James Henderson Kyle was an American Congregational clergyman and United States senator from South Dakota from 1891 until his death.
Background
James Henderson Kyle was born on February 24, 1854 in Cedarville, Ohio, United States. He was descended from a Scotch-Irish family of culture and ample fortune. An ancestor, Samuel, came to America in 1738 and settled at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where he built "Clifton Hall, " which for more than a century was the chief seat of the family. One of his seven sons migrated to Ohio after the Revolution and his grandson Thomas B. Kyle married Margaret Henderson and became the father of James Henderson Kyle. In 1865 Thomas Kyle, who had been a captain of volunteers in the Civil War, removed with his family to a farm near Urbana, Illinois, where James spent his youth.
Education
Kyle attended classes at the University of Illinois, 1871-73, thence went to Oberlin College where he graduated from the classical course in 1878. He then studied law, but after two years turned to theology, and in 1882 was graduated from the Western Theological Seminary (Presbyterian) at Allegheny, Pennsylvania.
Career
In 1884 Kyle accepted a call to the Congregational Church of Salt Lake City. In the autumn of 1885 he went to Dakota and organized the Congregational churches of Ipswich and Aberdeen, of which he was pastor until 1890.
In 1890 he was made financial secretary of Yankton College, and was serving in that capacity when he entered politics. His introduction to politics was unique. In 1890, when the Populist movement was at its height, the Populist party had called a mass convention for the nomination of legislators, to meet at Aberdeen on July 4. A local celebration of Independence Day had also been planned. As the hour for the celebration approached it was discovered that the man invited to deliver the oration had failed to keep his appointment. The committee in charge visited Kyle and invited him to speak. He accepted, but having no time to prepare an address, read to the "embattled farmers" a copy of an address delivered in 1877 by Prof. John M. Gregory of the University of Illinois. It was an extreme arraignment of the federal government and of the tariff and financial policies of the United States. Nothing could have better fitted the situation in view of the excited political temper of his hearers. Immediately following the address they went into mass convention and, without consulting him, nominated Kyle for the state Senate. He was elected, and in the ensuing session of the legislature, after a prolonged deadlock, he was accepted as a compromise candidate and elected to the United States Senate. One other unique circumstance contributed to his political fortune at this time. In the South Dakota legislature a fusion of the Democrats, Populists, and independent Republicans would have had a majority of one vote over the regular Republicans. In the Illinois legislature there were 101 Democrats, 100 Republicans and three Populists. Congressman Jerry Simpson of Kansas was first to see the possibilities, through adroit manipulation, of securing from normally Republican states two senators of Democratic sympathies. A plan was consummated by which the Illinois Populists joined the Democrats and elected General Palmer, and the South Dakota Democrats joined the Populists in electing James H. Kyle.
His chief service was as chairman of the National Industrial Commission, a body created by Congress to investigate the industrial status of the country. Although the nineteen-volume report published by the Commission was chiefly prepared by experts, Kyle gave to it his constant attention and in a broad way determined its direction. He was industriously engaged upon it when death came unexpectedly to him, at his home in Aberdeen.
Achievements
Kyle was one of the main sponsors of a bill to create the holiday Labor Day. Kyle, South Dakota was named after him.
Politics
Throughout his first term Senator Kyle generally supported Democratic policies. When the time for his reelection came in 1897 a fusion of Populists and Republicans sent him back to the Senate and thereafter he generally supported Republican policies. In the Senate Kyle interested himself mainly in educational matters, and made a respectable record.
Connections
On April 27, 1881 Kyle married Anna Isabel Dugot of Medina, Ohio, a classmate in the Oberlin preparatory school. Two children survived them.
