Frank C. Partridge

Frank Charles Partridge
United States Senator
from Vermont
In office
December 23, 1930  March 31, 1931
Preceded by Frank L. Greene
Succeeded by Warren Austin
Member of the Vermont House of Representatives
In office
1898-1900
Personal details
Born (1861-05-07)May 7, 1861
East Middlebury, Vermont, U.S.
Died March 2, 1943(1943-03-02) (aged 81)
Proctor, Vermont, U.S.
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Sarah Sanborn (m. May 7, 1907)
Children Frances Partridge Coulter (1909–2007),
Charles F. Partridge (1911–2001)
Profession Lawyer

Frank C. Partridge (May 7, 1861  March 2, 1943) was a diplomat, business executive and United States Senator from Vermont.

Early life and start of career

Frank Charles Partridge was born 7 May 1861 in East Middlebury, Vermont to Charles Frank Partridge and Sarah Ann (Rice) Partridge.[1][2] He graduated from Middlebury High School in 1878,[3] and as a teenager worked as a messenger for Redfield Proctor during Proctor's term as Governor of Vermont.[4] He attended Middlebury College, graduated from Amherst College in 1882 (with classmate Fletcher Dutton Proctor), and received his law degree from Columbia Law School in 1884.[5]

Partridge worked as a lawyer in Rutland and then began a career with the Vermont Marble Company in Proctor, Vermont. Vermont Marble was owned by Redfield Proctor, and Partridge's decision to join Vermont Marble continued his lifelong association with the Proctor family. He served as Vermont Marble's Treasurer (1886); Vice President (1891); and President (1912) and Chairman of the Board of Directors.[6][7]

He was also President of the Proctor Trust Company and the Clarendon and Pittsford Railroad, as well as a member of National Life Insurance Company's Board of Directors.[8][9]

Partridge was a Trustee of Middlebury College, and received an honorary LL.D. degree in 1909.[10]

Political career

Frank C. Partridge in 1894

A Republican, he held several positions in local, state and national government, including: Proctor Town Clerk (1887–1889); school board member (1888–1889); Private Secretary to Secretary of War Redfield Proctor (1889–1890); Solicitor of the Department of State (1890–1893); United States Ambassador to Venezuela (1893–1894); U.S. Consul in Tangier, Morocco (1897–1898); Vermont State Senator (1898–1900); Member of Vermont's World War I Committee of Public Safety (1917–1919); Member of the American Society of International Law's Executive Council (1906-1923); Chairman of the Commission to propose amendments to the Constitution of Vermont (1909); Delegate to the Fifth Pan-American Conference in Santiago, Chile (1923); Member of the New England Council (1925-1927); and President of the Vermont Flood Credit Corporation (following the Flood of 1927).[11]

United States Senator

In December, 1930 Partridge was appointed by Governor John E. Weeks to fill the Senate vacancy caused by the death of Frank L. Greene.[12] Partridge ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in the special election to finish Greene's term, losing to Warren R. Austin, who won the general election and succeeded Partridge.[13] Partridge served in the Senate from December 23, 1930, to March 31, 1931, and during his brief term he was Chairman of the Senate's Committee on Enrolled Bills.[14]

Retirement and death

Partridge retired from Vermont Marble in 1935, and died in Proctor on March 2, 1943.[15] He was interred in Proctor Cemetery.[16]

Rice family and relations

Partridge was a descendant of Edmund Rice, an English immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony, as follows:[2]

    • Luther Rice (1799 1876),[17] son of
    • Eliakim Rice (1756 1834), son of
    • Zebulon Rice (1725 1799), son of

References

  1. U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925, 1923 entry for Frank C. Partridge, accessed July 31, 2013
  2. 1 2 Edmund Rice (1638) Association, 2009. Descendants of Edmund Rice: The First Nine Generations.
  3. Vermont Bar Association, Annual Meeting Proceedings, 1943, page 81
  4. Vermont General Assembly, Journal of Proceedings, 1879, page 360
  5. Middlebury College, Catalogue of Officers and Students of Middlebury College, 1917, pages 268-269
  6. Jacob G. Ullery, Men of Vermont Illustrated, 1894, pages 300-301
  7. Joseph & Sefton, Publishers, Who's Who in Finance, Banking, and Insurance, Volume 1, page 946
  8. Amherst College Alumni Council, Amherst Graduates' Quarterly, Issue 3, Issue 127, 1943, page 256
  9. Columbia University Alumni Council, Columbia Alumni News, Volume 22, 1930, page xxvii
  10. James Terry White, The National Cyclopædia of American Biography, Volume 32, 1945, pages 35-36
  11. Walter Hill Crockett, Vermonters: A Book of Biographies, 1932, page 253
  12. Boston Globe, New Vermont Senator, Frank C. Partridge, December 28, 1930
  13. Montreal Gazette, Republicans Name Austin in Vermont, March 4, 1931
  14. United States Congress, Biographical directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005, 2005, page 1703
  15. Vermont Death Records, 1909-2008, entry for Frank Charles Partridge, accessed July 31, 2013
  16. Frank Charles Partridge at Find A Grave, accessed July 31, 2013
  17. "Edmund Rice 6-generation database". Edmund Rice (1638) Association. Retrieved 16 May 2010.

External resources

United States Senate
Preceded by
Frank L. Greene
U.S. Senator (Class 1) from Vermont
December 23, 1930–March 31, 1931
Served alongside: Porter H. Dale
Succeeded by
Warren Austin
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
William L. Scruggs
United States Minister to Venezuela
March 4, 1893  January 9, 1894
Succeeded by
Seneca Haselton
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