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William Cameron Sproul was an American manufacturer. He also served as the 27th Governor of Pennsylvania for one term from January 1919 until January 1923.
Background
William was born on September 16, 1870 at Octoraro, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of William Hall and Deborah Dickinson (Slokom) Sproul. On his father's side he was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, being descended from Charles Sproul, who came to America from Ireland in 1786; his mother's people were Quakers.
Education
When William was four years old the family removed to Negaunee, Michigan, where he attended public schools. Returning to Lancaster County in 1882, the Sprouls decided soon after to settle in Chester, a rising industrial center of Delaware County, where their son completed the high-school course in 1887. He then entered Swarthmore College, and was graduated in 1891.
As an undergraduate he interested himself in athletics, oratory, and journalism, among other distinctions achieving the editorship of the Swarthmore College Phoenix.
He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Franklin and Marshall College at Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1912.
Career
Soon after leaving college Sproul acquired an interest in the daily Chester Times, later extending his investments with unusual financial success to manufacturing, railroad, traction, real estate, and banking enterprises.
In 1895, the first year he was eligible under the constitutional age requirement, he became a candidate for a seat in the Senate of the Commonwealth from the ninth (Delaware County) district, being elected thereto the following year and every four years thereafter to and including 1916.
After Quay's acquittal, in 1901, however, Sproul made his peace with the organization and supported its leader for the United States senatorship. Thereafter, while preserving, probably, as great a degree of independence as the boss-ridden condition of the state permitted, he remained essentially a regular Republican, at times making vigorous denials of the charge that he was an Insurgent or Progressive.
In 1918, however, he entered the contest, winning the nomination in the direct primary by 205, 000 votes. During the ensuing campaign he supported prohibition and woman's suffrage, both of which measures were opposed by the Democratic nominee, Eugene C. Bonniwell, whom he defeated by 247, 222 votes.
During the great steel strike of 1919 his administration was criticized severely by liberals because of the conduct of the state police in the areas affected. He pushed vigorously the proposal for a convention to revise the antiquated state constitution dating from 1874; but it was rejected by nearly 100, 000 majority at the referendum of September 20, 1921.
After completing his term at Harrisburg, Sproul devoted himself to travel, to the interests of Swarthmore College - of the board of managers of which he was a member from 1902 onward and to which he had presented the Sproul Astronomical Observatory - and to the management of his large business interests.
He died on March 21, 1928 at "Lapidea Manor, " the family residence, near Chester, Pennsylvania.
He was born to Quaker parents in Colerain Township. Before his death, he dispensed his entire fortune, worth millions, to Quaker charities.
Politics
Coincident with his entrance into business, Sproul engaged actively in local politics. Early in his career as state senator (1896), he voted for John Wanamaker, candidate for the United States Senate against Boies Penrose; the latter, however, was elected. He also opposed the reelection to that body of Matthew S. Quay, leader of the Republican state organization, who at the time was under indictment because of certain banking scandals. For these bold actions he was hailed as a reformer, destined perhaps to cleanse the Augean stables of Pennsylvania politics.
Connections
On January 21, 1892, he married Emeline Wallace Roach, grand-daughter of John Roach and daughter of John B. Roach who was the owner of a large shipbuilding concern on the lower Delaware River; they had two children.