Bingham married into a wealthy family in 1896. He became involved in Louisville politics as a registered Democrat, and was appointed interim mayor of the city in 1907 after election fraud invalidated the 1905 election.[8] His corruption-busting tactics in his 6-month term alienated him from the local political machine and the Democratic Party in general, and he chose not to run in the general election.
He ran unsuccessfully for the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1910 as a Republican, and as a Democrat for Fiscal Court in 1917. He was appointed to the Jefferson Circuit Court in 1911,[5] and was known as "Judge Bingham" for the rest of his life.
Controversial inheritance
Bingham's first wife Eleanor Miller died in 1913. She was a passenger with her children in a car driven by her brother. Accounts vary, but either the car was crossing railroad tracks and was hit by a speeding commuter train[9] or Eleanor jumped out of the car as it crossed the tracks. Her father Samuel Miller had committed suicide in this manner nineteen years earlier.[9] Her son Barry later said he could remember Eleanor pushing him out of her lap and jumping from the car.[10] She was survived by three children: Robert Norwood Bingham (his middle name was later changed to Worth, making him Robert Worth Bingham Jr), George Barry Bingham, and Henrietta Worth Bingham.[11]
In 1916 Bingham married Mary Lily Flagler, reputedly the wealthiest woman in America at the time and widow of Henry Morrison Flagler.[12] She died within a year,[13] and although there was never any evidence of it, Bingham's enemies and some of his relatives would long claim he was somehow to blame for her death. As the family business crumbled publicly in the 1980s, several biographers, most notably David Leon Chandler and Mary Lily's step-granddaughter Sallie Bingham[10] claimed Bingham had killed his wife for the money, either by overdose or withholding medical care. Immediately before falling ill, Mary Lily had added a codicil to her will, giving Bingham five million dollars outright (rather than the investment fund for him she had originally planned).[10] Allegations of murder haunted Bingham for many years.[14][15] While acknowledging these theories were at least plausible, more mainstream sources, from the Filson Club's respected quarterly publication to The New York Times, dismissed the allegations as impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.[16][17]
Nevertheless, as Bingham inherited $5 million after her death, enabling him to purchase The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times, which became critical in establishing his later national prominence, it made an attractive conspiracy theory. Bingham's son, Barry Bingham, Sr., argued that Flagler was an alcoholic who drank herself to death, a theory supported by an affidavit from her family doctor given in 1933.[16]
Later career
Using the bequest from Flagler, Bingham purchased the Courier-Journal and Times in 1918.[18] He immediately clashed with long-time editor Henry Watterson, who soon retired. In the 1920s Bingham used the paper to push for farm cooperatives, improve education and support of the rural poor, and to challenge the state's Democratic Party bosses. In the latter endeavor he became an ally of U.S. Sen. J. C. W. Beckham, who had been governor in 1900-07. Bingham himself was, earlier in his career, discouraged from running for mayor due to the likelihood of heavy opposition from the likes of Democratic party boss John Whallen, and had bitterly described the unfairness of machine tactics he witnessed used against other candidates.[citation needed] He was among reform-minded Democrats who successfully backed Republican Augustus E. Willson of Louisville for governor in 1907.[citation needed]
Bingham married his third wife, Aleen Lithgow Hilliard, in 1924.
US Ambassador to the United Kingdom
A strong financial backer of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bingham was awarded with ambassadorship to Great Britain in 1933, and took up his post in May.[19] As ambassador, Bingham pushed for stronger ties between the United States and Great Britain,[20][21] and vocally opposed the rise of fascism and Nazism in the 1930s,[3] a time when Roosevelt would not because of political concerns at home.[22] On 7 November 1933 the Saudi-American Treaty was signed by Bingham on behalf of the United States and Hafiz Wahba on behalf of Saudi Arabia.[23] Bingham was succeeded in the post by Joseph P. Kennedy.
Seriously ill, Bingham sailed back to the United States on November 19, 1937.[25] He died a month later, on December 18, 1937, from Hodgkin's lymphoma, at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he had been operated on a few days before his death;[2][5] and was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery.[6]
His family continued to dominate Louisville media for another half-century, mostly through his son, Barry Bingham, Sr.
