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Public Servants · the people who held the offices
Government in Fort Wayne has always been a small number of people wearing a large number of hats. The same names recur across two centuries of the record — a clerk who becomes a judge, a postmaster who becomes a mayor, a sheriff who becomes a mayor, a chief deputy who waits twenty years and then takes the office himself. The Government section of this history keeps the offices and their successions; this section keeps the servants: the town's first working officers, the postmasters who held the federal government's most local job, the clerks who kept the paper, the chiefs who commanded the police and fire departments, the judges and prosecutors of the courthouse, the superintendents who ran the schools, and the men and women who simply stayed — thirty, forty, forty-seven years — while the administrations changed around them. It is also the record of how the service itself changed: from an era when a clerk could abscond with the funds and a postmastership was a president's gift, to the merit commissions that now stand between an officer's promotion and a mayor's preference.
Chosen in a tavern — the first officers
1824–1840 · THE COUNTY AND THE TOWN
The county's servants: Allen County's first public servant held his job by the governor's appointment, not by election. Allen Hamilton, an Irish immigrant trader, was commissioned sheriff on 2 April 1824 by Governor William…
The postmasters — the federal government's local face
1820–1990 · THE PATRONAGE PLUM, HELD FOR SEVENTY YEARS OF PRESIDENTS
The first postmaster, three ways: The record gives Fort Wayne's first postmaster three starts, and all three are printed. The Political Graveyard's roster of the office opens with Benjamin B. Kercheval in 1820, followed by Samuel…
The clerk's desk — keepers of the paper
1840–2026 · RECORDERS, CLERKS, AND THE MEN WHO HELD THE DESK FOR DECADES
The desk and its keepers: The city clerk's office began in 1840 as the recorder's desk, and its first holder, Franklin P. Randall, set the office's character: he was the man who wrote things down — the charter, the ordinances…
The comptroller's desk — and the woman who became mayor from it
1894–2026 · THE CITY'S BOOKKEEPERS
The office: The city's chief fiscal office appears in the directories in 1894–95 under the title Comptroller — W. H. Simmons as printed that year, James H. Simonson in 1895–96 — and the directory line runs Gustav Berghoff…
The chiefs of police — from the night watch to Caudill
1863–2026 · THE MEN WHO COMMANDED THE FORCE
The first chiefs: Fort Wayne's regular police force dates from May 1863 — a captain, a lieutenant and two patrolmen from each ward, on duty from twilight to daylight — and its first chief was Conrad Pens, a German sailor. The…
The barrier-breakers in uniform — the police firsts
1913–2016 · WOMEN AND BLACK OFFICERS OF THE FWPD
Arthur Williams, 1917: The Marsha Smiley Collection at the Allen County Public Library — the county's gathered record of African American firsts — names Arthur Williams as the Fort Wayne Police Department's first African American…
The fire chiefs — Hilbrecht's quarter-century to Lahey
1882–2026 · THE PAID DEPARTMENT'S COMMANDERS
Hilbrecht: The paid department's first working chief set its pattern of longevity. When the council elected a chief for the reorganized department in May 1882, William Hilbrecht won with fourteen votes to Diehl's three, filed his…
The firehouse firsts — Ridley, Wilson and Davie
1961–2007 · THE DEPARTMENT'S BARRIERS, BROKEN FROM INSIDE
Richard Ridley Jr.: Richard Jerome Ridley Jr. was sworn in on 7 October 1961 as Fort Wayne's first African American firefighter. The city's own proclamation of 5 November 2017 — Richard Jerome Ridley Jr. Day — recounts the career…
The prosecutors — Richards's twenty years and the chief deputy who waited
1981–2026 · THE ALLEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
Karen Richards: The prosecuting attorney is the county's most powerful elected servant after the judges, and for twenty years the office was Karen Richards's. She had entered it in 1981 as the first woman to serve as a deputy…
The judges — Gull, Davis and Surbeck; Lee and Brady in the federal court
1970–2026 · THE COURTHOUSE SERVANTS
Frances Gull: Allen Superior Court's criminal division has been Frances C. Gull's courtroom since 1997. She came to the bench from the prosecutor's office, where she had been chief counsel in the criminal division and a deputy…
The school servants — the superintendents as people
1853–2026 · FIFTEEN SUPERINTENDENTS, AND THE HOLES BETWEEN THEM
The early line: Fort Wayne Community Schools counts fifteen superintendents in its history, and the Schools section carries the line as an institution; the people are these. The Rev. George A. Irwin was the first; James H. Smart…
The long service — the people who stayed
1882–2026 · CAREERS MEASURED IN DECADES
The roll: Read across the offices, Fort Wayne's public service is a record of duration. Fire Chief William Hilbrecht commanded for twenty-six years (1882–1908). Postmaster Eugene Gabriel held the mail for twenty-five (1965–90).…
From patronage to merit — how the service was reformed
1854–1992 · THE SPOILS, THE LAWSUITS, THE COMMISSIONS
The spoils era: For the city's first century, public employment in Fort Wayne ran on confidence and connection: the council chose the clerk, the president chose the postmaster, and the mayor's party staffed the departments at…
Scandal and honor — the service judged
1854–2026 · REMOVALS, INDICTMENTS, AND NAMES ON BUILDINGS
The scandals of the service: Fort Wayne has removed few of its servants by process; most of its office scandals ended at the ballot box or the resignation letter. The record's roll: Clerk W. E. Ellis, defaulted and absconded…
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