Arthur LeSueur

Arthur LeSueur or Arthur Le Sueur (December 7, 1867– March 19, 1950), was an American socialist newspaper editor, politician, and lawyer. LeSeuer served as the Mayor of Minot, North Dakota as a Socialist, a post to which he was elected in 1909 until his resignation in 1911.

Arthur LeSueur
Arthur LeSueur as he was depicted on a 1914 poster produced by the Socialist Party of North Dakota.
9th President of the Minot City Commission
In office
1909 – May 17, 1911
Preceded bySam H. Clark
Succeeded byHalvor L. Halvorson
Personal details
Born(1867-12-07)December 7, 1867
Hastings, Minnesota, U.S.
DiedMarch 19, 1950(1950-03-19) (aged 82)
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Political partySocialist
Other political
affiliations		Nonpartisan League
Spouse(s)Ida M. Winslow
ChildrenMeridel Le Sueur (stepdaughter)
MotherAmy LeSueur
FatherJohn LeSueur
EducationUniversity of Michigan

Early life

Arthur LeSueur was born on December 7, 1867, in Hastings, Minnesota to John and Amy LeSueur, who had recently arrived in America from Jersey, in the Channel Islands.[1] As a child, LeSuer's mother died in an accident and Arthur was forced along with his siblings into farm work at a very young age.[2]

In 1880, Arthur left the family farm and moved to Arvilla, North Dakota, where he worked as a wood-cutter in the winter months and a grain thresher during the harvest season.[3] During this time, LeSuer saved extra money for law school tuition.[3] In 1889, he began working at a law office in Grand Forks.[4] In 1891, he graduated from the University of Michigan with a law degree and began his law practice in Minot, North Dakota in 1900, after relocating there with his wife Ida M. Winslow whom he had married in Arvilla on October 17, 1896.[5]

Career

In 1902, LeSueur was one of the primary organizers of the Socialist Party of North Dakota, establishing this state affiliate of the Socialist Party of America along with Fargo activist Arthur Bassett and others.[6] Speaking around the state constantly in support of the organization and the cause, LeSuer became the best known representative of the socialist movement in the state.[6]

In 1906 and 1908, he ran unsuccessfully for North Dakota Attorney General.[7][8] In 1909, LeSueur was elected as an alderman from Ward 3 and later narrowly defeated Martin Jacobson with 461 votes to 424 votes to become president of Minot's city commission.[9][10][11][12] In October, he attended a conference in St. Louis with 700 other mayors to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the city.[13] In May 1911, members of the Socialist affiliate in Minot urged LeSueur to resign as they believed that the majority of the town were unsupportive of his administration and on May 17, 1911, he and Alderman R. H. Emerson resigned.[14][15] At the Socialist Party of North Dakota's state convention in February 1912, he won the party's nomination for the third congressional district and went on to win 20.61% of the vote against incumbent Patrick Daniel Norton's 50.74%.[16][17]

During World War I, LeSueur was tapped to head the legal department of People's College, a socialist-oriented correspondence school located in Fort Scott, Kansas.[18] During this time, LaSuer worked with Eugene V. Debs, a labor leader and Socialist Party of America candidate, who served as Chancellor of the school.[19]

During the years of World War I the Socialist Party of North Dakota dissolved, with its adherents joining the fledgling Nonpartisan League, headed by Arthur C. Townley. LeSueur was active in support of this new organization.[20] During the 1916 presidential election, he ran for the Socialist Party nomination and was the only candidate that appeared on the North Dakota ballot, but later went on to lose the nomination to Allan L. Benson with LeSueur only taking 3,495 out of the 32,398 mail-order ballot votes.[21] The Nonpartisan League developed financial problems in 1921, leading Townley to resign his post as president of the organization the following year.[20] The NPL was disbanded in 1923.[20]

Later life

While working at People's College, he met Marian Wharton, the head of the English department.[18] The couple soon married and moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. LeSueur thereby became the stepfather of the writer Meridel Le Sueur.[22]

On March 19, 1950, he died at age 82 in Minneapolis.

Works
  • "Legal Side LIghts on Murder," International Socialist Review, vol. 17, no. 5 (November 1916), pp. 298–300.
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References
  1. Meridel LeSueur, Crusaders: The Radical Legacy of Marian and Arthur LeSueur. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1984; pg. 15.
  2. LeSueur, Crusaders, pg. 16.
  3. LeSueur, Crusaders, pg. 21.
  4. William B.Hennessy (ed.), History of North Dakota, Embracing a Relation of the History of the State from the Earliest Times Down to the Present Day, Including the Biographies of the Builders of the Commonwealth. Bismarck: Bismarck Tribune Company, 1910.
  5. "Arthur LeSueur, 82, Dies; Had Long Career in Politics". The Minneapolis Star. 20 March 1950. p. 1. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Elwyn B. Robinson, History of North Dakota. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1966; pg. 329.
  7. "LeSueuer for Attorney General". The Ward County Independent. 12 July 1906. p. 1. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Blaisdell is Mandamused". The Ward County Independent. 15 October 1908. p. 11. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "LeSueur Heads the Commission". The Ward County Independent. 22 July 1909. p. 9. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Prospective Commissioner Candidates". The Ward County Independent. 1 July 1909. p. 15. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "LeSueur Heads the Commission". The Ward County Independent. 5 August 1909. p. 1. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Street Car Franchise Beaten". The Ward County Independent. 8 August 1909. p. 9. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "LeSueur Pleased With St. Louis". The Ward County Independent. 14 October 1909. p. 11. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Minot Socialists Ask President LeSueur To Resign". The Ward County Independent. 11 May 1911. p. 9. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. "President of the Commission and Co-Worker Hand in Resignations Monday Night, Which are Accepted - Means Another Election". The Ward County Independent. 18 May 1911. p. 9. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. "Socialists In Convention". The Bismarck Tribune. 7 February 1912. p. 2. Archived from the original on 3 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. "ND District 3". 23 January 2006.
  18. LeSueur, Crusaders, pg. 32.
  19. Coiner, Constance (1995). Better Red: The Writing and Resistance of Tillie Olsen and Meridel Le Sueur. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-06695-5.
  20. Robinson, History of North Dakota, pg. 350.
  21. "Certificate of Nomination". Sioux County Pioneer. 10 March 1916. p. 1. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. For a biography of Marian Wharton LeSueur and her relationship with Arthur LeSueur, see Meridel LeSueur, Crusaders: The Radical Legacy of Marian and Arthur LeSueur" (1984), passim.
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