Flem D. Sampson

Flem Sampson was born in a log cabin near London, Kentucky in Laurel County, the ninth of ten children born to Joseph and Emoline (Kellam)^[a] Sampson.[1][2] He was educated in the county's public schools and John T. Hays School.[3] The family moved to Barbourville, Kentucky when Sampson was 13.[4]

By 16, Sampson was teaching at Indian Creek School in Laurel County.[2] He attended Union College in Barbourville and then enrolled at Valparaiso University.[2] He was class president for three years and earned an A.B. in 1894.[3][4] Per university policy, he was also awarded and an LL.B. because prior to graduation, he had studied for at least one year in a law office.[1] He returned to Kentucky and was admitted to the bar in June 1895.[4]

Sampson established his legal practice in Barbourville, where he became the city attorney.[5] Caleb Powers, who had been Sampson's college roommate, now joined him as a partner in his law firm.[6] Powers would later be accused of complicity to the assassination of Governor William Goebel. Because Powers was convicted by a partisan jury, he became a political martyr to many Republicans, and Sampson's connection to him became a boon in heavily Republican eastern Kentucky.[2]

Sampson later served as president of Barbourville's First National Bank and was the youngest person ever to hold that position.[2] He also served as president of the Barbourville Water-works Company.[7] On September 20, 1897,^[b] he married Susie Steele; the couple had three daughters—Pauline, Emolyn, and Helen Katherine.[2]

Sampson's political career began in 1906 when he was elected county judge of Knox County, Kentucky, a position that he held for four years.[3][8] In 1911, he was elected to the circuit court of the 34th Judicial District.[8] He was re-elected to this post in 1916, but later that year, he was elected to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, which was then the court of last resort in Kentucky.[8] He represented Kentucky's Seventh Appellate District, and he was elevated to chief justice on January 1, 1923.[3] He was re-elected to the court in 1924.[8]

During the 1928 legislative session, it became clear that the bipartisan support shown for Sampson had been one of political convenience rather than true conviction. Among the minor accomplishments of the session were the creation of the Kentucky Progress Commission, the forerunner of the State Department of Commerce, as well as the adoption of "My Old Kentucky Home" as the state song.[15] The Democratic General Assembly sanctioned Sampson's plan for free textbooks but did not fund it.[9] Proposals to ban parimutuel betting and the teaching of evolution in the state's schools were both defeated.[15] Kentucky historian James C. Klotter called the 1928 legislative session "almost a 'do-nothing' session."[15] Following the session, a grand jury indicted Sampson for accepting gifts from the textbook companies, but the indictment was eventually dismissed.[9]

Ben Johnson was head of the state Highway Department when Sampson took office

The first major controversy of Sampson's administration was over the selection of the state's highway commissioner. The Highway Department employed over 10,000 people and spent nearly 45% of the state's budget.[6] Legislators' votes could often be bought with promises of new roads for their districts.[6] Thus, the department became a primary vehicle for dispensing patronage to political supporters.[16]

Sampson's predecessor, Governor Fields, had chosen a retired US representative and Democratic political boss, Ben Johnson, to head the department, and Sampson had agreed to retain him in exchange for his support against Beckham.[16] However, Sampson felt that such a powerful position could not be left in the hands of a Democrat, and he removed Johnson from office in December 1929.[17]

Democrats in the General Assembly were outraged. When the 1930 legislative session convened, they immediately passed a bill that stripped Sampson of his power to appoint a highway commissioner, giving it to a three-person commission, composed of the governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general.[16] The Republican Sampson would then be outnumbered and outvoted.[16] Confident that the Democrats would not lose another gubernatorial election, Democratic legislators stipulated in the bill that the appointment power would return to the governor in 1931, which was the end of Sampson's term.[16] The law passed the House of Representatives 53—42 and the Senate 22—15.[16] Sampson vetoed the bill, but the veto was overridden, and Johnson was returned to his former position.[18]

