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CHAPTER XXIX.

SOME FORMER RESIDENTS OF SHELBY COUNTY AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS. (CONT'D)

HON. GUY H. MARTIN>


Hon. Guy H. Martin was born August 1, 1S66, in Lancaster, Keokuk county, Iowa. He is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward M. Martin. Coming to Shelby county, he attended the country schools and did two years' work in the Harlan high school, working for his board in the Carl furniture store part of the time and teaching the sixth grade in the Harlan schools the remainder of the time that he attended school. He taught slightly more than five years in the schools of Shelby county. The last of his school work was as principal of the Irwin schools.

Under the direction of attorneys Smith and Cullison, he devoted spare time for a period of two years reading law. He afterwards engaged in the practice of law at Spencer, Iowa, becoming county attorney of Clay county, Iowa. From 1894 to 1899 he was mayor of Spencer, and in 1906 he was candidate for district judge of the fourteenth judicial district of Iowa, and was defeated by the narrow margin of two votes. For the purpose of bettering the health of his family and of practicing law in a country where growth and development were on a large scale and where litigation promised greater remuneration, he removed to Sandpoint, Idaho, in 1907. In 1912 he assisted in the organization of the Progressive party in Idaho and became its candidate for governor of the state. Notwithstanding the fact that the supreme cuurt of Idaho denied the Progressive electors a place on the ballot, and despite the fact that there were no legislative and county tickets of the partv nominated, he pulled over 26,000 votes in a total of ninety thousand, carrying his own county by a handsome majority, and defeating his Democratic opponent by a one thousand six hundred majority in the home county of this opponent, and his Republican opponent by a two thousand five hundred majority in his own county. His campaign extended over a period of thirty-eight days only and in it he championed particularly the creation of a public utilities commission, higher valuation of utility properties, the exemption from taxes on a part of the improvements upon real estate, the short ballot, the initiative, referendum and recall, and the one-house legislature, composed of a small number of legislators.

Neither of the old parties in Idaho championed any of these reforms. He was confronted in the last part of the campaign with the combined fight against him of both the Democrats and Republicans.


Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, October, 2023 from the Past and Present of Shelby County, Iowa, by Edward S. White, P.A., LL. B.,Volume 1, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Co., 1915, pg. 555-556.


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