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Biography
Chester Hardy Aldrich (November 10, 1863 – March 10, 1924) was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 16th governor of Nebraska and as a justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court.
Aldrich was born in Pierpont in Ashtabula County, Ohio. After attending prep school at Hillsdale College in Michigan, he graduated from Ohio State University in 1888 with an A.B. He married Sylvia Estelle Stroman on June 4, 1889, and they had five children.
Aldrich settled in Ulysses, Nebraska, where he worked as a high school principal and livestock rancher while he studied law. He passed the Nebraska Bar in 1890 and began practicing law in David City. He served as mayor of David City, and was elected to the Nebraska State Senate in 1906.
In 1911, he was elected governor of Nebraska; he held the position until 1913. In a commencement address delivered at Ohio State University shortly after his election to the governorship, he delivered his views on the importance of Progressivism. During his tenure as governor, a co-operative association act was sanctioned; a board of control for state institutions was established; a sanitary health bill was authorized; and a road program was initiated.
Aldrich was elected as a justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court in 1918, and remained in that position until his death.
Aldrich died in office on March 10, 1924 and is interred at Ulysses Cemetery in Ulysses, Nebraska. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a Freemason and a Knight Templar.