Ernest Warner

Ernest Noble Warner (July 23, 1868 – July 8, 1930) was an American educator, lawyer, and progressive Republican politician. He served one term in the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing Madison. He was the son of Union Army colonel Clement Warner, and the grandfather of Wisconsin state senator Fred A. Risser. Warner Park in Madison is named after him.

Early life and education Warner was born on his parents' farm in Windsor, Wisconsin, on July 23, 1868, the son of Col. Clement Warner and Eliza Warner ( Noble). Clement Warner was at that time a state senator, and later served a term in the Assembly. Ernest attended the district public school. He graduated from Madison High School in 1885, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison's modern classics course in 1889. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1892. He served as floor leader for the Progressive faction of the Wisconsin Republican Assemblymen, shepherding through Progressive bills for civil service reform and for primary elections.

He did not run for re-election in 1906, and was succeeded in the Assembly by Democrat Elmore Elver.

Warner long continued in the practice of law, eventually forming a partnership with Fred E. Risser. Risser married Warner's daughter, Elizabeth, and served three terms in the State Senate as a member of the short-lived Wisconsin Progressive Party.

Personal life On July 5, 1894, he married Lillian Dale Baker, a classmate at Madison High School and also at the University of Wisconsin. Ernest Warner, who had been president of the Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association since 1912, died after an automobile accident in July 1930. Within two weeks of his death, the Ernest N. Warner Memorial Park Committee was formed to raise $20,000 to buy the beach that later became Warner Park as a memorial.