
Davis Hanson Waite (9 April 1825 – 27 November 1901) was the Populist Governor of Colorado from 10 January 1893 to 8 January 1895, succeeding John Long Routt and preceding Albert McIntire.
Biography[]
Davis Hanson Waite was born in Jamestown, New York in 1825, and he served in the state legislatures of Wisconsin in 1857 and Kansas in 1879 before settling in Leadville, Colorado in 1879. In 1880, he moved to Aspen, and he became secretary of the local Knights of Labor and founded The Aspen Times. Formerly a Republican newspaperman, he helped to organize the Populist Party convention and served as Governor of Colorado from 1893 to 1895, his election coinciding with the Panic of 1893. He supported the American Railroad Union during the Pullman Strike and also oversaw Colorado's passage of women's suffrage, making it the second state to do so. In 1894, he brought in the state militia to remove corrupt Denver officials who refused to vacate their offices on being fired, resulting in the brief "City Hall War". He left office in 1895, and he remained active with the Populist movement until his death in 1901.