Admitted to practice law in Cleveland in 1878, Herrick joined the bank
Society for Savings as secretary and treasurer in 1886, and became the bank's president in 1894. From 1885 to 1888, Herrick was a member of the Cleveland City Council. This company, a predecessor of
Union Carbide,
Energizer, and
Eveready, would come to figure prominently in the history of the consumer
battery and the
flashlight. Herrick was a
Presidential elector in 1892 for
Harrison/
Reid. While governor-elect in 1902, Herrick gave $20,000 to the village of
Wellington, Ohio, to build the library now known as the Herrick Memorial Library. Herrick later bequeathed $70,000 for an addition. Herrick served as the governor of Ohio from 1904 to 1906; (future
United States President)
Warren G. Harding served as his
lieutenant governor. He had been a protégé of political boss
Mark Hanna, but in 1906 was defeated by the efforts of
Wayne Wheeler and the
Anti-Saloon League after he refused to support their plan for the prohibition of alcohol in Ohio. Herrick contributed to French-American amity before and during World War I. He was
United States Ambassador to France from 1912 to 1914 and again from 1921 to 1929. He is the only American ambassador to France with a street—an avenue—named after him in Paris, in the
8th arrondissement. As ambassador, Herrick hosted
Charles Lindbergh in Paris after his successful New York-to-Paris Atlantic crossing in 1927. '' cover, January 1928 Upon his return to the United States in 1914, Herrick's prominent role in helping Americans stranded by the outbreak of World War I led to discussion within the Republican Party of Herrick as a possible nominee in the upcoming
1916 presidential election. Herrick believed that his business background would prove a liability, and when his candidacy failed to gain traction, he tried and failed to defeat incumbent Democratic
Senator Atlee Pomerene in 1916. ==Death==