129th New York State Legislature

The 129th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 3 to May 3, 1906, during the second year of Frank W. Higgins's governorship, in Albany.

129th New York State Legislature
← 128th 130th →
New York State Capitol (2009)
Overview
Legislative body	New York State Legislature
Jurisdiction	New York, United States
Term	January 1 – December 31, 1906
Senate
Members	50
President	Lt. Gov. M. Linn Bruce (R)
Temporary President	John Raines (R)
Party control	Republican (36-14)
Assembly
Members	150
Speaker	James Wolcott Wadsworth, Jr. (R)
Party control	Republican (108-36-6)
Sessions
1st January 3 – May 3, 1906

Background

Under the provisions of the New York Constitution of 1894, 50 Senators and 150 assemblymen were elected in single-seat districts; senators for a two-year term, assemblymen for a one-year term. The senatorial districts were made up of entire counties, except New York County (twelve districts), Kings County (seven districts), Erie County (three districts) and Monroe County (two districts). The Assembly districts were made up of contiguous area, all within the same county, .

At this time there were two major political parties: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. In New York City, the Municipal Ownership League also nominated candidates.

Elections

The New York state election, 1905, was held on November 7. No statewide elective offices were up for election this time. Special elections were held to fill the vacancies in the 16th[1] and 24th senatorial districts.

Sessions

The Legislature met for the regular session at the State Capitol in Albany on January 3, 1906; and adjourned on May 3.

James Wolcott Wadsworth, Jr. (R) was elected Speaker with 106 votes against 34 for George M. Palmer (D) and 6 for Thomas F. Long (M.O.L.).

On April 27, the Legislature re-apportioned the Senate districts, increasing the number to 51.[2] The apportionment was then contested in the courts.

The Legislature also re-apportioned the number of assemblymen per county. Nassau County was separated from the remainder of Queens County; Albany, Broome, Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oswego and Rensselaer counties lost one seat each; Erie, Monroe and Westchester gained one each; and Kings and Queens counties gained two each.

On August 13, the new Senate apportionment was upheld by Supreme Court Justice Howard.[3]

On April 3, 1907, the new Senate and Assembly apportionment was declared unconstitutional by the New York Court of Appeals.[4]

State Senate

Districts

• 1st District: Richmond and Suffolk counties
• 2nd District: Queens and Nassau counties
• 3rd District: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Ward of Brooklyn, as constituted in 1894
• 4th District: 7th, 13th, 19th and 21st Ward of Brooklyn, as constituted in 1894
• 5th District: 8th, 10th, 12th and 30th Ward of Brooklyn, and the annexed former Town of Gravesend, as constituted in 1894
• 6th District: 9th, 11th, 20th and 22nd Ward of Brooklyn, as constituted in 1894
• 7th District: 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th Ward of Brooklyn, as constituted in 1894
• 8th District: 23rd, 24th, 25th and 29th Ward of Brooklyn; and the annexed former Town of Flatlands, as constituted in 1894
• 9th District: 18th, 26th, 27th and 28th Ward of Brooklyn, as constituted in 1894
• 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st District: Parts of the City of New York, defined geographically by their bordering streets, regardless of Wards or Assembly districts
• 22nd District: Westchester County
• 23rd District: Orange and Rockland counties
• 24th District: Columbia, Dutchess and Putnam and counties
• 25th District: Greene and Ulster counties
• 26th District: Chenango, Delaware and Sullivan counties
• 27th District: Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery and Schoharie counties
• 28th District: Saratoga, Schenectady and Washington counties
• 29th District: Albany County
• 30th District: Rensselaer County
• 31st District: Clinton, Essex and Warren counties
• 32nd District: Franklin and St. Lawrence counties
• 33rd District: Otsego and Herkimer counties
• 34th District: Oneida County
• 35th District: Jefferson and Lewis counties
• 36th District: Onondaga County
• 37th District: Oswego and Madison counties
• 38th District: Broome, Cortland and Tioga counties
• 39th District: Cayuga and Seneca counties
• 40th District: Chemung, Schuyler and Tompkins counties
• 41st District: Steuben and Yates counties
• 42nd District: Ontario and Wayne counties
• 43rd District: 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 16th, 17th and 18th Ward of Rochester; and the towns of Brighton, Henrietta, Irondequoit, Menden, Penfield, Perinton, Pittsford, Rush and Webster, in Monroe County
• 44th District: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 15th, 19th and 20th Ward of Rochester; and the towns of Chili, Clarkson, Gates, Greece, Hamlin, Ogden, Parma, Riga, Sweden and Wheatland, in Monroe County
• 45th District: Genesee, Niagara and Orleans counties
• 46th District: Allegany, Livingston and Wyoming counties
• 47th District: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 15th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th Ward of Buffalo
• 48th District: 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 16th Ward of Buffalo
• 49th District: 17th, 18th and 25th Ward of the City of Buffalo; and all area in Erie County outside Buffalo
• 50th District: Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties

