David Bennett Hill (29 August 1843-20 October 1910) was the Democratic Governor of New York from 6 January 1885 to 31 December 1891 (succeeding Grover Cleveland and preceding Roswell P. Flower) and a US Senator from 7 January 1892 to 3 March 1897 (succeeding William M. Evarts and preceding Thomas C. Platt).
Biography[]
David Bennett Hill was born in Montour Falls, Schuyler County, New York in 1843, and he became a lawyer in Elmira in 1864. He served as city attorney in 1864, in the State Assembly from 1871 to 1872, as Mayor of Elmira in 1882, as Lieutenant Governor of New York from 1883 to 1885, and as Governor from 1885 to 1891. He embraced the role of patronage in politics and built up a strong following, breaking with his predecessor, the pro-reform Grover Cleveland. In 1890, he oversaw the world's first electric chair execution. In 1892, he ran for President of the United States as a supporter of bimetallism, but he lost to the conservative Cleveland; he was, however, elected to the US Senate. He was also defeated in his 1894 bid for Governor, and he supported William Jennings Bryan against the Gold Democrats in 1896. Hill was defeated for re-election in 1897, and he managed Alton B. Parker in the 1904 presidential election. He died in Albany in 1910.