Edward John Bedell, September 8, 1894 (Seymour, Ind.) - October, 1982 (Indianapolis?, Ind.)
VP candidate for Greenback Party (1952)
Running mate with nominee: Frederick C. Proehl (1880-1970)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/531
The campaign:
John Zahnd's personal political party continued to hang in there. The ticket for the 1952 election was announced quite early in the campaign, on Nov. 13, 1951.
Frederick C. Proehl, who would turn 72 during the election year, was described in 1952 as a "Seattle neighborhood grocer" but in 1956 he was reported as being located in Edmonds, Washington. Minnesota native Proehl had moved to Seattle during WWII and became a clerk and time-keeper at Boeing. He started a small grocery store around 1945, and it was there where the back room served as campaign headquarters.
His past experience in the banking business in Minnesota shaped his views concerning the Federal Reserve and banks in general, driving him to the Greenback Party ca. 1942.
No convention was held. Proehl was informed of his nomination by letter. "It was all a surprise to me," he told the newspapers, "National headquarters just wrote me I had been chosen." The Greenback Party "National headquarters" was actually John Zahnd's house in Indiana. Rather than be active in seeking votes, Proehl let the media come to him. Bedell apparently was not an energetic campaigner either. They were not on any ballots and any write-in votes they gained have not been recorded.
Election history: none
Other occupations: contractor, farmhand
Buried: Floral Park Cemetery (Indianapolis, Ind.)
Notes:
Lived in Tiskilwa, Ill. and worked on a farm in Indiantown, Ill. in 1917
Surname was Bedel but changed to Bedell after WWI.
Sometimes called J. Edward Bedell.
