Category: City Managers Political Bosses 1920’s

Garrett A. Morgan Biography

from the Ohio Historical Journal

Garrett Augustus Morgan was born on March 4, 1877, in Paris, Kentucky. He attended elementary school in Kentucky, but he spent most of his time working on his parents’ farm. His parents were former slaves. As a teenager, Morgan moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he hired a personal tutor and worked different jobs to support himself.

In 1895, Morgan moved to Cleveland, Ohio. He took a position as a sewing-machine repairman. Twelve years later, Morgan had accumulated enough money to begin his own sewing machine-repair business. Over the next several years, Morgan expanded his business interests to include a tailoring establishment, a personal-grooming products company, and also a newspaper, the Cleveland Call. By 1920, Morgan had become a wealthy man with dozens of workers in his employ.

Morgan was always interested in inventions. His tailoring business was equipped with machines that he personally designed. During the 1910s and 1920s, Morgan continued to invent new items. Most of these items were to improve safety on the streets and in the workplace. Morgan was most famous for patenting the first traffic signal in the United States. Morgan, himself an automobile owner, witnessed a crash between a car and a buggy. This event supposedly convinced the inventor to create the stoplight. On November 20, 1923, Morgan received his patent. His traffic signal was mounted on a T-shaped pole. It had three different types of signals stop, go, and stop in all directions. The stop in all directions signal was to allow pedestrians to cross streets safely. Morgan eventually patented this device in Canada and Great Britain as well. He sold his patent to General Electric Corporation for forty thousand dollars.

Morgan also invented numerous other products. In 1916, he patented his version of the gas mask. Morgan demonstrated his superior design when a group of miners were trapped in a shaft under Lake Erie. He immediately received orders for his product from fire departments and mine owners across the United States and Europe. The United States Army also utilized a slightly redesigned Morgan gas mask during World War I. In addition to the traffic signal and the gas mask, Morgan also invented a zigzag stitching device for manually-operated sewing machines.

For more on Garrett Morgan, click here

 

Walter Burr Gongwer

From the Encyclopedia of Cleveland history.

The link is here

GONGWER, W. BURR (1873-28 Sept. 1948), Democratic party boss for 35 years, was born near Mansfield, Ohio, the son of Louis and Irena Gonger. He began as a journalist there before coming to Cleveland in 1899 as political reporter for the PLAIN DEALER. In 1900 he interviewed Democrat mayoral candidate TOM JOHNSON†. They became friends, and Mayor Johnson made Gongwer his secretary although Gongwer was a Republican. Johnson so inspired Gongwer that he turned Democrat and, as Johnson’s secretary for 8 years, Gongwer began gaining power as he was entrusted with party details, including patronage distribution.

Gongwer became deputy clerk of the Board of Elections in 1910 and chief clerk 2 years later. From 1915-21, he was collector of customs. With Johnson’s death, party leadership passed to NEWTON D. BAKER†, but he gradually relinquished party duties to Gongwer, his chief lieutenant, until Gongwer was practically party boss by 1915 although he didn’t become executive committee chairman until 1924. In the 1920s, when the Democrats were weak, Gongwer kept the party alive by implementing the “60-40 deal,” allowing Democrats a portion of jobs under the Republican-controlled, CITY MANAGER PLAN. In the early 1930s, Gongwer produce Democratic victories and ruled one of the strongest political organizations in Cleveland’s history. However, a 5-year internal debate between Gongwer, MARTIN SWEENEY†, and ROBT. BULKLEY† again debilitated the party. Gongwer lost his position to RAY MILLER† in 1940, retired from politics, and spent his remaining years in the insurance business he established in the 1920s.

Gongwer and his wife, Nona Cappeller, had a daughter, Dorothy. He died in Cleveland and was buried in Mansfield, Ohio.

“Maurice Maschke Memoirs” Plain Dealer Series August, 1934

Multiple part series that ran in Plain Dealer February 2 through March 14, 1934

The Plain Dealer during this period was a strongly Democratic newspaper, so its interesting that they provided this platform for Republican “Boss” Maschke to tell his side of the story

Each part is a pdf file, approximately 8mg in size, so be patient

(Some are difficult to read)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

 

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