Paul O. Husting, lawyer, liberal Democratic Wisconsin state legislator and United States senator, was born at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, on 25 April 1866. He was the son of John P. Husting and Mary M. (Juneau) Husting, the latter being the thirteenth of Solomon Juneau's sixteen children. Husting's father emigrated from the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg to the United States in 1855.
In 1876 Husting moved with his parents to Mayville, Wisconsin, where he received a common school education. At the age of 17 he became a clerk in a general store and later a railway postal clerk, mailing clerk in the Wisconsin state prison, and assistant bookkeeper in the office of the Wisconsin Secretary of State under T.J. Cunningham. He entered the University of Wisconsin Law School and in 1895 passed the state bar examination and was admitted to the bar. Subsequently he practiced law at Mayville. In 1897 Husting associated himself with C.W. Lamoreux until the latter was elected county judge for Dodge County, at which time the law firm of Husting & Brother was formed.
Husting was elected district attorney of Dodge County in 1902, and again in 1904. He was elected to the state senate in 1906 and was reelected in 1910. As a state senator, he championed the conservation of the state's natural resources, income tax, the two-cent railroad fare, initiative and referendum, the election of United States senators by direct vote, and laws to improve conditions of workers. He offered the original resolution to investigate, and assisted in the investigation of, the primary and general election of 1908, which resulted in the enactment of the Corrupt Practices Act.
In November 1914, Husting became the first United States senator from Wisconsin to be elected by a direct vote of the people when he defeated ex-Governor F.E. McGovern. On 4 March 1915 Husting took the seat previously held by Isaac Stephenson. During his term of office, he continued to express concern over the conservation of natural resources and spearheaded opposition to Shield's Waterpower Bill. He also received a degree of national publicity when he exposed a propaganda plot at the American Embargo Conference in Chicago. On 21 October 1917, however, his career was cut short when he was killed in a hunting accident in Wisconsin.
Sources: Wisconsin Blue Book, 1917, p.495; Dictionary of American Biography, v.9. p.453; New York Times, 22 October 1917.
