PoliticalGraveyard.com
The Political Graveyard: A Database of American History
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Mayors, Postmasters, U.S. Land Office officials

Mayors of Fort Wayne, 1840-2009 (may be incomplete!)
George W. Wood 1840 Joseph Morgan 1841-42 Henry Lotz 1843 John M. Wallace 1844 Merchant W. Huxford 1845-49 William Stewart 1849-52 Philip G. Jones 1852 Charles Whitmore 1853-54 William Stewart 1855-57 Samuel S. Morss 1857-59 Franklin P. Randall 1859-64 James L. Worden 1865 Benjamin Saunders 1866 Henry Sharp 1867-68 Franklin P. Randall 1869-73 Charles A. Zollinger 1873-85 Charles F. Muhler 1885-89 Daniel L. Harding 1889-93 Charles A. Zollinger 1893 Henry F. Scherer 1894 Chauncey B. Oakley 1894-97 Henry F. Scherer 1897-1901 Henry C. Berghoff 1901-05 William J. Hosey 1905-09 Jesse A. Grice 1909-13 William J. Hosey 1913-17 Sherman Cutshall 1917-21 William J. Hosey 1921-25 William C. Geake 1925-29 William J. Hosey 1929-34 Harry W. Baals 1934-47 Henry E. Branning, Jr. 1947-51 Harry W. Baals 1951-54 Robert E. Meyers 1954-59 Paul M. Burns 1959-63 Harold S. Zeis 1963-71 Ivan Lebamoff 1971-75 Robert E. Armstrong 1975-79 Winfield Moses 1979-87 Cosette Simon 1987 Paul Helmke 1987-99 Graham A. Richard 2000-07 Thomas C. Henry 2008-

Events and Candidates (may be incomplete!)

  • 1894: William H. Shambaugh, defeated.
  • 1925 May 4: William J. Hosey (Dem), nominated; A. C. Gladieux (Dem), defeated in primary; L. C. McCulloch (Dem), defeated in primary.
  • 1925 May 4: William C. Geake (Rep), nominated; Jacob Bill (Rep), defeated in primary; Harry A. Zwehlen (Rep), defeated in primary; R. L. Langtry (Rep), defeated in primary; F. C. Ireland (Rep), defeated in primary.
  • 1925 Nov 3: William C. Geake (Rep), elected; William J. Hosey (Dem), defeated.
  • 1929 Nov 5: William J. Hosey (Dem), elected; Jacob Bill (Rep), defeated.
  • 1942 Nov 3: Harry W. Baals (Rep), elected.
  • 1954 May 9: Harry W. Baals, died in office.
  • 1963 Nov 5: Harold S. Zeis (Rep), elected; Paul M. Burns (Dem), defeated.
  • 1975: Ivan Lebamoff, defeated.
  • 1987: Winfield Moses, resigned.
  • 1999: David Christopher Roach (Dem), defeated in primary.
  • 2003 May 6: Graham A. Richard (Dem), nominated; Charles Eberhard (Dem), defeated in primary; Thomas Allen Schrader (Dem), defeated in primary; David Christopher Roach (Dem), defeated in primary.
  • 2003 May 6: Linda Buskirk (Rep), nominated; O. 'Bro' Blye (Rep), defeated in primary.
  • 2003 Nov 4: Graham A. Richard (Dem), elected; Linda Buskirk (Rep), defeated.
  • 2007 May 8: Thomas C. Henry (Dem), nominated; Tom Cook (Dem), defeated in primary; Frederick F. Steinke (Dem), defeated in primary.
  • 2007 May 8: Matthew Kelly (Rep), nominated; Nelson Peters (Rep), defeated in primary; Ivan R. Hood (Rep), defeated in primary; Teresa L. Licari (Rep), defeated in primary; Wilbert Brown (Rep), defeated in primary.
  • 2007 Nov 6: Thomas C. Henry (Dem), elected; Matthew Kelly (Rep), defeated.

