herrick vetoed bills that would of allowed betting on racetracks and let communities decide for themselves if they wanted to allow alcohol sales, it made his reelection chances unlikely. In 1905, Herrick lost reelection to Democrat John Pattison. After which he returned to Cleveland to pursue his business ventures.

     Presidents McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt both offered Herrick the post of Ambassador to Italy. Herrick declined both offers. But in 1912, President William Howard Taft offered him the post of Ambassador to France. This time he accepted. As Ambassador, Herrick became very popular among the French people. The French government awarded him the French Legion of Honor Cross. He is also the only American Ambassador to France to have a street named after him in Paris. He served as Ambassador until 1914, as WW1 was under way.

     After a failed Senate race, he was again appointed Ambassador to France in 1921. He was Ambassador in 1927 when Charles Lindbergh made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic ocean from Long Island, New York to Paris, France. As Ambassador, Herrick was Lindbergh's host in Paris during the celebrations that followed the record breaking flight. Herrick served as Ambassador until he died in 1929 in Paris.

   I visited Governor Herricks grave in late March 2017. Herrick is one of 3 Governors buried in the very large Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. Back in 2010 I was able to find the other 2 - Harry Davis and Thomas Herbert, but not Herrick. In 2017, as I started to get back into this hobby I was able to find a more exact location for Herrick's gravesite. And so he became 1 of 6 new Governor gravesite visits I made in Cleveland that day. I also made revisits to the other 2 Governors in Lake View Cemetery while I was at it.