Note: In 1897, New York County (the boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx), Kings County (the borough of Brooklyn), Richmond County (the borough of Staten Island) and the Western part of Queens County (the borough of Queens) were consolidated into the present-day City of New York. The Eastern part of Queens County (the non-consolidated part) was separated in 1899 as Nassau County. Parts of the 1st and 2nd Assembly districts of Westchester County were annexed by New York City in 1895, and became part of the Borough of the Bronx in 1898.

Members

The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued in office as members of this Legislature.

District	Senator	Party	Notes
1st	Carll S. Burr, Jr.*	Republican
2nd	Luke A. Keenan*	Democrat
3rd	Thomas H. Cullen*	Democrat
4th	John Drescher, Jr.*	Republican
5th	James J. Kehoe*	Democrat
6th	Frank J. Gardner*	Republican
7th	Patrick H. McCarren*	Democrat
8th	Charles Cooper*	Republican
9th	Conrad Hasenflug*	Democrat
10th	Daniel J. Riordan*	Democrat	on November 6, 1906, elected to the 59th U.S. Congress
11th	John C. Fitzgerald*	Democrat
12th	Samuel J. Foley*	Democrat
13th	Bernard F. Martin*	Democrat
14th	Thomas F. Grady*	Democrat	Minority Leader
15th	Nathaniel A. Elsberg*	Republican
16th	John M. Quinn	Democrat	elected to fill vacancy, in place of Peter J. Dooling
17th	Martin Saxe*	Republican
18th	Jacob Marks*	Democrat
19th	Alfred R. Page*	Republican
20th	James J. Frawley*	Democrat
21st	John A. Hawkins*	Democrat
22nd	Francis M. Carpenter*	Republican
23rd	Louis F. Goodsell*	Republican
24th	Sanford W. Smith	Republican	elected to fill vacancy, in place of Henry S. Ambler
25th	John N. Cordts*	Republican
26th	Jotham P. Allds*	Republican
27th	Spencer K. Warnick*	Republican
28th	Edgar T. Brackett*	Republican
29th	James B. McEwan*	Republican
30th	William D. Barnes*	Republican
31st	Spencer G. Prime*	Republican
32nd	George R. Malby*	Republican
33rd	Walter L. Brown*	Republican
34th	Henry J. Coggeshall*	Republican
35th	George H. Cobb*	Republican
36th	Horace White*	Republican
37th	Francis H. Gates*	Republican
38th	Harvey D. Hinman*	Republican
39th	Benjamin M. Wilcox*	Republican
40th	Owen Cassidy*	Republican
41st	William J. Tully*	Republican
42nd	John Raines*	Republican	President pro tempore
43rd	Merton E. Lewis*	Republican
44th	William W. Armstrong*	Republican
45th	Irving L'Hommedieu*	Republican
46th	Frederick C. Stevens*	Republican
47th	Henry W. Hill*	Republican
48th	Louis Fechter, Sr.*	Republican
49th	George Allen Davis*	Republican
50th	Albert T. Fancher*	Republican

Employees

• Clerk: Lafayette B. Gleason
• Sergeant-at-Arms: Charles R. Hotaling
• Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms: Everett Brown
• Stenographer: James C. Marriott

