We nearly had a Governor Snively.

Washington State's 2nd gubernatorial contest in 1892 was a three-way race: John Harte McGraw (Republican), Henry Joseph Snively (Democrat), and Cyrus W. Young (Populist) all had the potential to win. Prohibition Party candidate Roger S. Greene could've easily been a spoiler. Unlike the 1889 election for Governor, this one turned very nasty and really came down to a fight between King and Pierce counties.

Henry Joseph Snively was born Aug. 17, 1856 in Virginia. His father, a German immigrant, was a contractor and builder. It appears his family lived in the part of the state that split off and formed West Virginia during the Civil War.

Snively earned his law degree in 1879 and plied his legal trade in West Virginia for seven years. In 1886 he relocated to North Yakima, where he was promptly elected to the position of district attorney for the district of Yakima and Kittitas counties. In 1889 he was on the Democratic ticket with Eugene Semple, running for the opportunity to be the first Washington State Attorney General, but he lost to William Carey Jones, 58-42%. In 1890, he was elected to the Washington State Legislature.

In Yakima he enjoyed a reputation as an able attorney. "He is recognized as one of the distinguished and eminent members of the bar of central Washington. As a lawyer he is sound, clear-minded and well trained, felicitous and clear in argument, thoroughly in earnest, full of the vigor of conviction, never abusive of his adversaries and imbued with the highest courtesy and yet a foe worthy of the steel of the most able opponent" (History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, 1919). As District Attorney he had sided with Roslyn miners against the Pinkertons in 1889, gaining labor support. He also earned the backing of farmers by leading a fight to pass a freight-rate regulation bill in 1891. Territorial Governor Semple appointed Snively to the Territorial Code Commission in 1887.

The creation of ship canal from Lake Washington to Puget Sound was a major issue in the 1892 campaign. The King County-based McGraw and Republicans were behind the project (McGraw and other Seattle businessmen had invested in land at the lake), although a few disaffected party members left for the Populists. The Democrats were split on the issue, the anti-canal faction being led by Pierce County. The Populists stayed out of the controversy altogether. The New York Times described the 1892 Democratic state convention as, "so demoralized by the fight on the canal that to find candidates was hard work. Half a dozen of those in the field withdrew, and in only one or two instances was there any contest. The platform has a revenue-reform plank urging the imposition of taxes upon luxuries rather than upon necessities. A resolution for free silver was incorporated without opposition."

One rare contest at the convention was picking a candidate for Governor. Pro-canalites Daniel Gilman and Thomas Burke backed Seattle labor leader James Hamilton Lewis. But Tacoma Democrat Hugh Wallace opposed them and was able to write the internal improvements plank. Lewis withdrew in favor of 36 year-old Henry J. Snively. Burke and Gilman in turn endorsed John McGraw.

The campaign turned nasty as election day neared. As the New York Times reported: "The first national election in which Washington takes part as a State will be characterized by a bitterness such as could hardly be surpassed in a doubtful State on which the national result depended. Local rivalries and personal feeling have split both parties, and as doubt as to the outcome of the contest has grown in their minds, their fury has become so great that their two candidates for Governor stand accused of swindling and embezzlement in their former homes in the East. The Populists have at the same time developed such strength that they have added a new element of uncertainty to the situation."

The Seattle P-I, a pro-McGraw paper, published a story claiming that Snively ran away from West Virginia in the dead of night owing creditors thousands of dollars, and among the people he swindled were poor orphans. Snively denied all wrong-doing and theatened a lawsuit. The next day, the pro-Snively Tacoma Ledger published a parallel story about John McGraw's long list of swindled victims back in Maine. McGraw denied all wrong-doing.

Reports surfaced that the Democratic Party attempted to bargain with the Populists after the Snively charges. The Dems would withdraw Snively and the presidential electors if the Pops would withdraw their ticket for other state offices. It didn't go anywhere.

It was a bad year for the local Democrats. The Republicans took every statewide office. The Populists elected 8 legislators. Still, Snively ran ahead of his ticket, gaining a better percentage than other Washington State Democrats. The final result: McGraw 33,281 (37.01%), Snively 28,960 (32.20%), Young 23,750 (26.41%), and Greene 3,937 (4.38%).

Snively never ran for any elected office again. In 1897, Gov. Rogers appointed him to serve a term on the State Board of Control (which managed institutions), and when that ended so did his life in public service. He continued to practice law in Yakima. He was associated with the famous Ellensburg lynching case, where a father and son accused of murder were strung up by a mob in 1895. Some members of the lynch mob were tried on homicide charges, but with the help of Snively and other lawyers, they were all freed.

H.J. Snively died Nov. 17, 1930, aged 74, still an active attorney right up to the end. The front page obituaries called him the "dean of Yakima lawyers." He is buried Yakima's Tahoma Cemetery.