Frank Hamilton Short

Frank Hamilton Short (September 12, 1862 - June 5, 1920) was a Fresno, California, lawyer and a states' rights advocate within the early American Conservation movement.

Soon after Short's birth in Shelby County, Missouri, his father died from drinking poisoned water while engaged in the American Civil War.

After a brief stint as a school teacher in Ahwanee, California, Short was, at age 22, elected justice of the peace in Fresno County.

He was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in St. Louis, Missouri in 1896 and in Chicago, Illinois in 1904, where he was on the sub-committee that drafted the party platform.

[4] In 1911, he challenged former President Roosevelt at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, California, again on the issue of the Western States' rights to develop federal lands.

Frank H. Short was a well-known advocate of states' rights in the early 20th century.