The SS Robert W. Bingham, a cargo ship in service from 1944 to 1959, was named for him.[1]
^Sources differ as to the date that Bingham's service as Ambassador ended. William E. Ellis, in his biography of Bingham, states that Bingham resigned on December 8, but President Roosevelt took no action, and Bingham died '"still American Ambassador to Great Britain"'.[1] Likewise, Susan Tifft and Alex S. Jones also state that Bingham sent his resignation to President Roosevelt on December 8, but they do not mention whether the President accepted his resignation.[2] On the other hand, Walter E. Campbell, in his biography of William R. Kenan Jr., says that Bingham resigned on December 10, eight days before his death.[3]The New York Times reported, ten days before Bingham's death, that he had "tendered his resignation some weeks ago" due to ill health,[4] but the newspaper's obituary and later coverage still refer to Bingham as Ambassador to the United Kingdom.[5][6] Perhaps the best arbiter is the State Department, which reports that Bingham's mission terminated on November 19, 1937, with his departure from England.[7] This article uses the date supplied by the State Department, November 19, 1937, as his last day in office.
References
^ abEllis, William E. (1997). Robert Worth Bingham and the Southern mystique: from the Old South to the New South and beyond. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. pp. 193–195. ISBN0873385780. OCLC 36543342.
^ abCampbell, Walter E. (2010). Across fortune's tracks: a biography of William Rand Kenan Jr. The University Of North Carolina Press. p. 257. ISBN978-0807865170. OCLC 949985349.
^"President Chooses Joseph P. Kennedy as Envoy to Britain; Bingham, Now at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Forced by Illness to Resign as Ambassador". The New York Times. December 9, 1937. p. 1. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
^ abc"Robert W. Bingham, Ambassador, Dies; U. S. Envoy to Great Britain, 66, Succumbs to a Tumor of Rare Occurrence". The New York Times. December 19, 1937. p. 1. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
^ ab"Bingham is Buried With Simple Rites; Bishop EmeritusWoodcock and Envoy's Pastor Officiate in Notables' Presence". The New York Times. December 21, 1937. p. 23. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
^"Robert Worth Bingham". history.state.gov. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
^Campbell, Tracy (June 2006). (PDF). Kentucky Humanities. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 30, 2007.
^ abMarie Brenner, House of Dreams: The Bingham Family of Louisville. Random House, 1988.
^ abcSallie Bingham, Passion and Prejudice. Knopf, 1989.
^William Elliot Ellis, Robert Worth Bingham and the Southern Mystique, The Kent State University Press, 1997, pg. 53.
^"Mrs. Flagler Weds Ex-Judge Bingham; Oil Millionaire's Widow Marries Ex-Mayor of Louisville, a Friend of Her Youth". The New York Times. November 16, 1911. p. 11. Retrieved December 23, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Mrs. Bingham Dies; Worth $60,000,000; Fortune of Former Widow of H. M. Flagler to Go to Her Niece, Mrs. Louise Wise Lewis. Wed Ex-Judge Nov. 16 Last Husband, an Ex-Mayor of Louisville, and Other Relatives to Receive Only $3,000,000 of Estate". The New York Times. July 28, 1917. p. 7. Retrieved December 23, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
^Augustus Mayhew, Fatal Fortunes: The Flagler-Kenan-Bingham Triangle. Review of Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham, in New York Social Diary, September 4, 2015.
^Emily Bingham's Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham (Farrar Straus Giroux 2015), cites more documentation about Mary Lily's death, including evidence on both sides, although she believes Robert was innocent. According to her research, many people at the time -- including Theodore Roosevelt -- assumed Robert had murdered his wife and gotten away with it.
^ abDuffy, James (January 10, 1988). "The Early Empire". The New York Times. p. 39. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
^Thomas, Samuel W. (July 1989). "Let the Documents Speak: An Analysis of David Leon Chandler's Assessment of Robert Worth Bingham". Filson Club History Quarterly. 63.
^"Watterson's Hot Shot as Paper is Sold". The New York Times. Louisville, Kentucky. August 7, 1918. p. 9. Retrieved December 23, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Bingham to Call on King; With Other Diplomats He Will Present Credentials to New Ruler". The New York Times. May 5, 1936. p. 3. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
^"Bingham Invites British-U.S. Unity; Offers Assurance Roosevelt Can Make 'Binding, Lasting' Understandings Now. He Sees a 'New Situation' Ambassador Believes That the Two Nations, Cooperating, Could Bring Security. Bingham Invites British-U.S. Unity". The New York Times. London. December 2, 1934. p. 1. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
^Selden, Charles A. (July 5, 1936). "Anglo-U.S. Accord for Peace is Urged; Bingham Warns of Woe to Any Who Consider Two Peoples 'Mere Supine Pacifists.' Ignorance is Deplored Prof. Mims Asks Why British Fail to Study Literature and History of United States". The New York Times. p. 23. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
^Kleber, John E., ed. (2001). The encyclopedia of Louisville. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. pp. 91–92. ISBN9780813149745. OCLC 900344482.
