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American lawyer and politician (1862–1939)

Claude Augustus Swanson (March 31, 1862July 7, 1939) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician from Virginia. He served as U. S. Representative (1893–1906), Governor of Virginia (1906–1910), and U. S. Senator from Virginia (1910–1933), before becoming U. S. Secretary of the Navy under President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 until his death. Swanson and fellow U. S. Senator Thomas Staples Martin led a Democratic political machine in Virginia for decades in the late 19th and early 20th century, which later became known as the Byrd Organization for Swanson's successor as U. S. Senator, Harry Flood Byrd.

Claude Swanson was born to the former Catherine Rebecca Pritchett (1834–1873) and her husband John Muse Swanson (1829–1914) in Swansonville, Pittsylvania County, Virginia, on March 31, 1862. His great grandfather William Swanson had moved to Pittsylvania from Albemarle County, Virginia, had farmed a plantation using slave labor, represented Pittsylvania County in the Virginia General Assembly, and advocating for building a railroad between Richmond and Danville. John M. Swanson, who owned slaves in 1850 and 1860, served in the 5th Virginia Cavalry and 21st Virginia Infantry during the American Civil War. After the war, he worked with his brother as merchants and tobacco manufacturers, J. M. Swanson & Bro. in Swansonville. John and Catherine Swanson had three other sons who survived to adulthood, as well as three daughters: William Graves Swanson (1860–1934), John Pritchett Swanson and Henry Clay Swanson (1870–1952) and sisters Annie Blanche Swanson (1864–1948), Sallie Hill Swanson (1869–1950) and Julia Benson Swanson (1869–1933). Two siblings did not survive to adulthood. Claude Swanson married Elizabeth Deane Lyons on December 11, 1894, in the District of Columbia. She died on July 13, 1920. He married her widowed sister Lulie Lyons Hall (1867–1953) three years later, and she survived him. Swanson had met them both while studying at Randolph Macon Academy, for their mother ran a boardinghouse to support her family.

Most Swanson men were Democrats and merchants in southwestern Virginia after the American Civil War. Commerce was the family business. A Swedish ancestor had moved from Philadelphia to southwestern Virginia in the 17th century to farm, as well as trade tobacco (and supply farmers with goods they needed). His grandfather had appeared as a "Tobacconist" in the 1850 U. S. Census, and the same label was used for his father in the 1860 census. His brother William G. Swanson later ran the wholesale Swanson Brothers Company, and served as chief clerk at the White Rock Indian Reservation in Utah during the administration of Democratic President Grover Cleveland. John Pritchett Swanson operated the Swanson Supply Company, a wholesale grocery and farmers supply business, and the family also had interests in the South Atlantic Lumber Company and Clement Lumber Company in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Swanson's attempt to become Governor of Virginia in 1901 failed. However, after the Virginia Constitution of 1902 disenfranchised many African American and poor white voters, he won the Democratic primary in 1905. In the general election he defeated Republican Lunsford L. Lewis of Rockingham County by a nearly 2 to 1 margin. Claude Swanson became the 45th Governor of Virginia, serving from 1906 until 1910. He was known as a progressive: reducing railroad rates and reorganizing the new State Corporation Commission, adding more capable school superintendents from his position on the State Board of Education (and funding their salaries), and building roads, schools and a tuberculosis sanatorium, reorganizing the state Board of Health, and establishing a Board of Charities and Corrections with later became the Department of Public Welfare. and Hoover would become the first Republican presidential candidate to carry Virginia since Reconstruction. When the Great Depression hit and voters elected Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt President, Swanson became Secretary of the Navy, serving from 1933 until his death in 1939. Harry F. Byrd, who had succeeded to leadership of Martin's political organization after Martin's death, succeeded Swanson in the Senate, but became a leading critic of the New Deal. As Naval Secretary, Swanson oversaw passage and implementation of the largest U. S. peacetime naval appropriations up to that time.

Ill for several months, Swanson died at Herbert Hoover's Rapidan Camp (which was then available for use by the Roosevelt Administration) in Criglersville, Madison County, Virginia, on July 7, 1939. The 77 year old had also visited Shenandoah National Park and reviewed work performed by the Civilian Conservation Corps. His funeral was held in the chamber of the U. S. Senate. Then his corpse was taken to Richmond and buried in Hollywood Cemetery. The Library of Virginia holds his executive papers. In 1992, Virginia erected a highway marker near Eldon to commemorate his service. Arlington, Virginia, named Swanson Middle School in his honor. The U. S. Navy also named a destroyer Swanson for him. Short lived Swanson County, Oklahoma, was also named for him, while he was still alive.

1892; Swanson was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives with 53.91% of the vote, defeating Populist Benjamin T. Jones. 1894; Swanson was re elected with 52.34% of the vote, defeating Republican G. W. Cornett, Independent G. W. Hale, and Populist W. T. Shelton. 1896; Swanson was re elected with 50.98% of the vote, defeating Republican John Robert Brown. 1898; Swanson was re elected with 57.02% of the vote, defeating Republican Edmund Parr, Populist R. A. Bennett, Independent Republican R. O. Martin, and Independent C. T. Seay
1900; Swanson was re elected with 58.14% of the vote, defeating Republican John R. Whitehead. 1902; Swanson was re elected with 60.8% of the vote, defeating Republican Beverly A. Davis and Populist Dan Dickerson. 1904; Swanson was re elected with 64.98% of the vote, defeating Republican J. B. Stovall. 1905; Swanson was elected Governor of Virginia with 64.51% of the vote, defeating Republican Lunsford L. Lewis and Socialist Labor B. D. Downey.