Background
Shaw was born in Morristown, Vermont, the son of Boardman O. Shaw and Louise Spaulding "Lovisa" Shaw.
Shaw was born in Morristown, Vermont, the son of Boardman O. Shaw and Louise Spaulding "Lovisa" Shaw.
He attended Cornell College in 1874.
He served as the 17th Governor of Iowa and was a Republican candidate in the 1908 presidential election. Shaw married the former Alice Crenshaw on December 6, 1877, with whom he had three children. He became a lawyer and banker, and in 1898 became the 17th Governor of Iowa, serving until 1902.
He then became the United States. Secretary of the Treasury under President Theodore Roosevelt from 1902 to 1907.
Like his predecessor Secretary Lyman Gage, Shaw firmly believed that the Treasury should serve the money market in times of difficulty through the introduction of Treasury funds. The intended effect of these actions was to provide a more elastic currency which would then respond to the needs of the market.
The government intervention in the money market reached its height with Shaw. He resigned on March 3, 1907, to become as the banker in New York City.
He was a candidate for the Republican Party nomination during the United States. presidential election in 1908.
After leaving the Presidential Cabinet and his public life, he returned to banking, working in New York City. Shaw died in Washington, District of Columbia, and was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Denison, Iowa.