The first mayors: Fisher, Mix, Frank, Herzog

1899 – 1914

Manuel M. Fisher, 1899–1902: The first mayoral election, on 2 May 1899, was close: Fisher beat E. Volney Bingham 656 votes to 612, and on 8 May 1899, as the town board held its last meeting, Fisher was sworn in as the first mayor of the city of Mishawaka. De Kever carries him in office until September 1902. The 1921 Polk directory's list of ex-mayors prints his tenure as 1900–1902 — a year late at the front end against the sworn date De Kever and the Political Graveyard (1899–1902) both carry; the directory's figure is printed here as the outlier. The September 1902 handover itself fits no clean two-year cycle from May 1899, and whether an intervening election was held in 1901 no source read for this section records; the point is named in the gaps entry.

Melville W. Mix, 1902–1906: Mix, a Democrat in the Political Graveyard's entry — a manufacturer who had succeeded Wallace H. Dodge at the head of Dodge Manufacturing and was president of the Mishawaka Trust and Savings Company — was elected in 1902. Timothy Edward Howard's History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1907), written while the memory was fresh, says Mix "from 1902 until 1906 was the mayor of Mishawaka," and the Polk ex-mayor list agrees: 1902–1906. The Political Graveyard prints 1902–05; the two contemporary sources govern, and the Graveyard's shorter span is printed as the dissent. Mix's mayoralty matters beyond its dates: with Martin Beiger and other civic leaders he formed the Mishawaka Public Utilities Company, the device — told in the City Hall and utilities entries — that financed the 1904 city hall and the city's regular police and fire departments.

Charles Frank, 1906–1910: Frank, a Republican in the Political Graveyard's entry — born 18 March 1842 in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, a Civil War veteran and sawmill owner, died 1911 and buried in Mishawaka City Cemetery — follows Mix in the Polk list at 1906–1910, and the press record bears the directory out: Frank was mayor when Vice President Fairbanks visited the city on 28 October 1908, and he presided at the Historical Pageant of July 1909, both as the Story of Mishawaka section records. The Political Graveyard prints Frank's mayoralty as 1905–06 only. Against a directory list and two dated press fixpoints inside 1908 and 1909, that entry simply fails, and it is printed here so that anyone checking the compilation against this record can see the failure plainly.

John A. Herzog, 1910–1914: The Polk ex-mayor list closes its early run with Herzog, 1910–1914. He is the last of the first four about whom the directory is this section's only term source, and his afterlife in office is documented in the same volume: by 1921 John A. Herzog was Mishawaka's postmaster — the former mayor holding the city's federal office while a successor's administration sat in the hall he had left.

Sources:

1. R. L. Polk & Co., South Bend City Directory (1921), "Ex-Mayors of Mishawaka" — Fisher 1900–1902, Mix 1902–1906, Frank 1906–1910, Herzog 1910–1914; and John A. Herzog as postmaster, 1921. Read in the LDS Genealogy transcription of the directory; the text is an OCR read and names carry that risk.
2. Timothy Edward Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1907), vol. 1 — Mix mayor "from 1902 until 1906."
3. The Political Graveyard (politicalgraveyard.com), Mishawaka office page and biographies of Fisher, Mix, Frank and Brady — Fisher 1899–1902; Mix 1902–05; Frank 1905–06; Mix's Dodge Manufacturing and bank presidencies; Frank's birth, death and burial. The page itself warns its list "may be incomplete."
4. Peter J. De Kever, Mishawaka: A History — Mix, Beiger and the formation of the Mishawaka Public Utilities Company.
5. The Story of Mishawaka section fragment of this build, from De Kever and the press record — the election of 2 May 1899 (656–612), Fisher sworn 8 May 1899 and in office to September 1902, Frank receiving Vice President Fairbanks on 28 October 1908 and presiding at the July 1909 pageant.