^Fahd M. Al Nafjan (1989). The Origins of Saudi-American Relations: From recognition to diplomatic representation (1931-1943) (PhD thesis). University of Kansas. p. 118. Retrieved May 9, 2021.
^"Bingham, Ill, Sails for U.S. Suddenly; Ambassador Will Remain Here for Medical Treatment--His Resignation Is Denied". The New York Times. November 20, 1937. p. 6. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
Further reading
Chandler, David Leon (1989). Binghams of Louisville : The Dark History Behind One of America's Great Fortunes. New York: Crown. ISBN0-517-56895-0.
Ellis, William E. (1997). Robert Worth Bingham and the Southern Mystique: From the Old South to the New South and Beyond.
Thomas, Samuel W. (1993). Barry Bingham: A Man of his Word.
Ellis, William E. (January 1982). "Robert Worth Bingham and the Crisis of Cooperative Marketing in the Twenties". Agricultural History. 56: 99–116.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Worth Bingham.
robert, worth, bingham, november, 1871, december, 1937, politician, judge, newspaper, publisher, united, states, ambassador, united, kingdom, from, 1933, 1937, united, states, ambassador, united, kingdomin, office, 1933, november, 1937, presidentfranklin, roos. Robert Worth Bingham November 8 1871 December 18 1937 was a politician judge newspaper publisher and the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1933 to 1937 Robert Worth BinghamUnited States Ambassador to the United KingdomIn office May 23 1933 November 19 1937 a PresidentFranklin D RooseveltPreceded byAndrew W MellonSucceeded byJoseph P Kennedy33rd Mayor of LouisvilleIn office July 1907 December 1907Preceded byPaul C BarthSucceeded byJames F GrinsteadPersonal detailsBorn 1871 11 08 November 8 1871Orange County North Carolina U S DiedDecember 18 1937 1937 12 18 aged 66 Baltimore Maryland U S Resting placeCave Hill CemeteryLouisville Kentucky U S Political partyDemocraticSpouse s Eleanor MillerMary Lily FlaglerAleen Lithgow HilliardChildren3 including Barry Bingham Sr Residence s Glenview Kentucky U S EducationUniversity of Louisville School of LawOccupationPoliticiandiplomatSignature Contents 1 Background 2 Controversial inheritance 3 Later career 3 1 US Ambassador to the United Kingdom 3 2 Other activities amp death 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External linksBackground EditBingham attended the University of North Carolina and University of Virginia but did not graduate He moved to Louisville in the 1890s and received a law degree from the University of Louisville in 1897 He formed his own practice with W W Davies Bingham married into a wealthy family in 1896 He became involved in Louisville politics as a registered Democrat and was appointed interim mayor of the city in 1907 after election fraud invalidated the 1905 election 8 His corruption busting tactics in his 6 month term alienated him from the local political machine and the Democratic Party in general and he chose not to run in the general election He ran unsuccessfully for the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1910 as a Republican and as a Democrat for Fiscal Court in 1917 He was appointed to the Jefferson Circuit Court in 1911 5 and was known as Judge Bingham for the rest of his life Controversial inheritance EditBingham s first wife Eleanor Miller died in 1913 She was a passenger with her children in a car driven by her brother Accounts vary but either the car was crossing railroad tracks and was hit by a speeding commuter train 9 or Eleanor jumped out of the car as it crossed the tracks Her father Samuel Miller had committed suicide in this manner nineteen years earlier 9 Her son Barry later said he could remember Eleanor pushing him out of her lap and jumping from the car 10 She was survived by three children Robert Norwood Bingham his middle name was later changed to Worth making him Robert Worth Bingham Jr George Barry Bingham and Henrietta Worth Bingham 11 In 1916 Bingham married Mary Lily Flagler reputedly the wealthiest woman in America at the time and widow of Henry Morrison Flagler 12 She died within a year 13 and although there was never any evidence of it Bingham s enemies and some of his relatives would long claim he was somehow to blame for her death As the family business crumbled publicly in the 1980s several biographers most notably David Leon Chandler and Mary Lily s step granddaughter Sallie Bingham 10 claimed Bingham had killed his wife for the money either by overdose or withholding medical care Immediately before falling ill Mary Lily had added a codicil to her will giving Bingham five million dollars outright rather than the investment fund for him she had originally planned 10 Allegations of murder haunted Bingham for many years 14 15 While acknowledging these theories