William Jay Gaynor (February 2, 1849 – September 10, 1913) was an American politician from
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, associated with the
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...
political machine
In the politics of Representative democracy, representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a hig ...
. He served as the 94th
mayor of the City of New York from 1910 to 1913, and previously as a
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
Justice from 1893 to 1909. As mayor he was noted as a reformer who broke ranks and refused to take orders from the Tammany boss
Charles Francis Murphy
Charles Francis "Silent Charlie" Murphy (June 20, 1858 – April 25, 1924), also known as Boss Murphy, was an American political figure. He was also the longest-serving head of New York City's Tammany Hall, a position he served from 1902 to 192 ...
.
Early life
Gaynor was born in
Oriskany, New York
Oriskany ( or ) is a village in Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 1,400 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from the Iroquois word for "nettles".
The Village of Oriskany is in the Town of Whitestown, southeast of th ...
, on February 2, 1849, to Keiron and Elizabeth (Handwright) Gaynor. He grew up on a farm with seven siblings. As a boy, he developed an interest in wandering the countryside where they lived, exploring nature and trying to figure out why things were the way they were.
He was a studious boy, a trait which his father encouraged. As he was on the clumsy side, when it came to farmwork, his brother Tom usually took on the heavier chores. For his education, he first attended the local public school, then was sent to the Whiteboro
Seminary
A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...
. The Gaynor family were
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
and devout
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
s, thus, when weather permitted, on Sundays they would head to the nearby city of
Utica to attend
Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
at St. John's Church on Bleecker Street. As William entered his
teenage
Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...
years, he began to show a religious fervor that led his parents to think that he might have a
vocation
A vocation () is an occupation to which a person is especially drawn or for which they are suited, trained or qualified. People can be given information about a new occupation through student orientation. Though now often used in non-religious co ...
to the Church. Both to test this, and for reasons of affordability, he was enrolled in the Assumption Academy in Utica. This was staffed by the
Brothers of the Christian Schools
french: Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes
, image = Signum Fidei.jpg
, image_size = 175px
, caption =
, abbreviation = FSC
, nickname = Lasallians
, named_after =
, formation ...
, who had recently come to the United States from
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
in 1848. William flourished in that school, and soon decided that he did indeed wish to become a member of their
religious congregation
A religious congregation is a type of religious institute in the Catholic Church. They are legally distinguished from religious orders – the other major type of religious institute – in that members take simple vows, whereas members of religio ...
.
In December 1863, he was sent to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to enter the
novitiate
The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...
of the congregation. This was located at 44 East 2nd Street. The date of birth he gave at his admission was February 2, 1848, thus he was still fifteen at the time he was received. He was given the
habit
A habit (or wont as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. of the institute, and named Brother Adrian Denys. He spent the next four years in this house, both in training and soon in teaching in nearby
parish school
A parochial school is a private primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathematics and language arts. The ...
s. In 1868, he was one of a group of Brothers chosen to be sent to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, 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 List of Ca ...
to take care of
St. Mary's College there. They sailed from New York on July 16, aboard the .
By this time, however, as well as the usual readings in
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
,
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
and the
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...
suggested to the Brothers, Gaynor had been reading and absorbing the reflection of a wide range of writers, mostly the ancient
Stoic
Stoic may refer to:
* An adherent of Stoicism; one whose moral quality is associated with that school of philosophy
*STOIC, a programming language
* ''Stoic'' (film), a 2009 film by Uwe Boll
* ''Stoic'' (mixtape), a 2012 mixtape by rapper T-Pain
*' ...
philosophers. One lifetime favorite which he found was the ''
Autobiography
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life.
It is a form of biography.
Definition
The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...
'' of
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
, where he found much that resonated with his own way of thinking. The book was to be his lifelong companion. As a result, however, by the time the small group of Brothers had arrived at their destination, Gaynor had lost his belief in organized
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
and had decided to leave the institute. Because of his youth, he had never taken
religious vows
Religious vows are the public vows made by the members of religious communities pertaining to their conduct, practices, and views.
