Politician. At age 23 he was elected to the Executive Board of Rochester, he was briefly Mayor of Rochester, New York, in 1894, and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1895. He also ran unsuccessfully for Congress, the House of Representatives and New York State Governor. He was one of the most influential figures in Rochester history. Widely known and respectfully feared as "The Boss" and "The Big Fellow", he politically controlled the city of Rochester for over 40 years until his death despite holding no official position for most of that time. He was awarded the post of Collector of the Port of New York in 1921 by his great friend President Warren G. Harding. He was a periodic drunkard who unofficially spent many nights in jails on the Eastern Seeboard for drunk and disorderly behaviour, inadvertently set fire to or otherwise destroyed innumerable taverns and hotels from New York City to beyond Buffalo during his binges, and members of the US Senate from his hometown were frequently employed to quietly and diplomatically transport him back to his hometown in specially-chartered trains and cabs to lock him in rooms in respected hotels such as the Powers until he sobered up. Despite his excessive lifestyle, in Rochester he commanded one of the tightest and best-managed cities in the entire United States at that time, a feat which was commented on innumerable times by newspapers from coast to coast. He died of a heart attack in the middle of a round of golf at Oak Hill Country Club aged 66.
Politician. At age 23 he was elected to the Executive Board of Rochester, he was briefly Mayor of Rochester, New York, in 1894, and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1895. He also ran unsuccessfully for Congress, the House of Representatives and New York State Governor. He was one of the most influential figures in Rochester history. Widely known and respectfully feared as "The Boss" and "The Big Fellow", he politically controlled the city of Rochester for over 40 years until his death despite holding no official position for most of that time. He was awarded the post of Collector of the Port of New York in 1921 by his great friend President Warren G. Harding. He was a periodic drunkard who unofficially spent many nights in jails on the Eastern Seeboard for drunk and disorderly behaviour, inadvertently set fire to or otherwise destroyed innumerable taverns and hotels from New York City to beyond Buffalo during his binges, and members of the US Senate from his hometown were frequently employed to quietly and diplomatically transport him back to his hometown in specially-chartered trains and cabs to lock him in rooms in respected hotels such as the Powers until he sobered up. Despite his excessive lifestyle, in Rochester he commanded one of the tightest and best-managed cities in the entire United States at that time, a feat which was commented on innumerable times by newspapers from coast to coast. He died of a heart attack in the middle of a round of golf at Oak Hill Country Club aged 66.
Bio by: Mount Hope NY
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