1869 Chicago mayoral election explained

Election Name:1869 Chicago mayoral election
Type:presidential
Ongoing:no
Previous Year:1867
Next Year:1871
Election Date:November 2, 1869[1]
Image1:File:Rosewellmason (1).jpeg
Nominee1:Roswell B. Mason
Party1:Citizens Party
Popular Vote1:19,826
Percentage1:63.47%
Nominee2:George W. Gage
Party2:Republican
Popular Vote2:11,410
Percentage2:36.53%
Mayor
Before Election:John B. Rice
Before Party:Republican
After Election:Roswell B. Mason
After Party:Citizens Party
Party Name:no

In the Chicago mayoral election of 1869, Citizens Party nominee Roswell B. Mason defeated Republican nominee George W. Gage by a landslide 27-point margin.

This was the last mayoral election before the Great Chicago Fire took place.

Citizens Party candidate Mason was an executive in the Illinois Central Railroad. Republican Party candidate Gage was a businessman who operated the Tremont House and Sherman House hotels.

The Citizens Reform ticket was a nonpartisan reform slate which aimed to challenge the power of German Republican political boss Anton C. Hesing.[2]

Aftermath

Mason would only serve a single term as mayor. Gage would go on to serve as the president of the Chicago White Stockings baseball team (today's Chicago Cubs) and serve as Chicago's South Parks Commissioner[3] (during which time he commissioned a park which would subsequently bear his name).

Notes and References

  1. https://flps.newberry.org/article/5418474_4_1190 Republican Ticket Election Tuesday, November 2, 1869
  2. Book: Schneirov . Richard . Labor and Urban Politics: Class Conflict and the Origins of Modern Liberalism in Chicago, 1864-97 . 1998 . University of Illinois Press . 978-0-252-06676-4 . 49 . 17 May 2020 . en.
  3. https://books.google.com/books?id=849LAQAAMAAJ&dq Annual Report of the South Park Commissioners, 1873