Bailey Gatzert (December 29, 1829 – April 19, 1893) was an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
politician and the eighth
mayor of Seattle
The Mayor of Seattle is the head of the executive branch of the city government of Seattle, Washington. The mayor is authorized by the city charter to enforce laws enacted by the Seattle City Council, as well as direct subordinate officers in ci ...
,
Washington, serving from 1875 to 1876. He was the first Jewish mayor of
Seattle, narrowly missing being the first Jewish mayor of a major American city (
Moses Bloom
Moses Bloom (1833 – June 14, 1893) was an American politician, member of both houses of the Iowa General Assembly, and mayor of Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Various publications name him as the first Jewish mayor of a major American city.
...
became mayor of
Iowa City, Iowa, in 1873). , he has been the only Jewish mayor of Seattle.
Gatzert was born in 1829 in
Darmstadt
Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...
, Germany, and emigrated to
Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez ( ) is the county seat of and only city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 14,520 (as of the 2020 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, N ...
, in 1849, coming west four years later.
In 1869 he opened a Seattle branch of
Schwabacher Brothers and Company, a hardware and general store he managed as partners with his brothers-in-law Abraham, Louis, and Sigmund Schwabacher.
In addition to being mayor, Gatzert was charter member of the
Seattle Chamber of Commerce, served on the
Seattle City Council 1872–1873 and 1877–1878 and was president of Puget Sound National Bank and Peoples Savings Bank.
He co-founded Washington's second synagogue (Seattle's first),
Ohaveth Shalom,
which opened in 1892. Washington's first synagogue was built in Spokane.
The famous sternwheeler
''Bailey Gatzert'' is named for him, as is an elementary school in Seattle.
[Ouchi, William G.; Segal, Lydia G. (2003)]
''Making schools work: a revolutionary plan to get your children the education they need''
New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 205, .
See also
*
Utilities of Seattle: Getzert's partnership in the Spring Hill Water Company
References
1893 deaths
Seattle City Council members
Mayors of Seattle
American bankers
Politicians from Darmstadt
German emigrants to the United States
Jewish American people in Washington (state) politics
Jewish mayors of places in the United States
19th-century German Jews
1829 births
19th-century American politicians
19th-century American businesspeople
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