Mayors of Chicago

William Butler Ogden

Although Ogden's first impression of Chicago was poor, he came to appreciate the fledgling city. During his term in office, the land rush which had brought him to the Midwest went bust, but Ogden managed to help the city weather the storm. He designed the first swing bridge over the river and donated the land for Rush Medical Center. Ogden built the first railroad from Chicago in 1848. The Galena & Chicago Railroad ran from Chicago to a point ten miles west of town. Several railroads later, Ogden Flats, UT, where the Golden Spike was driven, was named for William Ogden.On October 8, 1871, Ogden lost most of his possessions in the Great Chicago Fire. He also owned a lumber company in Peshtigo, WI, which burned the same day. In 1860, Ogden switched to the Republican party, which shared his views regarding slavery, although he left the party over a dispute with Abraham Lincoln. Ogden felt that the Emancipation Proclamation was premature. Following his defection from the Republican party, Ogden retired from politics and moved back to his native New York.

Buckner Stith Morris

Benjamin Wright Raymond

Alexander Lloyd

Francis Cornwall Sherman

Augustus Garrett

Alson Sherman

John Putnam Chapin

James Curtiss

James Hutchinson Woodworth

Walter S. Gurnee

Charles McNeill Gray

Isaac Lawrence Milliken

Levi Day Boone

Thomas Dyer

Thomas Dyer's inaugural parade included several of the city's prostitutes riding behind him in open carriages.

"Long" John Wentworth

Chicago's answer to William Taft, Long John Wentworth weighed more than 300 pounds. He drank at least a pint of whiskey each day and would eat from 30-40 different foods during a single meal. He was an editor of Chicago's first newspaper, the Chicago Democrat and eventually entered politics, serving for 6 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. While in the House, a controversial vote arose by which Wisconsin claimed land in Illinois as far as the tip of Lake Michigan. If Wentworth voted to give the land, including Chicago, to Wisconsin, he was promised a Senate seat. Wentworth declined the offer. Wentworth instituted chain gangs in the city and tried to clean up the city's morals. To do this, he hired spies to determine who was frequenting Chicago's brothels. In 1857, Wentworth led a raid on the Sands, Chicago's Red Light District, which resulted in the burning of the area.

John Charles Haines

Julian Sidney Rumsey

John Blake Rice

John Rice built Chicago's first theater in 1847. During a performance in 1850, a panic nearly started when word spread that the theater was on fire. Rice stepped onto the stage and calmed the crowd, explaining he would never let his theater burn. As the crowd calmed, an usher informed Rice that the theater was actually on fire and panic finally occured. The theater burned to the ground. Rice replaced Rice's Theater in 1851. In 1867, Rice's veto of a bill to enact an 8-hour work day led to the first May Day Celebration as a day for the working classes.

Roswell B. Mason

Joseph Medill

Joseph P. Medill is better known as the business manager and managing editor of the Chicago Tribune than as mayor of Chicago, although his term in office occured during two of the most important years of the city's history as Chicago tried to rebuild in the aftermath of the fire. During the Civil War, Medill's great journalistic enemy was The Chicago Times, run by Cyrus McCormick. Eventually McCormick's nephew married Medill's daughter. Strongly supportive of Abraham Lincoln, the Tribune was instrumental in his nomination for the Presidency. Medill was a racist who opposed slavery. In one editorial, Medill espoused putting strychnine or arsenic in the food of unemloyed citizens. As mayor, Medill gained more power for the mayor's office, created Chicago's first public library, enforced blue laws and reformed the police and fire department. In ill health and tiring of mayoral responsibilities, Medill took a leave of absence and appointed Lester L. Bond as acting mayor while he traveled throughout Europe.

Harvey Doolittle Colvin

Monroe Heath

Carter Henry Harrison, Sr.

