Boies Penrose, the Big Grizzly Who Ran Pennsylvania's Machine

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Boies Penrose was born in 1860 into an elite Philadelphia family: one ancestor was a shipbuilder invited by William Penn, and his grandfather had been speaker of the state Senate. Nearly expelled from Harvard for poor grades, he turned things around and graduated second in his class in 1881, passed the bar in 1883 and wrote scholarly books on municipal reform. Elected to the Pennsylvania House in 1885, he became the youngest state senator at 26 and president pro tempore at 29, and joined Matthew Quay's Republican machine. His 1895 run for mayor of Philadelphia ended when an opponent obtained a photo of him leaving a brothel at 3 a.m., but in 1897 the legislature sent him to the U.S. Senate over businessman John Wanamaker.

After Quay died in 1904 he ran the state party for 17 years, using squeeze bills: allies drafted legislation damaging to banks or railroads, and the bills died once the industries paid the machine. As Senate Finance chairman he added the oil depletion allowance to the Revenue Act of 1913, and in 1912 he joined Robert La Follette in an investigation of Theodore Roosevelt's past campaign funding. When the 17th Amendment required a direct election in 1914, he defeated A. Mitchell Palmer and Gifford Pinchot. He helped Warren G. Harding win the 1920 nomination, his ally Andrew Mellon became Treasury Secretary, and Penrose died on New Year's Eve 1921 at 61.

• He won a $1,000 bet by eating 50 oysters and drinking a quart of bourbon, sending his opponent to the hospital.
• Standing six foot four, he rode a horse named Senator that needed a custom saddle.
• He had the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel set up privacy screens around his table while he ate.
• He was one of the 100 original members of the Boone and Crockett Club.
• A bronze statue of him stands in Capitol Park in Harrisburg, and Mount Penrose in British Columbia bears his name.