PoliticalGraveyard.com
The Political Graveyard: A Database of American History
Muskegon, Michigan
Mayors, Village Presidents, Postmasters


Mayors of Muskegon, 1870-2008 (may be incomplete!)
Chauncey Davis 1870-71 Joseph Ireland 1871-72 Chauncey Davis 1872-73 Henry H. Getty 1873-74 Samuel H. Wagner 1874-75 William Glue 1875-76 Oliver P. Pillsbury 1876-77 Torrent 1888-89 James Balbirnie 1899 John Campbell 1907-09 Harry A. Rietdyk 1909-13 John H. Moore 1913-15 Arnt Ellifson 1915-17 T. B. Bennett 1920 George Vanderwerp as of 1937 Edwin J. Quick as of 1952 John E. Medendorp as of 1953-54 William E. Steiner as of 1955-56 Don F. Seyferth 1958-60 Donald E. Johnson as of 1967 Stephen J. Warmington 2002-

Events and Candidates (may be incomplete!)

  • 1870 Apr 4: Chauncey Davis, elected.
  • 1880 Apr 5: Jiroch (Dem), elected.
  • 1889 Apr 1: Martin Waalkes (Dem), elected; Torrent (Rep), defeated.
  • 1899 Apr 3: James Balbirnie (Rep), elected.
  • 1899 Jun 29: James Balbirnie, died in office.
  • 1900 Apr 2: Frank Alberts (Rep), elected.
  • 1903 Apr 6: Leonard Eyke (Dem), elected.
  • 1904 Apr 4: Leonard Eyke (Dem), elected.
  • 1906 Apr 2: Norman B. Lawson (Dem), elected.
  • 1907 Apr 1: John Campbell (Dem), elected.
  • 1908 Apr 6: John Campbell (Dem), elected; G. R. Ross (Rep), defeated.
  • 1909 Apr 5: Harry A. Rietdyk (Dem), elected.
  • 1910 Apr 4: Harry A. Rietdyk (Dem), elected; Henry E. Langlenad (Rep), defeated.
  • 1912 Apr 1: Harry A. Rietdyk (Dem), elected.
  • 1913 Apr 7: John H. Moore (Progressive), elected; Norman B. Lawson (Dem), defeated; Lee H. Trott (Rep), defeated; Edward O. Foss (Socialist), defeated.
  • 1914 Mar 4: George S. Stanley (Dem), nominated unopposed.
  • 1914 Mar 4: Arnt Ellifson (Rep), nominated unopposed.
  • 1914 Mar 4: Ray A. Cottrell (Socialist), nominated unopposed.
  • 1914 Mar 4: John H. Moore (Progressive), nominated unopposed.
  • 1914 Apr 6: John H. Moore (Progressive), elected; Arnt Ellifson (Rep), defeated; George S. Stanley (Dem), defeated; Ray A. Cottrell (Socialist), defeated.
  • 1915 Mar 3: Norman B. Lawson (Dem), nominated unopposed.
  • 1915 Mar 3: Arnt Ellifson (Rep), nominated; John H. Moore (Rep), defeated in primary.
  • 1915 Mar 3: John J. Castenholz (Progressive), nominated unopposed, but withdrew.
  • 1915 Apr 5: Arnt Ellifson (Rep), elected; Norman B. Lawson (Dem), defeated.
  • 1916 Mar 1: William J. Smith (Dem), nominated unopposed.
  • 1916 Mar 1: Arnt Ellifson (Rep), nominated unopposed.
  • 1916 Mar 1: D. L. Garver (Socialist), nominated unopposed.
  • 1916 Apr 3: Arnt Ellifson (Rep), elected; Norman B. Lawson (Dem), defeated; D. L. Garver (Socialist), defeated.
  • 1917 Mar 7: Harry A. Rietdyk (Dem), nominated; Norman B. Lawson (Dem), defeated in primary.
  • 1917 Mar 7: Arnt Ellifson (Rep), nominated; William H. Smith, Jr. (Rep), defeated in primary.
  • 1917 Mar 7: Peter Volmari (Prohibition), nominated unopposed.
  • 1917 Mar 7: Bert Leach (Socialist), nominated unopposed.
  • 1917 Apr 2: Arnt Ellifson (Rep), elected; Harry A. Rietdyk (Dem), defeated; Bert Leach (Socialist), defeated; Peter Volmari (Prohibition), defeated.
  • 1918 Apr 1: James L. Smith (Dem), elected.
  • 2001 Nov 6: Stephen J. Warmington, elected; Jane Clingman-Scott, defeated.
  • 2005 Nov 8: Stephen J. Warmington, elected; Ric Scott, defeated.


    Village Presidents of Muskegon, 1861-70 (may be incomplete!)
    Lyman G. Mason 1861-62 Samuel B. Peck 1862-64 Joseph H. Hackley 1864-67 Elias W. Merrill 1867-68 Benjamin L. Piper 1868-70

    Events and Candidates (may be incomplete!)

  • 1861 Jul 8: Lyman G. Mason, elected.


    Postmasters at Muskegon, 1838-1971 (may be incomplete!)
    Henry Pennoyer 1838-39 Christopher Fryzine 1839-40 Henry Pennoyer 1840-47 George W. Walton 1848-55 Daniel W. Holbrook 1855 John B. Wheeler 1855-57 William P. Odell 1857-59 Charles P. Bigelow 1859-61 Elias W. Merrill 1861-63 Joseph D. Davis 1863-65 William W. Owen 1865-69 Elias W. Merrill 1869-75 Luther Whitney 1875-87 Frank H. Holbrook 1887-91 Samuel H. Stevens 1891-95 Leigh B. Smith 1895-99 Sylvester H. Gray 1899-1903 Horace L. Delano 1903-07 Phillip P. Schnorbach 1907-15 Benjamin G. Oosterbaan 1915-23 Lincoln Rodgers 1923-24 Lincoln Rodgers 1924-36 Stanley J. Risk 1936-55 Walter B. Steele 1955-56 Walter B. Steele 1956-71

  • "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 320,919 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/MI/ofc/muskegon.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 © 1996-2023 Lawrence Kestenbaum. (4) This work is also licensed for free non-commercial re-use, with attribution, under a Creative Commons License.
    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 HDL. — The Political Graveyard opened on July 1, 1996; the last full revision was done on March 8, 2023.

    Creative 
Commons License Follow polgraveyard on Twitter [Amazon.com]