In the Buddhism tradition, in particular within the Mahayana and Vajrayana tradition, many different kinds of re ...
, as he was too young to do so under the regulations of the Brothers, thus there was no
canonical
The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean "according to the canon" the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, "canonical example ...
impediment to his departure.
He made his way back home to Utica, where his family now lived, arriving late that same year. How he managed that journey he never shared, other than to say that it had not been an easy or pleasant experience. His father welcomed him back and helped him to secure a position with the law firm of Horatio and John Seymour, that he might read enough law to take the
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
. This was to be the start of his entry into the political arena, as
Horatio Seymour
Horatio Seymour (May 31, 1810February 12, 1886) was an American politician. He served as Governor of New York from 1853 to 1854 and from 1863 to 1864. He was the Democratic Party nominee for president in the 1868 United States presidential elec ...
had recently served as
Governor of New York
The governor of New York is the head of government of the U.S. state of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has ...
, and had just run as the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
's candidate for
President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...
against
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...
.
In politics
Gaynor would disappoint Tammany Hall when they nominated him for mayor in 1909. Elected to the
New York State Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
in 1893, and appointed to the Appellate Division, Second Department in 1905, Gaynor's rulings were often cited around the country. His reputation as an honest reformer helped win him election as mayor in 1909.
![WJGaynor walks](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/WJGaynor_walks.jpg)
On January 1, 1910, he walked to
City Hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
from his home in Brooklyn (#20 Eighth Avenue,
Park Slope
Park Slope is a neighborhood in northwestern Brooklyn, New York City, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park and Prospect Park West to the east, Fourth Avenue to the west, Flatbush Aven ...
) – it was the first time he had ever visited the seat of city government – and addressed the 1,500 people gathered to greet him: "I enter upon this office with the intention of doing the very best I can for the City of New York. That will have to suffice; I can do no more."
In 1910 his daughter, Edith Augusta Gaynor, married
Harry Kermit Vingut. They divorced in 1919 and she then married James Park. One of his granddaughters, Jean Rennard, married actor
Fred Gwynne
Frederick Hubbard Gwynne (July 10, 1926 – July 2, 1993) was an American actor, artist and author widely known for his roles in the 1960s television sitcoms ''Car 54, Where Are You?'' as Francis Muldoon and as Herman Munster in ''The Munsters'' ...
.
Gaynor's marriage with Tammany Hall was short-lived; soon after taking office, he filled high level government posts with experts and city employees were chosen from civil service lists in the order they appeared, effectively curbing patronage and nepotism. As mayor, he railed against efforts to thwart the further development of the
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
system. A strong willed but compassionate mayor, Gaynor once remarked, "The world does not grow better by force or by the policeman's club."
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
, who covered the police beat and City Hall of Baltimore in his early days as a reporter, and so learned to know the good, the bad and the ugly of the species, had great respect for Gaynor both as a judge and as mayor. "Gaynor was that great rarity in American political history: a judge who actually believed in the Bill of Rights. When he sat on the bench in Brooklyn he tried to enforce it to the letter, to the natural scandal of his brethren of the ermine. Scarcely a day went by that he did not denounce the police for their tyrannies. He turned loose hundreds of prisoners, raged and roared from the bench, and wrote thousands of letters on the subject, many of them magnificent expositions of Jeffersonian doctrine. Unfortunately, his strange ideas alarmed the general run of respectable New Yorkers quite as much as they alarmed his fellow judges, and so he was always in hot water. When Tammany, with sardonic humor, made him mayor, he began an heroic but vain effort to give New York decent government. He might as well have tried to make the stockyards of Chicago smell like a field of
asphodel. In the end, worn out and embittered by the struggle, he died unlamented, and today political historians scarcely mention him. Yet he was a great political philosopher and a great soul. It is the tragedy of the Republic that such men are so few, and that their efforts, when they appear, go for so little."
Georgist views on political economy
Gaynor read the first edition of
Henry George
Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the eco ...
's famous treatise ''
Progress and Poverty
''Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth: The Remedy'' is an 1879 book by social theorist and economist Henry George. It is a treatise on the questions of why pover ...
