James Frederick Stark is the earliest Ungovernor who was a Washington State native. Not that that made any difference on Election Day, 1928.

He was born June 15, 1872 (some sources have 1871 or 1873) in the White River Valley area outside of Seattle. He was one of the youngest children in the large family of James Rice Stark (1831-1903) and Elizabeth Lydia (Clark) Stark (1843-1922).

According to historian Clyde M. Senger, "Three Stark brothers came to America in colonial times from Wales but were originally from Scotland. They settled in Vermont and New Hampshire. One of these was General John Stark of Revolutionary fame. James Rice comes from this line. His grandfather, Abraham, went from Vermont to Virginia and on to Kentucky about the time of Daniel Boone. A short time later they moved to Indiana where his son Jesse served in the Blackhawk and other Indian wars. Jesse moved to Wisconsin in June 1849 and he and son James Rice started From Monroe WI for Oregon 3 April 1852. They crossed the Mississippi at Dubuque and Jesse was so pleased with the Iowa country he refused to continue. James and 2 of his sisters with their husbands continued. They arrived at the Willamette River opposite Portland 19 Oct 1852. Later, they moved on to near Roseburg where James helped to build the Umpqua Academy where he later became an instructor. Elizabeth Clark was one of his students."

Elizabeth's family had come to Oregon from Indiana in 1847. Her father, Jason Squires Clark, was also employed at Umpqua Academy as a "superintendent of classes."

James Rice Stark had converted to Methodism and "wherever he lived he was a staunch advocate of temperance." As Umpqua was a Methodist school, he was probably right at home. He married Elizabeth in Jan. 1864. Within a couple years the Starks and the Clarks moved up to the White River area, in what is now Auburn/Kent, Washington. This is where James F. Stark was born.

The Starks moved to Seattle around 1886, where James R. Stark "was involved in the fuel business." About 1893 the family had moved north, almost to the Canadian border, to the town of Lynden. James R. was a farmer and "superintendent of the Stickney Home Industrial Indian School."

How James F. Stark, the son, became involved with the Socialist Labor Party isn't known. His background would suggest he would've been more at home with the Prohibition Party, as many candidates from that party were either Protestant ministers or educators. When Stark was nominated by the SLP in 1928, the announcement merely said "Mr. Stark has been an active worker in the party for a number of years."

James F. appears to have lived all of his life in Washington State-- except for one period of time, in 1910, when he was working in Silver Lake, Oregon as a farmer. He settled into the occupation of welldriller in Lynden. Stark never married and seems have lived with his sisters for most of his adult life.

One major handicap in researching campaigns for SLP candidates is that the Party was too small to support their own newspaper. Most newspapers simply ignored the SLP altogether. Fortunately, given Mr. Stark's standing in his local community, the Lynden Tribune (the paper endorsed Democrat Scott Bullitt) gave their home guy some ink. What follows is a very rare public statement by a SLP Ungovernor-- a bit difficult to follow at places but interesting in the almost religious vocabulary it takes in the later half. From the Lynden Tribune Sept. 20, 1928:

Stark Outlines Party's Policies

Establishment Of Industrial Republic of Labor Is Hope Of Lynden Nominee For Governor

"James Stark of Lynden, Socialist-Labor nominee for governor of Washington, sent the following letter of acceptance this week to the central committee of the party."

"The letter of acceptance follows."

"To the Socialist Labor Party of the State of Washington; also the Laboring Class in general:"

"Greetings."

"In accepting the nomination for governor of this state by the Socialist Labor Party, I take it to be my duty to declare briefly, the main cause that impels said organization to a departure from the regulation line of political thought and action."

"For example, I recall a few years ago, an uncle of mine-- a profound Republican, as Republicans go-- innocently asking me: 'What is the issue of your party this campaign?'"

"This display of enlightenment(?) and very abrupt introduction to the fundamental difference between bourgeois and socialist thinking, nearly jarred me off my feet. But finally I managed to reply that we were still trying to capture and abolish, the capitalist political state and establish in its place, The Industrial Republic of Labor."

"Further, that we deny the permanency of all social orders and point to the historic fact of their coming and going; that their disappearance is as inevitable as their appearance; and that hence our programme of Revolution is at loggerheads with the bourgeois programme of reform."

"That all organizations eventually reach a point of decadence where patching and doping can no longer stead."

"That the class state that 'began with the crack of a slavedriver's whip' gives abundant evidence of having far outlived its usefulness in industrially advanced parts of the world."

"At this juncture it was uncle's turn to be jarred and when he came to, his mouth was full of hot interrogation."

"He turned to me with 'Do you socialists propose to overthrow constituted authority?'"

"I braced myself and said, 'Yes, that is exactly what the founders of this government did, after which they proceeded to formulate a constitution which legalized revolution.'"

"'Furthermore, that another revolutionist, in a later day, by the name of Abraham Lincoln, declared said clause to be one of our constitution's most valuable features; for it makes practicable a peaceful revolution.'"

"Now what made all this difference in our sociological thinking? Nothing else than the recognition by we erstwhile Republicans and Democrats, of the class character of capitalist society. And how did that come about? It came about as the result of a little more research into human history and social science, super-induced by our unduly hard lot in life. We had been driven to investigate Marx et al supplemented by Morgan et al."

"And this tendency once started, is bound to increase and spread just as long as its prime cause-- capitalist pressure-- continues."

"Among other things, the Socialist Labor Party is in the field to make it wholly inexcusable for any man or woman to go to the polls in November, vote for what they do not want, and 'lose their vote' by getting it."

"Those who persist in disparaging the use of the ballot as ineffectual, are generally found to be of that numerous host who never had the economic gumption or courage to avail themselves of any but the ballots of strong reaction and weak reform."

"Workers, wake up! Assert yourselves by voting for your own class interest for awhile! And see whether or not it will avail you anything! Labor has never yet given the ballot a fair trial. Those who flunk their political duty can hardly be trusted to do their whole duty in a union that is to be the nucleus of the coming society. When Labor's lot becomes so hard as to force it to investigate the literature of the Socialist Labor Party, then will our great deliverance be close at hand."

"Our triune slogan is: Agitate, educate, organize! The ruling class calls upon us to desist while at the same time they themselves are evolution's most active factors in creating a condition of affairs wherein it is utterly impossible to desist."

"Always and ever proletarian revolt is the direct result of ruling-class oppression; the more so in parts of the world where the general enlightenment is relatively high."

"The sequence of events bids us take courage. 'The stars in their courses are with us,' and out of the chrysalis of the defunct political state shall arise, in that true majesty born of travail, The Industrial Republic of Labor."

"Speed the day!"

On Election Day Stark placed third out of five with 3,343 votes (0.67%). It was a victory of sorts, as the SLP had usually been the little guy with the flat shovel at the end of the percentage parade in almost every gubernatorial election. They hadn't really gained any new converts, their rise in rank was due to the collapse of the rival Socialist Party and the ability of the mainstream parties to absorb progressive reforms into their platforms. Two-thirds of Stark's vote came from King County (2,080), but he also did well in Pierce, Snohomish, Spokane, and his home Whatcom counties. And by "did well" I mean he gained votes in the range of 135 to 262.

James F. Stark lived the rest of his life in Lynden, a town once known for having the most churches per square mile. He died Feb. 3, 1943, age 70, in a Bellingham hospital "following an illness of several weeks duration." His obituary erroneously states he ran twice for Governor, but also adds he was "a man well versed on political and economic topics." He is buried in the Lynden Cemetery.