Originally from Kentucky, Carter Harrison came to Chicago because he saw it as a land of opportunity. As mayor, he believed that Chicagoans two major desires were to make money and to spend it. During his administrations, Chicago's vice districts blossomed and special maps were printed to enable tourists to find their way from brothel to brothel. One Chicago saloon-keeper of the time's name entered the English language. . . Mickey Finn. The night of the Haymarket Riots, Harrison walked unmolested through the crowd of anarchists and advised the police to leave the demonstrators alone. The riot was sparked by a policeman whoo disobeyed Harrison's directive. Harrison was re-elected in time for the World Columbian Exposition in 1893. His desire was to show the world the true Chicago and he appointed 1st Ward Alderman "Bathhouse" John Coughlin to sit on the reception committee. On October 28, 1893, three days before the close of the Exposition, Harrison was murdered in his home by Patrick Eugene Prendergast, a disgruntled office seeker. Prendergast was hanged on July 13, 1894.

John A. Roche

Dewitt Clinton Cregier

Hempstead Washburne

George Bell Swift

John Patrick Hopkins

Carter Henry Harrison, Jr.

Carter Harrison, Jr. was the first mayor who was born in the city of Chicago. Educated in Saxe-Altenburg, Germany, Harrison returned to Chicago to help his brother run the Chicago Times, which their father bought in 1891. Like his father, Harrison did not believe in trying to legislate morality. However, Harrison was seen as more of a reformer than his father wi=hich helped him garner the middle class votes his father had lacked. One of Harrison's biggest enemies was Charles Yerkes, whose plans to monopolize Chicago's streetcar lines were vigorously attacked by the mayor. During his final term in office, Harrison closed down the infamous Everleigh Club.

Edward FitzSimmons Dunne

In 1905, acting on the advice of Margaret Haley, a labor activist, Dunne appointed one of the most progressive school boards in Chicago's history, consisting of an unprecedented number of women.

Fred A. Busse

Busse is the mayor who, in 1909, curtailed the Annual 1st Ward Ball held by 1st Ward aldermen "Bathhouse" John Coughlin and Michael "Hinkydink" Kenna.

William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson

Big Bill Thompson is the last Republican to serve as mayor of Chicago. Upon Thompson's death, two safe deposit boxes in his name were discovered to contain nearly $1.5 million in cash. Thompson was born in Boston, but his family moved to Chicago when he was only nine days old. Instead of college, he traveled in Europe and then took up ranching in Texas and New Mexico, returning to Chicago in 1892 after his father's death. Early in his political career, Thompson began to amass a war chest to support an eventual run for the Presidency by charging city drivers and inspectors $3 per month. After being defeated in 1923, Big Bill organized a "scientific" expedition to search for tree-climbing fish in the South Seas. In 1927, Al Capone's support of Thompson allowed the man to return to the mayor's office. Pledging to clean up Chicago and remove the crooks, Thompson turned his attention to the reformers, who he saw as the real criminals. According to Thompson, at this time the biggest enemy the United States had was King George V of England. Thompson promised his supporters that if they ever met, Thompson would punch the King in the nose. During this final term in office, the "Pineapple Primary" occured (April 10, 1928), so called because of the bombs used to intimidate politicans. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre also took place while Thompson was mayor.

William Emmett Dever

Anton Joseph Cermak

Anton Cermak began his political career as a precinct captain and in 1902 was elected to the Illinois state legislature. Seven years later, he would take his place as alderman for the 12th Ward. Once elected mayor, in 1931, Cermak treated the city as if it were a personal business and tried to provide the best service possible. He was so popular that anyone who went up against him was achieving their own political death. While riding next to President-elect Franklin Roosevelt in Miami, Cermak was killed when Giuseppe Zangara tried to assassinate Roosevelt and hit Cermak instead.