were at least plausible more mainstream sources from the Filson Club s respected quarterly publication to The New York Times dismissed the allegations as impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt 16 17 Nevertheless as Bingham inherited 5 million after her death enabling him to purchase The Courier Journal and The Louisville Times which became critical in establishing his later national prominence it made an attractive conspiracy theory Bingham s son Barry Bingham Sr argued that Flagler was an alcoholic who drank herself to death a theory supported by an affidavit from her family doctor given in 1933 16 Later career EditUsing the bequest from Flagler Bingham purchased the Courier Journal and Times in 1918 18 He immediately clashed with long time editor Henry Watterson who soon retired In the 1920s Bingham used the paper to push for farm cooperatives improve education and support of the rural poor and to challenge the state s Democratic Party bosses In the latter endeavor he became an ally of U S Sen J C W Beckham who had been governor in 1900 07 Bingham himself was earlier in his career discouraged from running for mayor due to the likelihood of heavy opposition from the likes of Democratic party boss John Whallen and had bitterly described the unfairness of machine tactics he witnessed used against other candidates citation needed He was among reform minded Democrats who successfully backed Republican Augustus E Willson of Louisville for governor in 1907 citation needed Bingham married his third wife Aleen Lithgow Hilliard in 1924 US Ambassador to the United Kingdom Edit A strong financial backer of Franklin D Roosevelt Bingham was awarded with ambassadorship to Great Britain in 1933 and took up his post in May 19 As ambassador Bingham pushed for stronger ties between the United States and Great Britain 20 21 and vocally opposed the rise of fascism and Nazism in the 1930s 3 a time when Roosevelt would not because of political concerns at home 22 On 7 November 1933 the Saudi American Treaty was signed by Bingham on behalf of the United States and Hafiz Wahba on behalf of Saudi Arabia 23 Bingham was succeeded in the post by Joseph P Kennedy Other activities amp death Edit He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati Society of Colonial Wars and the Sons of the American Revolution citation needed His daughter Henrietta Bingham was involved with the Bloomsbury Group having affairs with the painter Dora Carrington and later with the sculptor Stephen Tomlin who went on to marry Julia Strachey niece of Lytton Strachey the love of Carrington s life 24 Seriously ill Bingham sailed back to the United States on November 19 1937 25 He died a month later on December 18 1937 from Hodgkin s lymphoma at Johns Hopkins Hospital where he had been operated on a few days before his death 2 5 and was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery 6 His family continued to dominate Louisville media for another half century mostly through his son Barry Bingham Sr The SS Robert W Bingham a cargo ship in service from 1944 to 1959 was named for him 1 See also EditSt Mary s Church WiltonNotes Edit Sources differ as to the date that Bingham s service as Ambassador ended William E Ellis in his biography of Bingham states that Bingham resigned on December 8 but President Roosevelt took no action and Bingham died still American Ambassador to Great Britain 1 Likewise Susan Tifft and Alex S Jones also state that Bingham sent his resignation to President Roosevelt on December 8 but they do not mention whether the President accepted his resignation 2 On the other hand Walter E Campbell in his biography of William R Kenan Jr says that Bingham resigned on December 10 eight days before his death 3 The New York Times reported ten days before Bingham s death that he had tendered his resignation some weeks ago due to ill health 4 but the newspaper s obituary and later coverage still refer to Bingham as Ambassador to the United Kingdom 5 6 Perhaps the best arbiter is the State Department which reports that Bingham s mission terminated on November 19 1937 with his departure from England 7 This article uses the date supplied by the State Department November 19 1937 as his last day in office References Edit a b Ellis William E 1997 Robert Worth Bingham and the Southern mystique from the Old South to the New South and beyond Kent Ohio Kent State University Press pp 193 195 ISBN 0873385780 OCLC 36543342 a b Tifft Susan Jones Alex S February 1993 The Patriarch The Rise and Fall of the Bingham Dynasty Simon and Schuster pp 151 ISBN 978 0 671 79707 2 a b Campbell Walter E 2010 Across fortune s tracks a biography of William Rand Kenan Jr The University Of North Carolina Press p 257 ISBN 978 0807865170 OCLC 949985349 President