Charles Henry Dietrich


Charles Henry Dietrich was the 11th Governor of Nebraska.
He was born in Aurora, Illinois, and was of German ancestry. His education was attained in the public schools of his native state and he quit at the age of twelve.
Dietrich was married twice. His first wife, Elizabeth Slaker, died in 1887. After Elizabeth's death, he married Margretta Stewart Shaw in 1909.

Career

Dietrich was employed as a clerk in a hardware store in St. Joseph, Missouri. He moved to Chicago, Illinois and engaged in the hardware business. He moved to Deadwood, Dakota Territory, in 1875 and engaged in mercantile pursuits, delivering goods on pack animals through the Black Hills. He then located and owned the 'Aurora' mine.
Dietrich settled in Hastings, Nebraska, in 1878 and engaged in mercantile pursuits and in banking. Dietrich founded the German National Bank at Hastings and served as the president of the bank from 1887 to 1905. He became the president of the Hastings Board of Trade.
Elected in 1900, Dietrich served as Governor of Nebraska from January 3, 1901 to May 1, 1901, when he resigned his governorship to fill a vacancy in the US Senate caused by the death of Monroe L. Hayward.

Bribery charge

Before he took office as US Senator Dietrich, he accepted money from Jacob Fisher to appoint him to be a US Postmaster. Dietrich and Fisher were charged with conspiracy to receive a bribe, accepting a bribe and profiting by the leaning of a building to the government. But before the trial could begin, Judge Vandeventer held that Dietrich could not be prosecuted because the alleged bribery occurred after he was elected, but before Dietrich had been sworn in as a US Senator on December 2, 1901. All the charges were then dropped, and Dietrich continued to serve as a US Senator from Nebraska.
His tenure in the Senate lasted from May 1, 1901 to March 3, 1905, where he served as a pro-imperialist on the Lodge Committee investigating war crimes during the Philippine-American War. He did not run for reelection in 1904.

Death

Dietrich retired in 1905 and died in Hastings, Nebraska.