Adolph Olson Eberhart
Swedish
Born in Varmland, Sweden, in 1870, Adolph Olson Eberhart emigrated to the United States in 1881. He was employed as a farm worker and was a student at Gustavus Adolphus College before coming to Mankato in 1895 to study law under Judge Lorin Cray. In Mankato, Eberhart served as vice president of the Widell Construction Company, a major Mankato stone quarrying company; as director of the First National Bank; and as Deputy Clerk of the US District Court. In 1902 and 1904 he was elected to the state senate, and in 1906 and 1908 to the post of lieutenant governor. He assumed the governorship after John Johnson.s death in 1909 and was elected in 1910 and again in 1912. Significant legislation during his term included a bill encouraging rural school consolidation, the abolition of capital punishment, the direct primary for state offices and popular election of US Senators, legalization of the income tax, and the abolition of formal party designation of legislators which created the first non- partisan legislature in the United States. - US NRHP