congressman secretary of the navy
Edwin Denby was born on 18 February in 1870 in Evansville, Indiana, United States. He was the son of Charles Harvey Denby, United States minister at Peking, China, by President Grover Cleveland, grandson of Graham N. Fitch, brother of Charles Denby, Jr., and uncle of dance critic Edwin Orr Denby.
Edwin Denby graduated from the University of Michigan in 1896 and was admitted to the bar, and began the practice of law in Detroit in the same year.
Denby served in the war with Spain and in World War I, in the Michigan legislature (1903 - 1905), and in the House of Representatives (1905 - 1911). Denby worked for the modernization and reorganization of the Navy and was an advocate of preparedness. He went into business in Detroit and held important positions in the motor industry and banking. In 1921 Denby entered President Warren G. Harding's cabinet as secretary of the navy. He added his signature to the contracts that Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall made when leasing the Teapot Dome government oil reserves to Harry F. Sinclair and the Elk Hills oil reserves to Edward L. Doheny. The Senate investigations of the winter of 1923-1924 uncovered his part in the transactions. The Senate by resolution on February 11, 1924, requested President Coolidge to demand Secretary Denby's immediate resignation. President Coolidge refused. Secretary Denby, on February 17, to relieve the President from embarrassment, tendered his resignation to take effect March 10. On June 24, 1925, Senator Walsh in his final report exonerated Denby from "any part whatever" in the oil lease negotiations. The Supreme Court in its decision handed down on February 28, 1927, declared: "Mr. Denby signed the contracts and leases under misapprehension and without full knowledge of the contents of the documents. But the evidence sustain the findings that he took no active part in the negotiations and that Fall, acting collusively with Doheny, dominated the making of the contracts and leases. " The scandals put an end to Denby's political career and obscured his accomplishments and his record for integrity.
Michigan House of Representatives
Denby married to Marion Bartlett Thurber.
