Franklin S. Billings

Franklin Swift Billings ( born May 11, 1862 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, † January 16, 1935 in Woodstock, Vermont ) was an American politician and 1925-1927 Governor of the State of Vermont.

Early years and business promotion

Franklin Billings came from one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in Vermont. By 1885, he studied at Harvard University. After a stint as a sheep farmer in Kansas, he joined in the foreign trade business in New York. In 1903, he moved to Vermont, where he was director of the railway company Woodstock Railway. At the same time he was still on the board of other companies such as the Woodstock Electric Company or the Woodstock Hotel Company.

Political career

Franklin Billings was a member of the Republican Party. Between 1904 and 1906 he served as colonel in the National Guard of his state. Between 1910 and 1913, and again from 1921 to 1923 he was a member of the House of Representatives of Vermont, where he was its president from 1921 to 1922. Between 1923 and 1925, Billings served as Deputy Governor Deputy Governor Redfield Proctor. In 1925 he was elected governor of his own state. Billings took up his new post on January 8, 1925. In his two-year tenure, the vehicle registration authority was founded in Vermont. The federal government did make some of the state forests and nature conservation.

Further CV

After the end of his governorship was a member of the Billings Control Commission, which oversaw the Prohibition, and was on the board of Harvard University. Franklin Billings was married twice and had four children. His son Franklin was later one of the Chairmen of the Supreme Court of Vermont and Federal District Judge.