Today In Wyoming's History: January 6, 1919. Robert D. Carey takes office as Governor.

This starts off as a simple one line entry on our companion blog for this day (which will inevitably be updated following the publishing of this item.  That item is:

Today In Wyoming's History: January 6: 1919 

1919  Robert D. Carey takes office as governor.

This even was a big local event, of course, but will be very much overshadowed in history by another event taking place the same day which also will appear here momentarily and which will also appear on Today In Wyoming's History, that being the death of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Carey makes an interesting contrast to Roosevelt in some ways and parallels him in others.  He was born in Cheyenne in 1878, the son of legendary prior Governor Joseph M. Carey.  His father had been a prominent Republican businessman, rancher, lawyer and politician.  That Carey had been close to Theodore Roosevelt and had followed him into the Progressive Party when the GOP split.  Joseph Carey had also been a Democrat at one point due to a split in the GOP in Wyoming.

His son was Yale educated and came back to Wyoming where he became a businessman and rancher.  By World War One he was already a prominent figure in the Republican Party, and had like his father been in the Progressive Party for a time as well.  He's served on various state board and commissions, and he was by this time the President of the still powerful Wyoming Stockgrowers Association (which he would be until 1921).  Governor Frank Houx made the savvy move offering Carey command of the Wyoming National Guard, which Carey at first declined.  By the time he accepted it the position was filled and the 39 year old Carey did not serve in World War One.

When he ran for office in 1918, that fact was used against him, and it's no wonder.  The United States, while it had its share of objectors to the war, had leaped into the Great War with earnest.  Amazingly, Carey won the race none the less, which says something about the spirit of the time, the state's view on Houx, or its view on Carey, or all of those.  I don't really know, but 1918 was a banner year nationally for the reunited Republican Party which was resurgent.  So Carey became the Governor of Wyoming on this day.

Carey served only one term as Governor.  As one of the many forgotten aspects of the post war world, Wyoming's economy was very badly hit by the recession/depression that followed the end of World War One, with the prices of every single commodity in Wyoming falling.  While Carey was not responsible for this by any means, that fact attached to his administration and he was amazingly not re-nominated for the Governorship.  Indeed, William B. Ross, a progressive Democrat, took the Governor's office that year.

Carey returned to private life but came back into politics and was elected as U.S. Senator for Wyoming in November 1929.  While he remained personally popular, history repeated itself for him in that office as the Great Depression had commenced and he went down in defeat in the 1936 election when Democrats swept national office.  Carey died the following year at age 58.