State Assembly

Assemblymen

District		Assemblymen	Party	Notes
Albany	1st	Charles W. Mead*	Republican
	2nd	Abram S. Coon*	Republican
	3rd	Thomas F. Maher	Republican
	4th	William J. Grattan*	Republican
Allegany		Jesse S. Phillips*	Republican
Broome	1st	James T. Rogers*	Republican
	2nd	Fred E. Allen*	Republican
Cattaraugus	1st	Jasper E. Smith	Republican
	2nd	John J. Volk	Republican
Cayuga	1st	Judson W. Hapeman*	Republican
	2nd	J. Guernsey Allen*	Republican
Chautauqua	1st	Arthur C. Wade*	Republican
	2nd	Henry K. Williams	Republican
Chemung		Sherman Moreland*	Republican	Majority Leader
Chenango		Charles L. Carrier*	Republican
Clinton		H. Wallace Knapp*	Republican
Columbia		Edward W. Scovill*	Republican
Cortland		Fred A. Crosley	Republican
Delaware		James R. Cowan*	Republican
Dutchess	1st	Myron Smith	Republican
	2nd	Augustus B. Gray*	Republican
Erie	1st	Charles J. Quinn*	Democrat
	2nd	Robert L. Cox*	Republican
	3rd	Frank S. Burzynski*	Democrat
	4th	Charles V. Lynch	Democrat
	5th	Louis Dressing	Democrat
	6th	James S. Keyes	Democrat
	7th	John K. Patton*	Republican
	8th	Luther J. Shuttleworth*	Republican
Essex		Frank C. Hooper*	Republican
Franklin		Charles R. Matthews*	Republican
Fulton and Hamilton		William Ellison Mills	Republican
Genesee		S. Percy Hooker*	Republican
Greene		William C. Brady*	Republican
Herkimer		Abram B. Steele*	Republican
Jefferson	1st	Albert Foster*	Republican
	2nd	Gary H. Wood	Republican
Kings	1st	Thomas O'Neill*	Rep./M.O.L.
	2nd	Patrick Donohue	Rep./M.O.L.
	3rd	Thomas P. Reilly*	Democrat
	4th	William W. Colne	Republican
	5th	Otto G. Foelker*	Rep./M.O.L.
	6th	Thomas J. Surpless	Rep./M.O.L.
	7th	Michael J. Grady*	Democrat
	8th	James A. Thompson*	Democrat
	9th	Thomas F. McGuire	Democrat
	10th	Charles F. Murphy*	Rep./M.O.L.
	11th	William S. Shanahan*	Dem./M.O.L.
	12th	George A. Green	Rep./M.O.L.
	13th	Samuel J. Palmer	Rep./M.O.L.
	14th	George W. Kavanagh*	Democrat
	15th	Charles C. G. Sprenger	Rep./M.O.L.
	16th	Charles J. Weber	Republican
	17th	Edward C. Dowling*	Republican
	18th	Warren I. Lee	Republican
	19th	Charles Schmitt	Rep./M.O.L.
	20th	Charles Feth	M.O.L.
	21st	Frank E. Harvey	M.O.L.
Lewis		C. Fred Boshart	Republican
Livingston		James Wolcott Wadsworth, Jr.*	Republican	elected Speaker
Madison		Robert J. Fish*	Republican
Monroe	1st	DeWitt C. Becker*	Republican
	2nd	James L. Whitley	Republican
	3rd	Robert Averill	Republican
	4th	Albert P. Beebe*	Republican
Montgomery		William B. Charles*	Republican
New York	1st	Thomas B. Caughlan*	Democrat
	2nd	Al Smith*	Democrat
	3rd	John T. Eagleton	Democrat
	4th	William H. Burns*	Democrat
	5th	Leslie J. Tompkins*	Democrat
	6th	James Oliver	Democrat
	7th	Thomas F. Long	M.O.L./Rep.
	8th	Abraham Harawitz	Democrat
	9th	Patrick H. Bird*	Democrat
	10th	Samuel Hoffman	Rep./M.O.L.
	11th	John J. Sammon*	Democrat
	12th	Max Eckmann	M.O.L./Rep.
	13th	John C. Hackett*	Democrat
	14th	Jacob Fritz	Democrat
	15th	Owen W. Bohan	Democrat
	16th	Gustave Hartman*	Rep./M.O.L.
	17th	Christopher Steffens	Rep./M.O.L.
	18th	Edward B. La Fetra*	Democrat
	19th	Mervin C. Stanley*	Rep./M.O.L.
	20th	Thomas A. Farnan	Rep./M.O.L.
	21st	William Young*	Rep./M.O.L.
	22nd	Thomas Rock	Rep./M.O.L.
	23rd	James A. Francis	Rep./M.O.L.
	24th	John T. Story	Rep./M.O.L.
	25th	Ezra P. Prentice*	Republican
	26th	Roger J. Brennan	Rep./M.O.L.
	27th	George B. Agnew*	Republican
	28th	George Schwegler	Democrat
	29th	Frederick D. Wells	Rep./M.O.L.
	30th	Maurice F. Smith	M.O.L.
	31st	J. Sidney Bernstein	Democrat	on December 27, 1906, appointed as Transfer Tax Appraiser by Comptroller-elect Martin H. Glynn[5]
	32nd	Samuel Krulewitch	Rep./M.O.L.
	33rd	Jacob E. Salomon*[6]	Democrat
	34th	Charles Campbell	M.O.L.
	35th	John P. Cohalan	Democrat
Niagara	1st	A. Edmund Lee	Democrat
	2nd	W. Levell Draper	Republican
Oneida	1st	Henry L. Gates*	Republican
	2nd	Jay H. Pratt*	Republican
	3rd	John C. Evans*	Republican
Onondaga	1st	Charles H. Gregory	Republican
	2nd	Edward Schoeneck*	Republican
	3rd	George L. Baldwin	Republican
	4th	Fred W. Hammond*	Republican
Ontario		Jean L. Burnett*	Republican
Orange	1st	William G. Hastings*	Republican
	2nd	Louis Bedell*	Republican
Orleans		Henry V. Wilson*	Republican
Oswego	1st	Thomas D. Lewis*	Republican
	2nd	Fred G. Whitney*	Republican
Otsego		Deloss E. Bass*	Republican
Putnam		John R. Yale*	Republican
Queens	1st	Dennis J. Harte	Democrat
	2nd	William A. DeGroot	Rep./M.O.L.
Queens and Nassau		William G. Miller*	Republican
Rensselaer	1st	Frederick C. Filley	Republican
	2nd	Michael D. Nolan	Democrat
	3rd	Bradford R. Lansing	Republican
Richmond		Arnold J. B. Wedemeyer*	Democrat
Rockland		Gouverneur M. Carnochan	Democrat
St. Lawrence	1st	Fred J. Gray	Republican
	2nd	Edwin A. Merritt, Jr.*	Republican
Saratoga		George H. Whitney*	Republican
Schenectady		William W. Wemple*	Republican
Schoharie		George M. Palmer*	Democrat	Minority Leader
Schuyler		John W. Gurnett*	Democrat
Seneca		William J. Maier*	Republican
Steuben	1st	William H. Chamberlain	Republican
	2nd	Jerry E. B. Santee*	Republican
Suffolk	1st	John M. Lupton	Republican
	2nd	Orlando Hubbs*	Republican
Sullivan		Edward Bisland*	Republican
Tioga		Byram L. Winters	Republican
Tompkins		William R. Gunderman	Republican
Ulster	1st	Joseph M. Fowler	Republican
	2nd	William D. Cunningham*	Republican
Warren		William R. Waddell*	Republican
Washington		Eugene R. Norton	Republican
Wayne		Edson W. Hamn	Republican
Westchester	1st	Woodson R. Oglesby	Ind. Dem.[7]
	2nd	J. Mayhew Wainwright*	Republican
	3rd	James K. Apgar*	Republican
Wyoming		Byron A. Nevins	Republican
Yates		Leonidas D. West*	Republican

