Background
Otha was born on January 10, 1903, in Hastings, Iowa, United States; the son of Joe A. and Mary Jane (Donner) Wearin. Nishna was his lifelong primary residence.
1115 8th Ave, Grinnell, IA 50112, USA
In 1924 Otha received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, United States.
Otha was born on January 10, 1903, in Hastings, Iowa, United States; the son of Joe A. and Mary Jane (Donner) Wearin. Nishna was his lifelong primary residence.
Otha attended the Wearin District country school. In 1920 he graduated from Tabor College Academy. In 1924 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, United States.
Even with a career in politics and voluminous writing, Wearin operated the family farm with his father until the latter’s death in 1937 and then by himself nearly the rest of his life. In 1927 he traveled to Europe, studying farm production and doing research at the Institute of Agriculture at Rome. From his travel experience, he published A Farmer Abroad, in 1928.
Wearin came from a thoroughly Democratic Party family. He attended his first Democratic State Convention in 1920, at the age of 17, and served as a delegate to the Democratic State Convention in 1924, 1926, 1928, and 1930. In 1928 he ran successfully for a seat in the Iowa House for Mills County, which normally voted Republican. At 26, he was the youngest member of the legislature. He was reelected in 1930.
Wearin was an early and enthusiastic admirer of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as far back as 1920 when FDR was assistant secretary of the navy and the Democratic vice-presidential candidate. Wearin corresponded with Roosevelt when the latter was governor of New York, from 1929 to 1933, and in 1932 campaigned for Iowa’s Seventh District U.S. House seat, comprising 13 counties in southwest Iowa, as a staunch supporter of Roosevelt, whose landslide victory in November carried Wearin to victory by a margin of 57,803 votes to his opponent’s 44,925. He was the fourth-youngest member of the 73rd U.S. Congress, from 1933 to 1935. When he arrived in Washington, the sergeant-at-arms at the door of the House at first refused him entrance, thinking he was just a spectator.
Wearin served three terms in the U.S. House and was a member of the Ways and Means Committee. He was reelected in 1934 and 1936 but by smaller margins than in 1932. He supported nearly all of Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation, and he became one of Roosevelt’s favorite Iowa Democrats. In 1938 a backlash within the Democratic Party caused largely by Roosevelt’s court plan and a temporary but severe rise in unemployment led many Democrats across the country to run in opposition to Roosevelt, including Senator Guy Gillette in Iowa. Wearin ran essentially as Roosevelt’s candidate for the U.S. Senate against Gillette but was defeated by Gillette in the June primary by a margin of 81,605 to 43,044 votes, with three other candidates running far behind.
Wearin never held partisan elective office again, but that was hardly the end of his political activity. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1936 and 1940. Otha Donner Wearin was a member of the Mills County Board of Education. Despite a severe vision loss in 1944, which he partially regained by surgery in 1959, he sought statewide office twice.
In 1950 Otha entered the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate but was defeated by Albert Loveland, who in turn lost to incumbent Republican Senator Bourke Hickenlooper. In 1952 he entered the Democratic primary for governor but was defeated by Herschel Loveless, who then lost to incumbent Republican Governor William Beardsley. Later he was a staff adviser to Governor Loveless, from 1959 to 1961, and served on the Iowa State Commission on Aging, from 1965 to 1969.
Wearin was a prolific writer and author throughout his life. His books include works on American and European agriculture, history, architecture, biography, American Indian lore, hobbies, and an autobiography. Wearin died on April 3, 1990, and was buried in Malvern Cemetery near Tabor, Iowa.
Quotations: Wearin recalled, “My father and grandfather took their shotguns with them to vote the Democratic ticket in Mills County after the civil war.”
On January 2, 1931, Otha married Lola Irene Brazelton (also from Hastings). They had two daughters, Martha and Rebecca.