The appointed machinery: boards, works, and the desks that never faced the voters

1899 – 1963

The boards: Indiana's city form did its executive work through boards, and the directories name their members as they name the elected. The Board of Public Works of 1921: T. B. McDonough, George B. Williams and W. H. Tupper, with the city clerk, Joseph DeLorenzi, as its clerk. The Board of Public Works and Safety of 1949: Vernon J. Freed, Mayor E. Spencer Walton and Frank J. Miller, with Clerk Oscar Van De Putte as its secretary — Miller doubling as the city's engineer in the same book's classified pages, the appointed layer being a small room in a small city. The Board of Public Safety of 1956: Mayor Albert L. Doyle, John W. Schindler Jr., City Engineer Homer W. Fisher, Chief Bolerjack and Chief Pressler. The Board of Public Safety of 1963, its classified entry partly garbled in the text reached: Mayor Joseph M. Canfield, Leonard V. Campanale, and Joseph B. McDonnell — the same McDonnell the book names city engineer. The Board of Health runs alongside: in Howard's 1905 roster, Dr. James J. Bostwick, secretary, with Dr. Christian A. Dresch and Alfred S. Hess — the councilman of four rosters doubling onto the board; in 1921 Dresch is the board's secretary; in 1949 Dr. Richard A. Ganser is its president and Mrs. Bartelene Pirka its secretary; in 1956 Dr. Byron J. Wyland is secretary, with Ganser and Mrs. Vera A. Pruitt members. The Ganser surname runs from the clerk's desk of 1904 (Francis X.) to the health board's chair of 1949 and 1956 (Richard A.) — two servants of one name across two generations of desks, kinship unstated in the record and unasserted here.

The library board and the librarians: The public library's government is a board, and the directories keep its servants too: in 1949 the Rev. John H. Meengs is the board's president and Dorothy Fox the librarian; in 1956 Robert P. Lang is president, Ward N. Baker vice-president, Meengs secretary, and the librarian is Harley O. Spencer; in 1963 Spencer is chief librarian still, with Mrs. Donna E. Blair and Meengs — Meengs on the board across all three books, fourteen years at least — in its offices. The Libraries section owns the institution; the board members' names belong to the city's service record, and they are kept here at roster size.

The working desks: Below the boards sat the appointed officers who did the city's daily work, and the directories give three of their desks long holders. The street commissioner's desk is Charles Doolittle's: Charles H. Doolittle is street commissioner in Howard's roster of 1899, and in 1900, 1902, 1904 and 1905, and the 1921 directory names Charles W. Doolittle in the office still — the middle initial read H by Howard and W by Polk, the man one man across six rosters and twenty-two years, the longest documented tenure at any Mishawaka desk of the charter generation. (His successors at documented points: Fred C. Waidner in 1949 and 1956; Kenneth Connon in 1963.) The sealer's desk is Harry Magrane's: H. J. Magrane, city sealer, in 1921; Dr. Harry J. Magrane, sealer, in 1949; Harry J. Magrane, sealer, in 1956 — thirty-five years between the first and last books at the smallest desk in City Hall, the weights and measures of every shop in Mishawaka passing through one man's inspection across the whole middle of the century; in 1963 the sealer is Patrick Simeri — a surname the council chambers entry of the same book gives as Joseph Simeri's, two Simeris at two desks in one year, printed as the record gives them. The engineers: James L. Stephens (1921), Frank J. Miller (1949), Homer W. Fisher (1956), Joseph B. McDonnell (1963). The city attorneys: Archibald G. Graham (1899, 1900, 1904), Edward A. Howard (1902), William P. O'Neill (1905), Ralph H. Jernegan (1921) — and after 1921 the attorney's name leaves the directories' Mishawaka pages reached, a named gap whose settling record is the council's appointment minutes. The surveyor Lee Bybee (1949), the building commissioner Frederick G. Cecchi (1956), the health officer Libero Baldoni (1949), the juvenile probation officer George Parkes (1949): each a named servant at a named desk in a named year, which is the size the appointed record usually survives at, and printed so.

Sources:

1. Timothy E. Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1907), vol. 1 — Street Commissioner Charles H. Doolittle in the rosters of 1899–1905; city attorneys Graham, Edward A. Howard and O'Neill; the Board of Health of 1905.
2. R. L. Polk & Co., South Bend City Directory (1921), Mishawaka section — Board of Public Works (McDonough, Williams, Tupper; DeLorenzi clerk); Street Commissioner Charles W. