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


Mayors of Traverse City, 1895-2022 (may be incomplete!)
Perry Hannah 1895-96 Harry C. Davis 1896-97 William W. Smith 1897-99 Frank Hamilton 1899-1900 Alfred V. Friedrich 1900-01 John W. Patchin 1901-02 Oscar P. Carver 1902-03 John R. Santo 1903-04 Elisha J. Fulghum 1904-05 Alfred V. Friedrich 1905-08 William D. C. Germaine 1908-10 Emanuel Wilhelm 1910-12 William D. C. Germaine 1912-13 John G. Straub 1913-14 C. L. Greilick 1914-16 Edward Lautner 1916-18 Lafayette Swanton 1918-22 James T. Milliken 1923-29 George W. Lardie 1929-31 Charles C. Wells 1931-33 E. L. Thirlby 1933-35 Moses O. Champney 1935-37 Conrad H. Foster 1937-39 Adolph LaFranier 1939-40 Orr E. Mead 1941 Delmar R. Zimmerman 1942 J. E. Ehrenberger 1943 Carl Anderson 1944 Ben H. Koenig 1945 F. G. Swartz 1946-47 Hugh J. Johnston 1948 Peter Clancy 1949 Wilbur G. Watson 1950 Julius C. Sleder 1951 Jack D. Nelson 1952 J. Kent Wright 1953 Charles H. Round 1954 Frank H. Power 1955-56 A. R. Jacobs 1957 J. H. Stevens 1958 Fritz Coppens 1959 H. R. Murchie 1960 Frank L. Stulen 1961 Larry Hardy 1962 Robert H. Chase 1963 Ralph Pulcipher 1964 Kenneth Lindsay 1965-66 Carter B. Strong 1966-67 Vincent Fochtman 1967-68 Royce Kephart 1968-69 Nick J. Rajkovich 1969 William K. Lynch 1969-71 John Rokos 1971-72 Richard Purvis 1972-73 John W. Rennie 1973-74 Carl Huffman 1974-75 Diane C. Gilbo 1975-76 Raymond L. Sutton 1976-77 Howard A. Bartling 1977 Peter C. Dendrinos 1978 Calvin G. Martin 1979 Norman A. Kline 1980 Lawrence A. Muzzarelli 1981-82 Carol J. Hale 1983 Frederick D. Nelson 1984 Philip E. Orth 1985 Gerald M. Williams 1986 Geraldine D. Greene 1987 Bryan J. Crough 1988 Philip E. Rodgers, Jr. 1989 Al Ritchie 1990 James F. Tompkins, Jr. 1991 Peter T. Taylor 1992 Linda M. Johnson 1993 Jack E. Boynton 1994 James F. Tompkins, Jr. 1995 Peter T. Taylor 1996 Shelley A. Kester 1996 Philip E. Orth 1997 Larry Hardy 1998 James F. Tompkins, Jr. 1999 Linda Smyka 2000 Larry Hardy 2001 Margaret B. Dodd 2001-03 Linda Smyka 2003-07 Michael Estes 2007-09 Christopher M. Bzbok 2009-11 Michael Estes 2011-15 Jim Carruthers 2015-21 Richard I. Lewis 2021-

Events and Candidates (may be incomplete!)

  • 1899 Apr 3: Frank Hamilton (Rep), elected.
  • 1900 Apr 2: Alfred V. Friedrich (Citizens), elected; Frank Hamilton (Rep), defeated.
  • 1903 Apr 6: John R. Santo (Citizens), elected.
  • 1904 Apr 4: Elisha J. Fulghum (Rep), elected.
  • 1906 Apr 2: Alfred V. Friedrich, elected.
  • 1910 Apr 4: Emanuel Wilhelm (Dem), elected; James Gillett (Rep), defeated.
  • 1912 Apr 1: William D. C. Germaine (Rep), elected.
  • 1969 Nov 11: Nick J. Rajkovich, died in office.
  • 2001 Nov 6: Margaret B. Dodd, elected; Philip E. Orth, defeated.
  • 2007 Nov 6: Michael Estes, elected; Linda Smyka, defeated.
  • 2009 Nov 3: Christopher M. Bzbok, elected unopposed.
  • 2011 Nov 8: Michael Estes, elected; Ralph Soffredine, defeated.
  • 2013 Nov 5: Michael Estes, elected; Rick Buckhalter, defeated; John Sheldon Reid, defeated.
  • 2015 Nov 3: Jim Carruthers, elected; Jeanine Easterday, defeated; Ian Joseph Winkelmann, defeated.
  • 2017 Nov 7: Jim Carruthers, elected unopposed.
  • 2019 Nov 5: Jim Carruthers, elected; Shea M. O'Brien, defeated.
  • 2021 Nov 2: Richard I. Lewis, elected unopposed.


    Village Presidents of Traverse City, 1881-95 (may be incomplete!)
    Perry Hannah 1881-86 Benjamin D. Ashton 1886-87 Perry Hannah 1887-95

    Events and Candidates (may be incomplete!)

  • 1885 Mar 9: Perry Hannah, elected unopposed.


    Postmasters at Traverse City, 1871-1972 (may be incomplete!)
    Samuel C. Fuller as of 1871-81 M. E. Haskell as of 1887 George W. Raff as of 1891-1901 Jerome Wilhelm 1933-34 Jerome Wilhelm 1934-44 A. Spalding Friedrich 1944-46 A. Spalding Friedrich 1946-47 August L. Babel 1947-48 August L. Babel 1948-50 Harry B. Whitson 1950 Fritz Coppens 1950-52 Harry B. Whitson 1952-57 Edward O. Perkett 1957-58 Edward O. Perkett 1958-72

  • "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/traversecity.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]