Lowden, Frank Orren (1861–1943)

US lawyer and politician. A Republican, he served Illinois in the US House of Representatives (1906–11), where he worked to reform in the State Department. As governor of Illinois (1917–21), he created a state budget bureau and initiated other reforms. He retired to his farm outside Chicago and declined all offers by his fellow Republicans to run for or accept higher office, although he did campaign for measures beneficial to agriculture and improving public administration. During the Great Depression he favoured extensive federal aid to farmers.

Lowden was born near Sunrise City, Minnesota. He grew up in Iowa where he worked on a farm and taught school. Educated in Iowa and then Chicago, Illinois, he established a lucrative law practice in Chicago, married George Pullman's daughter, and began managing the Pullman railroad industries in 1897.