Crowbar Governor
The Life and Times of Morgan Gardner Bulkeley
Series: The Driftless Connecticut Series & Garnet Books
Sales Date: 2011-02-01
First biography of one of Connecticut's most colorful and notorious statesmen
While president of Aetna Life from 1879 to 1922, Morgan Bulkeley served four terms as mayor of Hartford, two terms as Connecticut's governor, and one term as a United States senator. His friends and business and political acquaintances were a who's who of the Gilded Age: Samuel Clemens, J. P. Morgan, Samuel and Elizabeth Colt, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, Albert Spalding, General Sherman, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Katherine Hepburn, as well as every president from Ulysses Grant to Warren Harding. In 1874 Bulkeley formed the Hartford Dark Blues who soon joined the unruly National Association, antecedent of the National League. He served as the league's first president for a year, and was later elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. It was during Bulkeley's controversial "holdover" term as governor that he earned the nickname "Crowbar Governor." He used a crowbar to remove a lock that had been placed on his office door after refusing to vacate the governor's chambers on a technicality. Written in classic storyteller fashion, and augmented by copious research, Crowbar Governor offers readers a privileged glimpse into life and politics in Connecticut during the Gilded Age.
Preface
The Man
The Judge's World
Brooklyn Heights
Return to Hartford
Mayor Bulkeley: Part One
Wedding Bells
Mayor Bulkeley: Part Two
Crowbar Governor
On The Sidelines
Fenwick
Senator Bulkeley
Twilight
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Gathered illustrations follow page 116
KEVIN MURPHY is an independent historian who lives in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. He is the author of Water for Hartford: The Story of the Hartford Water Works and the Metropolitan District Commission.
"Crowbar Governor offers readers a privileged glimpse into Connecticut politics during the Gilded Age, when Bulkeley served as mayor of Harford, governor of Connecticut, and first president of the National Baseball League."
~Connecticut Explored
"With its wealth of information and anecdotes, Crowbar Governor fills a long-standing need for a biography of Morgan G. Bulkeley, a pivotal figure in early twentieth century Connecticut politics. A great read for the historian and general reader alike."
~David J. Corrigan, museum curator, Museum of Connecticut History
"With a flair for telling a good story, Kevin Murphy connects the reader with Bulkeley's life and the Connecticut in which he grew up and came to power."
~Matthew Warshauer, professor of history, Central Connecticut State University
"With its wealth of information and anecdotes, Crowbar Governor fills a long-standing need for a biography of Morgan G. Bulkeley, a pivotal figure in early twentieth century Connecticut politics. A great read for the historian and general reader alike."
~David J. Corrigan, museum curator, Museum of Connecticut History
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