'' said that
Georgism
Georgism, also called in modern times Geoism, and known historically as the single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that, although people should own the value they produce themselves, the economic rent derived from land—including ...
was the "perfect" and "optimal" system ("admitted by philosophers and economists the world over"). However, he objected to what he perceived as George's intent to take all land rent for public use at once. Instead, Gaynor favored a slow transition over many years. He was unaware of the claim that removing other taxes would increase land rent, yet by his calculations there was enough land rent to replace all taxes with a
land value tax
A land value tax (LVT) is a levy on the value of land (economics), land without regard to buildings, personal property and other land improvement, improvements. It is also known as a location value tax, a point valuation tax, a site valuation ta ...
.
Assassination attempt
Early in his term, Gaynor was shot in the throat by
James J. Gallagher, a discharged city employee who had been a New York dock Night Watchman from April 7, 1903, to July 19, 1910. Gaynor remains the only New York City mayor to be hit by a bullet during an assassination attempt. The violent incident happened on board the Europe-bound , which was docked at
Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...
. Gallagher died in a prison in
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.[paresis
In medicine, paresis () is a condition typified by a weakness of voluntary movement, or by partial loss of voluntary movement or by impaired movement. When used without qualifiers, it usually refers to the limbs, but it can also be used to desc ...]
on February 4, 1913, the same year as Gaynor's death. Observing Gaynor in conversation, ''
New York World
The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publi ...
'' photographer William Warnecke snapped what he thought would be a typical, if uneventful, photo of the new Mayor. Instead, Warnecke captured the very moment that Gallagher, at point-blank range, shot a bullet through Gaynor's neck. The rarely-seen snapshot remains one of the most highly praised photographs in the history of
photojournalism
Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...
.
Death and legacy
Although Gaynor quickly recovered, the bullet remained lodged in his throat for the next three years. During his term as mayor, Gaynor was widely considered a strong candidate for Governor or President. Tammany Hall refused to nominate him for reelection to a second term, but after accepting the nomination from an independent group of voters, he set sail for Europe aboard . Six days later, on September 10, 1913, Gaynor died suddenly on a deck chair aboard the liner. After his death, doctors concluded that he died of a heart attack, and that his old wound was at most a minor contributing factor. Gaynor is interred at
Green-Wood Cemetery
Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope/ Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Kensington, and Sunset Park, and lies several bl ...
in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
.
The
Fire Department of New York
The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), is an American department of the government of New York City that provides fire protection services, technical rescue/special operations services, ...
operated a
fireboat
A fireboat or fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with firefighting equipmen ...
named
''William J. Gaynor'' from 1914 to 1961.
See also
*
William Brown Meloney (1878–1925)
William Brown Meloney (1877–1925) was a journalist, writer, executive secretary to Mayor William Jay Gaynor of New York City and a historian of shipping.
Biography
He was born on June 6, 1877, in San Francisco, California. His grandfathers w ...
, Gaynor's executive secretary
References
Explanatory notes
Citations
Further reading
* Cimino, Eric. "Dear Madam, Dear Sir: Mayor William Gaynor and New York's Response to the Sinking of ''Titanic''." ''New York Archives'' (Summer 2021): 24-28
online* Finegold, Kenneth. "Traditional Reform, Municipal Populism, and Progressivism Challenges to Machine Politics in Early-Twentieth-Century New York City." ''Urban Affairs Review'' (1995) 31#1 pp: 20–42
online* Smith, Mortimer B. ''William Jay Gaynor: Mayor of New York'' (1951)
* Thomas, Lately. ''The mayor who mastered New York: the life and opinions of William J. Gaynor'' (1969)
External links
William Jay Gaynor monumentGreen-Wood Cemetery Burial Search
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaynor, William Jay
1849 births
1913 deaths
19th-century American politicians
American people of Irish descent
American shooting survivors
Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery
Mayors of New York City
New York (state) Democrats
People from Whitestown, New York
People who died at sea
20th-century American politicians