Employees

• Clerk: Archie E. Baxter
• Sergeant-at-Arms: Frank W. Johnston
• Stenographer: Henry C. Lammert

Notes

1. Election to Fill Dooling's Seat in NYT on October 18, 1905
2. see APPORTIONMENT PLAN MADE; ODELL BEATEN in NYT on April 27, 1906
3. APPORTIONMENT LEGAL, SAYS JUSTICE HOWARD in NYT on August 14, 1906
4. OLD APPORTIONMENT IS DECLARED VOID in NYT on April 4, 1907
5. The appointment was made to take office on January 1, 1907; see MR. GLYNN ANNOUNCES CHIEF APPOINTMENTS
6. Jacob E. Salomon (died 1922); see Jacob E. Salomon in NYT on July 29, 1922
7. see M'CARREN-WARD DEAL TO CONTROL JUSTICES in NYT on January 28, 1906

Sources

• Official New York from Cleveland to Hughes by Charles Elliott Fitch (Hurd Publishing Co., New York and Buffalo, 1911, Vol. IV; see pg. 351ff for assemblymen; and 365f for senators)
• ODELL CLINCHES GRIP ON THE ASSEMBLY in NYT on November 9, 1905
• WADSWORTH NAMED BY 75 CAUCUS VOTES in NYT on January 3, 1906 [States erroneously that "Wadsworth will be the youngest Speaker the Assembly has ever had." The youngest Speaker ever was Edmund L. Pitts in 1867.]
• WADSWORTH'S FIRST DAY BRINGS FIGHT ON RULES in NYT on January 4, 1906
• SHAKE-UP BY WADSWORTH STIRS ASSEMBLY WRATH in NYT on January 11, 1906