Ephraim Willard Burr (1809–1894) was an American businessman, banker, and politician. He served as the 8th mayor of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, from 1856 to 1859.

Early life

Burr was born on March 7, 1809, in Warren, Rhode Island. He was a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

. As a young man, he worked for a

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

company which sent him west. After losing his crew while docked in San Francisco—many sailors were lured away by the prospect of finding gold during the

Gold Rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...

—Burr stayed put and opened a grocery store. His family moved to California to be with him. The venture proved so successful that he opened California's first savings union, the San Francisco Accumulating Fund Association.

Politics

He entered politics in 1855 when he petitioned the

San Francisco Common Council The San Francisco Common Council was the predecessor of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The common council was made up of the Board of Aldermen and the Board of Assistant Aldermen, each composed of one member elected from each of the city' ...

to curb open-stream pollution caused by local slaughterhouses. Burr stated that the pollution caused cholera to enter the streams, causing three deaths—including that of his son.

Mayor of San Francisco

Burr was soon noticed by the Vigilante movement, who recommended him as the People's Party candidate for mayor. He was elected mayor on November 4, 1856, and took office on November 15 of that year. The Consolidated Act of 1856 had recently passed, where San Francisco merged the city and county government. Burr entered office under this new city charter, that significantly weakened his powers. However, this restriction did not stop him from cutting city spending. Nor did this loss of authority stop Burr from reforming the Office of City Treasurer; he changed the salary from a percentage of the city receipts to a fixed wage to stop graft. He also proposed a plan to make the San Francisco Board of Supervisors overlords of the city debt, and to make the city attorney the overseer of the city's legal matters, which were previously handled by outside attorneys.

Retirement

After leaving office, Burr devoted himself to business interests. His primary one was the Savings and Loan Society, which he became president of 1857, while he was mayor. He was also president of the San Francisco Fire Insurance Company from 1861 to 1866.

Final appearance and death

He would make his final public appearance in 1891 when the Board of Supervisors sought to extend Van Ness Avenue to the San Francisco Bay. He wanted to stop the expansion since the extended route went through his property. He died in San Francisco on July 20, 1894. His estate was valued at six million dollars.Online Archive of California
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Legacy

Burr had loaned $30,000 to build the now-famous San Francisco cable car system, before retiring in 1879. He also built the Burr Mansion in 1875 for his son, which is a

San Francisco Designated Landmark This is a list of San Francisco Designated Landmarks. In 1967, the city of San Francisco, California adopted Article 10 of the Planning Code, providing the city with the authority to designate and protect landmarks from inappropriate alterations. ...

and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. Allyne Park located at corner of Green Street and

Gough Street Gough Street ( Chinese: 歌賦街) is a street on Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, just north of the Soho area of Central. It is connected to Shing Wong Street to the west and Aberdeen Street to the east. The street is informally referred to as "NoHo", north ...

(next to the

McElroy Octagon House The McElroy Octagon House, also known as the Colonial Dames Octagon House, is a historic octagonal house now located at 2645 Gough Street at Union Street in the Cow Hollow neighborhood of San Francisco, California. It is listed as a San Franc ...

) in San Francisco, was named for the house owned by oil magnate John Winslow Allyne and his wife Mary Newell Allyne (née Burr), who was Burr's daughter. Around 1963, the Allyne house was donated to the city which tore down the house and created the park.

References

Sources

* Heintz, William F., ''San Francisco's Mayors: 1850-1880. From the Gold Rush to the Silver Bonanza''. Woodside, CA: Gilbert Roberts Publications, 1975. (Library of Congress Card No. 75-17094)