Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker (April 9, 1843 – September 2, 1916) was an American judge and politician who served as the 23rd governor of Pennsylvania from 1903 to 1907. A judge assigned to Pennsylvania's Court of Common Pleas system prior to his election as governor, he also researched and wrote about Pennsylvania history.
Biography
Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker was born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, on April 9, 1843. He was the son of Anna Maria (née Whitaker) and Isaac Anderson Pennypacker, and the grandson of Matthias Pennypacker and Sarah Anderson (daughter of Isaac Anderson), and of Joseph and Grace Whitaker. He was the nephew of Matthias J. Pennypacker and a cousin of Galusha Pennypacker. He and his grandfather Whitaker witnessed Abraham Lincoln's speech outside Independence Hall in February 1861, standing away. He received his education at the Grovemont Seminary at Phoenixville and at the West Philadelphia Institute. The family emigrated from Germany to Pennsylvania in 1699 with his great-great-great-grandfather Hendrick Pannebecker (aka Pfannebecker; 1674–1754). Abraham op den Graeff, an early abolitionist and signer of the first organized religious protest against slavery in colonial America in 1688, was his fourth great-grandfather.
From 1876 to 1888, he was reporter-in-chief for the Court of Common Pleas No. 3. In 1902, he soundly defeated Robert Pattison, who was seeking a third nonconsecutive term as governor, from January 20, 1903, to January 15, 1907. During his term in office, Pennypacker signed into law the Child Labor Act of 1905; setting a minimum age and standard for young workers. He created the Pennsylvania State Police and the State Museum, and oversaw the completion of the new state capitol building. He led a war on the easy divorce system of Pennsylvania.
He also signed the Salus-Grady libel law, requiring newspapers to print the names of their owners and editors and making them responsible for negligence.
thumb|"Polly Got a Cracker" by Charles Nolan, Philadelphia North American, May 16, 1903
In 1906, Pennypacker vetoed what would have been the first compulsory sterilization law in the United States. At the time of the veto, Pennypacker stated:
<blockquote>It is plain that the safest and most effective method of preventing procreation would be to cut the heads off the inmates, and such authority is given by the bill to this staff of scientific experts...Scientists like all men whose experiences have been limited to one pursuit...sometimes need to be restrained. Men of high scientific attainments are prone...to lose sight of broad principles outside of their domain...To permit such an operation would be to inflict cruelty upon a helpless class...which the state has undertaken to protect..."</blockquote>
thumb|upright=1.2|Pennypacker Mills
During his time in office, Pennypacker made his home in Schwenksville at Pennypacker Mills, a farm and mansion that eight generations of Pennypackers lived in before it was eventually donated to Montgomery County and is now a historic park. He also used Moore Hall as a summer home.
Pennypacker was later president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and held positions of honor in various German and Netherlandish societies.