Sampson also made enemies when he backed Samuel Insull's plan to dam the Cumberland Falls to generate hydroelectric power.[17] An ally of the traditional southern power groups (the utility companies and textbook manufacturers), Sampson cited the jobs to be gained from the plan.[17] The plan was opposed conservationists in the state and by most of the state's newspapers.[17] An alternate plan was proposed by Louisville-born millionaire and Delaware Senator T. Coleman du Pont, who offered to purchase the falls for $230,000 and turn it into a state park.[17][19] The General Assembly passed legislation giving the state park commission the right of eminent domain over the falls and then voted to accept the du Pont's offer.[20] Sampson vetoed the Assembly's action, but his veto was overridden.[8]

Sampson's agenda for the 1930 session was lost in the fights over Ben Johnson and Cumberland Falls. His calls for funding the free textbook program, compulsory sterilization of the mentally ill, and restrictions on chain stores were ignored.[20] Instead, the legislature further eroded his gubernatorial powers, including the power to appoint members of the textbook commission.[20] With nearly all of the governor's powers stripped away and given to a three-person commission, Lieutenant Governor James Breathitt, Jr. became the de facto governor for the remainder of Sampson's term.[19]

The General Assembly pursued its own agenda, passing a mandatory driver's license law, a revised election law, and a sales tax on retail stores.[20] It also allocated funding for the purchase of what would become Mammoth Cave National Park.[20] Sampson vetoed 12 bills during the 1930 session, but the legislature overrode 11 of them.[20]

With the onset of the Great Depression, Sampson worked to control government costs, but he endorsed highway progression.[5] A severe drought in 1930 left 86 of the state's counties applying for federal aid.[19]

As unemployment in the eastern coal fields climbed to 40 percent, the United Mine Workers made their first inroads in the region.[19] In 1931, mine owners began firing workers who joined the union.[21] Many of those workers gathered in Evarts, Kentucky.[21] The local sheriff added 26 deputies to his staff, helping to enforce the blacklisting of those miners and to discourage further organization.[21] Union leaders petitioned Sampson to remove the sheriff and the county judge from office.[22]

Violent squabbles between striking union miners and local authorities began as early as mid-April 1931.[23] On May 5, 1931, three guards and a miner were killed in a shootout that became known as the Battle of Evarts.[23] Two days later, Sampson called in the Kentucky National Guard to disarm both the mine guards and the union miners.[24] All of the union's leaders were arrested, and the strike ultimately failed.[24]

Following his term as governor, Sampson returned to his legal practice in Barbourville and was elected as a circuit court judge.[25] In 1940, he once again sought election to the Kentucky Court of Appeals but was defeated in the Republican primary by Eugene Siler.[25]

In 1957, he was appointed to the Citizens' Advisory Highway Committee, and was awarded the Governor's Medallion for distinguished public service in 1959.[3]

At the age of 91, Sampson served on the State Constitutional Revision Committee.[5] He died in Pewee Valley, Kentucky on May 25, 1967, and was buried at the Barbourville Cemetery.[9]

• Bush, Carletta A. (2006). "Faith, Power, and Conflict: Miner Preachers and the United Mine Workers of America in the Harlan County Mine Wars, 1931–1939". West Virginia University. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 19, 2009. Retrieved September 11, 2009.
• Finch, Glenn (January 1970). "The Election of United States Senators in Kentucky: The Beckham Period". Filson Club History Quarterly. 44.
• Harrison, Lowell H. (1992). "Sampson, Flem D.". In Kleber, John E. (ed.). The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Associate editors: Thomas D. Clark, Lowell H. Harrison, and James C. Klotter. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-1772-0.
• Harrison, Lowell H.; James C. Klotter (1997). A New History of Kentucky. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2008-X. Retrieved June 26, 2009.
• Johnson, E. Polk (1912). A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities. Lewis Publishing Company. Retrieved August 17, 2009.
• "Kentucky Governor Flem Davis Sampson". National Governors Association. Retrieved April 5, 2012.
• Klotter, James C. (1996). Kentucky: Portraits in Paradox, 1900–1950. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-916968-24-3. Retrieved June 26, 2009.
• Powell, Robert A. (1976). Kentucky Governors. Danville, Kentucky: Bluegrass Printing Company. OCLC 2690774.
• "Sampson Fails to Come Back". Kentucky New Era. August 6, 1940. Retrieved September 10, 2009.
• Sexton, Robert F. (2004). "Flem D. Sampson". In Lowell Hayes Harrison (ed.). Kentucky's Governors. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2326-7.