Home > Jeremiah McLain Rusk

After the Civil War, he became a congressman and then resigned to run for Governor of Wisconsin, an election he won. His most noted act during his governorship was when he sent the National Guard into Milwaukee to keep the peace during the Great May Labor Strikes of 1886. The strikers had shut down every business in the city except the Bay View Rolling Mills . The guardsmen's orders were that if the strikers were to enter the Mills that they should shoot to kill. But when the captain received the order it had a different meaning and he ordered his men to pick out a man and shoot to kill when the order is given. Several people were killed and Governor Rusk took the majority of the blame.

In 1889 he resigned his governorship and accepted the new cabinet position of Secretary of AgricultureThe United States Secretary of Agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture concerned with land and food as well as agriculture and rural development''. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet. The department include in the Benjamin HarrisonAlternative meaning: Benjamin Harrison V Benjamin Harrison Order 23rd President Term of Office March 4, 1889 March 4, 1893 Followed Grover Cleveland Succeeded by Grover Cleveland Date of Birth August 20, 1833 Place of Birth North Bend. Ohio Date of Death administration.