Castleman and Brady: the war years

1939 – 1947

Carl J. Castleman, Democrat: The Political Graveyard carries Castleman as "Mayor of Mishawaka, Ind., 1941-42; defeated, 1942" — a sighting range from the rosters the compilation draws on, not a statement of his term. On the shifted Indiana cadence — elections in 1934, 1938 and 1942 — the reading that fits is that Castleman won the election of November 1938 and took office in January 1939; but no source read for this section dates his first election, and the cadence reading is printed here as a reading, not as the record. What the record does fix is his end: in the events list for 3 November 1942 the Graveyard records Joe A. Brady, Republican, elected, and Carl J. Castleman, Democrat, defeated.

Joe A. Brady, from January 1943: Brady was a Mishawaka man in the Graveyard's biography: born in the city on 5 September 1911, a shoe store manager, a Baptist, a member of the Lions and the Eagles. He took the mayor's office in January 1943, in the middle of the war, and the Graveyard's sighting of him runs "1943-44." No source read for this section gives his last day in the office. The next Mishawaka city election on the cadence fell in November 1947. De Kever, describing the election of 1963, writes of "the Democrats' 16-year hold on the mayor's office" that Margaret Prickett's victory then broke — sixteen years back from January 1964 reaches January 1948, which puts a Democrat in the office from the election of November 1947 and reads, in turn, as Brady serving a single term to the end of 1947. That is an inference from De Kever's arithmetic, printed as one: the 1947 election itself — its candidates, its count, whether Brady stood in it — is not in the sources read, and it is named in the gaps entry.

Sources:

1. The Political Graveyard, Mishawaka office page and biographies — Carl J. Castleman (Democrat), mayor 1941–42, defeated 1942; Joe A. Brady (Republican), born 5 September 1911 in Mishawaka, shoe store manager, mayor 1943–44; events list, 1942 Nov 3: Brady elected, Castleman defeated.
2. Peter J. De Kever, Mishawaka: A History — "the Democrats' 16-year hold on the mayor's office," broken at the election of November 1963.