Fred M. Warner was born in Hickling, Nottinghamshire, England, the son of Joseph and Eliza (Wooley) Maltby. His parents emigrated to America when he was three months old, and shortly after, upon the death of his mother, he was adopted by Pascal D'Angelus and Rhoda E. (Bosford) Warner, of Farmington, Mich.
After graduation from the Farmington High School, he attended the Michigian State College of Agriculture for one term.
He then became a clerk in his foster father's general store. A few years later this establishment was turned over to him and he conducted it successfully for twenty years. Ambitious, resourceful, friendly, Warner engaged with marked success in various lines of business. In 1889 he built a cheese factory in Farmington, and before long established additional plants in eastern Michigan, ultimately becoming a national figure in the cheese-making industry. He was a progressive farmer on a rather large scale, a vigorous promoter of real estate, and an active banker. His participation in politics began with membership in the municipal council of his home village at the age of twenty-five. In 1894 he was elected to the state Senate, in which he served until 1898. At that time Hazen S. Pingree was engaged in his famous struggle with the old Republican party machine. Warner remained friendly with the Pingree faction, though he received the potent machine endorsement as candidate for secretary of state - to which office he was elected in 1900 and 1902 - and for governor in 1904. His Democratic opponent for the governorship, Woodbridge N. Ferris, advocated direct primaries as a means of crushing machine rule. The issue proved popular in a muck-raking era, and Warner, though at first opposed to reform, found it expedient to compromise to the extent of advocating a local option primary law, and won the election. The campaign had converted him, however, to a belief in a general primary law, and he finally forced the legislature to accept such a measure. Once started on a career of reform, he broadened his program, and, accepting the defection of a large number of his followers as a challenge, took the unprecedented step of running for a third successive term. He won the election by the narrowest of margins, and rounded out six years of impressive executive leadership. During his governorship the legislature passed measures for heavier taxation and lower rates on railroads, stricter control of public utilities and insurance companies, conservation of natural resources, encouragement of the dairy industry, food control, factory inspection, and the curbing of stock manipulation. After his retirement from office at the age of forty-five, he devoted himself to farming and business, retaining, however, a lively interest in politics. From 1920 until the time of his death he was Republican national committeeman from Michigan. He died in Orlando, Fla.
In several respects his career was unique: although he was by background a conservative, experience and power made him more liberal; himself a product of organization politics, he developed into the sturdiest of fighters for reform; ambitious in the field of capitalistic endeavor, he espoused principles designed to curb capitalism.
On September 19, 1888, he married Martha M. Davis of Farmington. Theuy had two sons and two daughters.