Chooses Joseph P Kennedy as Envoy to Britain Bingham Now at Johns Hopkins Hospital Forced by Illness to Resign as Ambassador The New York Times December 9 1937 p 1 Retrieved June 14 2018 a b c Robert W Bingham Ambassador Dies U S Envoy to Great Britain 66 Succumbs to a Tumor of Rare Occurrence The New York Times December 19 1937 p 1 Retrieved June 14 2018 a b Bingham is Buried With Simple Rites Bishop EmeritusWoodcock and Envoy s Pastor Officiate in Notables Presence The New York Times December 21 1937 p 23 Retrieved June 14 2018 Robert Worth Bingham history state gov Retrieved June 15 2018 Campbell Tracy June 2006 How to Steal an Election PDF Kentucky Humanities Archived from the original PDF on March 30 2007 a b Marie Brenner House of Dreams The Bingham Family of Louisville Random House 1988 a b c Sallie Bingham Passion and Prejudice Knopf 1989 William Elliot Ellis Robert Worth Bingham and the Southern Mystique The Kent State University Press 1997 pg 53 Mrs Flagler Weds Ex Judge Bingham Oil Millionaire s Widow Marries Ex Mayor of Louisville a Friend of Her Youth The New York Times November 16 1911 p 11 Retrieved December 23 2021 via Newspapers com Mrs Bingham Dies Worth 60 000 000 Fortune of Former Widow of H M Flagler to Go to Her Niece Mrs Louise Wise Lewis Wed Ex Judge Nov 16 Last Husband an Ex Mayor of Louisville and Other Relatives to Receive Only 3 000 000 of Estate The New York Times July 28 1917 p 7 Retrieved December 23 2021 via Newspapers com Augustus Mayhew Fatal Fortunes The Flagler Kenan Bingham Triangle Review of Irrepressible The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham in New York Social Diary September 4 2015 Emily Bingham s Irrepressible The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham Farrar Straus Giroux 2015 cites more documentation about Mary Lily s death including evidence on both sides although she believes Robert was innocent According to her research many people at the time including Theodore Roosevelt assumed Robert had murdered his wife and gotten away with it a b Duffy James January 10 1988 The Early Empire The New York Times p 39 Retrieved December 23 2021 Thomas Samuel W July 1989 Let the Documents Speak An Analysis of David Leon Chandler s Assessment of Robert Worth Bingham Filson Club History Quarterly 63 Watterson s Hot Shot as Paper is Sold The New York Times Louisville Kentucky August 7 1918 p 9 Retrieved December 23 2021 via Newspapers com Bingham to Call on King With Other Diplomats He Will Present Credentials to New Ruler The New York Times May 5 1936 p 3 Retrieved June 14 2018 Bingham Invites British U S Unity Offers Assurance Roosevelt Can Make Binding Lasting Understandings Now He Sees a New Situation Ambassador Believes That the Two Nations Cooperating Could Bring Security Bingham Invites British U S Unity The New York Times London December 2 1934 p 1 Retrieved June 14 2018 Selden Charles A July 5 1936 Anglo U S Accord for Peace is Urged Bingham Warns of Woe to Any Who Consider Two Peoples Mere Supine Pacifists Ignorance is Deplored Prof Mims Asks Why British Fail to Study Literature and History of United States The New York Times p 23 Retrieved June 14 2018 Kleber John E ed 2001 The encyclopedia of Louisville Lexington University Press of Kentucky pp 91 92 ISBN 9780813149745 OCLC 900344482 Fahd M Al Nafjan 1989 The Origins of Saudi American Relations From recognition to diplomatic representation 1931 1943 PhD thesis University of Kansas p 118 Retrieved May 9 2021 Extended Review The Letters of Lytton Strachey Bingham Ill Sails for U S Suddenly Ambassador Will Remain Here for Medical Treatment His Resignation Is Denied The New York Times November 20 1937 p 6 Retrieved June 14 2018 Further reading EditChandler David Leon 1989 Binghams of Louisville The Dark History Behind One of America s Great Fortunes New York Crown ISBN 0 517 56895 0 Ellis William E 1997 Robert Worth Bingham and the Southern Mystique From the Old South to the New South and Beyond Thomas Samuel W 1993 Barry Bingham A Man of his Word Ellis William E January 1982 Robert Worth Bingham and the Crisis of Cooperative Marketing in the Twenties Agricultural History 56 99 116 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Worth Bingham Works by or about Robert Worth Bingham at Internet Archive Newspaper clippings about Robert Worth Bingham in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBWPolitical officesPreceded byPaul C Barth Mayor of Louisville KentuckyJuly 1907 December 1907 Succeeded byJames F GrinsteadDiplomatic postsPreceded byAndrew W Mellon U S Ambassador to the United Kingdom1933 1937 Succeeded byJoseph P Kennedy Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Robert Worth Bingham amp oldid 1134693327, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
