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Mayor of Fort Wayne
On the record
Former sheriff; mayor through the 1913 flood.
Mayor through the Great Flood of 23–27 March 1913: 4.75 inches of rain, the Maumee cresting at 26.1 ft, some 5,500 homes and businesses damaged and about 15,000 people homeless. The flood is taken up in “The 1913 flood killed seven people in Fort Wayne.” and charted in § 03.
Jesse A. Grice (1852–1915) came to the mayor's office from the farm and the sheriff's star. A successful farmer, stock dealer, and meat-market operator, he was a tireless Republican worker, and the party rewarded him with the sheriff's nomination: he was elected Allen County sheriff in 1904 and re-elected in 1906. Persuaded to run for mayor after his sheriff's terms, he was elected on 2 November 1909 and served 1910 to January 1914. His administration paved many additional miles of streets and sidewalks, improved street lighting, enlarged the city park system, and completed the negotiations for elevating the railroad tracks over Calhoun, Fairfield, and Broadway — the grade-separation work that reshaped downtown traffic.
Find them on this page
- § 04 — the mayoral roster
Roster cross-checked between the City of Fort Wayne’s official mayors page and the full dated list — sources printed under the roster in § 04; Pioneers Resting in Historic Lindenwood (Allen County Public Library, 1989), Jesse A. Grice sketch; Allen County Genealogical Society mayors list.