    Postmasters at Fort Wayne, 1820-1990 (may be incomplete!)
    Benjamin B. Kercheval 1820 Samuel Hanna 1820-25 Allen Hamilton 1825-31 Henry Rudisell 1831-41 Smalwood Noel 1841-45 William Stewart 1845-49 Samuel Stophlet 1849-53 John G. Maier 1853-61 Moses Drake, Jr. 1861-68 Peter P. Bailey 1868-69 John J. Kamm 1869-77 Frederick W. Keil 1877-85 William Kaough 1885-89 Cecilius R. Higgins 1889-93 William W. Rockhill 1893-97 William D. Page 1897-1906 Robert B. Hanna 1906-15 Edward C. Miller 1915-22 Harry W. Baals 1922 Harry W. Baals 1922-31 Ernest J. Gallmeyer 1931-34 Lew G. Ellingham 1934-39 Clyde F. Driesbach 1939-51 Albert N. Smith 1951-52 Albert N. Smith 1952-65 Eugene J. Gabriel 1965-67 Eugene J. Gabriel 1967-90

    Events and Candidates (may be incomplete!)

  • 1939 Mar 18: Lew G. Ellingham, died in office.

    Registers of U.S. Land Office at Fort Wayne, 1823-43 (may be incomplete!)
    Samuel C. Vance as of 1823-27 William Polke 1841-43

    Events and Candidates (may be incomplete!)

  • 1843 Apr 26: William Polke, died in office.
    • "Enjoy the hospitable entertainment of a political graveyard."
    Henry L. Clinton, Apollo Hall, New York City, February 3, 1872    		 The Political Graveyard

    The Political Graveyard is a web site about U.S. political history and cemeteries. Founded in 1996, it is the Internet's most comprehensive free source for American political biography, listing 338,260 politicians, living and dead.
     
      The coverage of this site includes (1) the President, Vice President, members of Congress, elected state and territorial officeholders in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories; and the chief elected official, typically the mayor, of qualifying municipalities; (2) candidates at election, including primaries, for any of the above; (3) all federal judges and all state appellate judges; (4) certain federal officials, including the federal cabinet, diplomatic chiefs of mission, consuls, U.S. district attorneys, collectors of customs and internal revenue, members of major federal commissions; and political appointee (pre-1969) postmasters of qualifying communities; (5) state and national political party officials, including delegates, alternate delegates, and other participants in national party nominating conventions; (6) Americans who served as "honorary" consuls for other nations before 1950. Note: municipalities or communities "qualify", for Political Graveyard purposes, if they have at least half a million person-years of history, inclusive of predecessor, successor, and merged entities.  
      The listings are incomplete; development of the database is a continually ongoing project.  
      Information on this page — and on all other pages of this site — is believed to be accurate, but is not guaranteed. Users are advised to check with other sources before relying on any information here.  
      The official URL for this page is: https://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/IN/ofc/fortwayne.html .  
      Links to this or any other Political Graveyard page are welcome, but specific page addresses may sometimes change as the site develops.  
      If you are searching for a specific named individual, try the alphabetical index of politicians.  
    Copyright notices: (1) Facts are not subject to copyright; see Feist v. Rural Telephone. (2) Politician portraits displayed on this site are 70-pixel-wide monochrome thumbnail images, which I believe to constitute fair use under applicable copyright law. Where possible, each image is linked to its online source. However, requests from owners of copyrighted images to delete them from this site are honored. (3) Original material, programming, selection and arrangement are © 1996-2025 Lawrence Kestenbaum. (4) This work is also licensed for free non-commercial re-use, with attribution, under a Creative Commons License.
    What is a "political graveyard"? See Political Dictionary; Urban Dictionary.
    Site information: The Political Graveyard is created and maintained by Lawrence Kestenbaum, who is solely responsible for its structure and content. — The mailing address is The Political Graveyard, P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor MI 48106. — This site is hosted by HDLmi.com. — The Political Graveyard opened on July 1, 1996; the last full revision was done on February 17, 2025.