Frank J. Corr

Edward Joseph Kelly

When Edward J. Kelly served as President of the South Park Board, many improvement happened in that part of the city, ranging from the Adler Planetarium and Shedd Aquarium to Soldier Field and Buckingham Fountain. When Anton Cermak was killed by Giuseppe Zangara in 1933, Cook County Democratic Chariman Pat Nash chose Kelly, who had never held an elected office, as Cermak's successor. When the Depression almost forced closure of the public schools, Kelly cut all non-essential programs and cut teachers' pay by 25%. Kelly turned Chicago into a well run machine. In order to acquire the money necessary for the various public services, however, the city had to turn to organized crime, which put nearly $20 million a year into the city's coffers. Another major source of income was the Roosevelt Whtie House. Prior to Kelly's administration, most Chicago blacks voted Republican. Kelly arranged for the police to be less harsh on blacks and supported school integration and open housing. After Pat Nash's death in 1943, Kelly began to lose control over the city and the party leaders eventually replaced him with another Bridgeportian, Martin H. Kennelly.

Martin H. Kennelly

Martin H. Kennelly's father died when he was only 2. When he was 13, he began working as a stockboy for Marshall Fields, eventually leaving to attend de La Salle Institute. After World War I, Kennelly formed a storage and hauling company. His first contrract was to move exhibits from the Field Museum to the Natural History Museum. By 1923, he had one of the largest operations in the Midwest. In 1947, he was chosen by the Democrats to replace the scandal-ridden Ed Kelly. Kennelly agreed to run only if given a free hand. The machine politicians agreed to his demand. One elected mayor, Kennelly created a centralized purchasing office and backed the Civil Servive Commission against the Machine bosses. Every top ranking police officer who was in place when Kennelly took office either quit, was fired or demoted. When he was re-elected, he was sworn in by County Clerk Richard J. Daley. Four years later, the machine would put Daley up against Kennelly

Richard Joseph Daley

Daley was Chicago's third mayor from Bridgeport in a row. He served longer than any other person as the mayor of Chicago. According to Chicago folksinger Steve Goodman, no man "could inspire more love, more hate." Known to the world as a Democrat, Daley's first elected position was as a Republican member of the Illinois legislature. When Republican David Shanahan died, Daley switched parties long enough to be elected to serve out his term and, immediately after the election, returned to the Democratic party. Daley suffered his only political defeat in 1946 when he lost a bid to become Cook County sheriff. Known for party politics, Kennedy was instrumental in electing John F. Kennedy in 1960. Major construction during his terms in office resulted in O'Hare, the Sears Tower, McCormick Place and other Chicago landmarks. 1968 was a bad year for Daley, between his order to shoot to kill rioters in the aftermath of Martni Luther King, Jr.'s assassination and the riots which occured during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Despite revisionism, most of Chicago supported Daley's actions during the DNC. 1968 is when Daley uttered one of his most memorable phrases, "Gentlemen, get the thing straight, once and for all: the policeman isn't there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder."

Michael Anthony Bilandic

Jane Margaret Byrne

Jane Byrne first enterred politics to help John Kennedy get elected President. It was at that time that she first met Mayor Daley, who, in 1968, appointed her head of consumer affairs in Chicago, a post she would hold until fired by Mike Bilandic in 1977. Byrne used her firing to launch an attack on Bilandic in the 1978 mayoral primary. Although most people gave her little chance of winning, a series of freak snowstorms in January which paralyzed the city, gave her the edge she needed since Bilandic was seen as not being able to keep the city working. As mayor, Jane Byrne moved, amidst much publicity, into the Cabrini Green Housing Projects as part of a plan to eradicate crime in the area. She also hired her husband as a consultant, for $1/year.

Harold Washington

Chicago's first Black mayor, Harold Washington was able to win the primary because Jane Byrne and Richard M. Daley split the white vote. Under any other conditions, Washington probably would not have had a chance at the Mayor's office. He was divorced, a convicted tax dodger, and a lawyer who had been disbarred for cheating his clients. His first term in office was characterised by Council Wars, in which Washington had to fight the white-held City Council, led by "Fast Eddie" Vrdolyak. In one famous comment on the wars, Washington declared that he held a majority, despite the fact that his faction numbered only 21 as opposed to Vrdolyak's 29 members. His second term when smoother and saw Vrdolyak's political clout decrease when the Alderman left the Democratic party. On November 25, 1987, Harold Washington died of a heart attack in his office.

David Duvall Orr

Eugene Sawyer

Richard Michael Daley