Augustus Garrett (1801 – November 30, 1848) was an American politician who twice served as
Mayor of Chicago
The mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of city government in Chicago, Illinois, the third-largest city in the United States. The mayor is responsible for the administration and management of various city departments, submits proposals and ...
(1843–1844, 1845–1846). He was a member of the
Democratic Party.
Early life and career
Garrett married
Eliza Clark in 1825 in
Newburgh, New York. The couple's daughter Imogene was born in 1830. Departing New York, the Garretts lived in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...
for a time, but had to flee the city after getting in debt. Moving to
, the couple's young daughter died of
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium '' Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting an ...
in 1833 and was buried on the banks of the Mississippi. Garrett gave birth to a second child, a son named Charles, in 1834. The Garrets also had another son, John.
Move to Chicago
Facing difficulties in New Orleans as well, the Garretts separated for a short while - Augustus to Chicago, while Eliza returned to Newburgh. Reuniting in 1835 in Chicago, the couple worked in real estate and prospered.
Garrett had a small auction house near the
Chicago River
The Chicago River is a system of rivers and canals with a combined length of that runs through the city of Chicago, including its center (the Chicago Loop). Though not especially long, the river is notable because it is one of the reasons fo ...
and by the following year had formed a partnership with the Brown Brothers, which allowed him to become a leading land speculator and auctioneer. By October 1836, he had sales of more than $1.8 million.
From 1840 through 1841, he served as Chicago alderman from the 2nd Ward.
Mayoralties
In 1842, Garrett ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Chicago. He ran again
in 1843 and was elected.
In 1844, Garrett initially won re-election, only to have the election invalidated based on charges of "illegal proceedings and fraud." Garrett ran in
a second election that year, but lost to
Alson Sherman.
Garrett was again elected mayor
in 1845.
During his terms in office, Garrett pushed to have the first brick school in Chicago, Dearborn School, turned into either a warehouse or an insane asylum, believing that the building was too large for use as a school.
Death and legacy
Augustus Garrett died at the
Sherman House Hotel in Chicago on November 30, 1848 and was buried in
Rosehill Cemetery
Rosehill Cemetery (founded 1859) is an American garden cemetery on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois, and at , is the largest cemetery in the City of Chicago. According to legend, the name "Rosehill" resulted from a City Clerk's error – the a ...
.
Following his death,
Eliza
ELIZA is an early natural language processing computer program created from 1964 to 1966 at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by Joseph Weizenbaum. Created to demonstrate the superficiality of communication between humans and machines, ...
established the
Garrett Bible Institute, now
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, in nearby
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, ...
.
References
External links
Garrett biography at Chicago Public LibraryFirst Inaugural AddressInvalidated Second Inaugural AddressThird Inaugural Address
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrett, Augustus
1801 births
Date of birth missing
1848 deaths
Burials at Rosehill Cemetery
Mayors of Chicago
19th-century American politicians
Chicago City Council members