Compiled by Russell Bastedo
NH State Curator
1998/1999

John H. Bartlett (1869 - 1952)
Born Sunapee; Portsmouth lawyer, postmaster.
In state politics from 1905; governor 1919/21.
Portrait by Jacob Binder/Hathaway Studios, 1927.

Bartlett attended Dartmouth College (Class of 1894). He taught in Portsmouth schools (1894/8), serving as high school principal for the 1896/7 term, and studied law as well. He was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in 1898, and joined the firm of Page & Bartlett. A year later Bartlett had the opportunity to serve as Portsmouth postmaster and he took it (served 1899 - 1907/08). The years of service as postmaster were interrupted by a stint on Gov. McLane's staff (1905/06), where he served with the rank of colonel. Bartlett was active in making local arrangements in Portsmouth for the 1905 Russo-Japanese Peace Conference.

Bartlett next appears as presiding officer at the 1916 state Republican Party convention. He was elected to the state legislature (1917/18), and nominated for the governorship by the Republicans in 1918. He won the election.

During Governor Bartlett's term the state adopted an executive budget system, and governor and council took control of the finances of many state institutions. The state's employee liability law was revised, and New Hampshire cities secured the right to acquire and operate street railways, thus sharing in the urban transit boom.

Following his governorship Bartlett served as president of the Civil Service Commission, in Washington, D.C. He then became the first Assistant United States Postmaster-General. and sponsored the first transcontinental air mail service. In 1929 he was appointed chairman of the U.S. section of the Joint International Commission for the United States and Canada, a post he held until 1939, when he retired. His New Deal sympathies caused him to switch to the Democratic Party, and he ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the United States Congress. In New Hampshire he served on various boards, and wrote a number of books before his death in 1952.

References: Sabel and Raino, eds., Biographical Directory of the Governors, 1789 - 1978 (1978), volume 3; Who Was Who in America. 1943 - 1950 (1950).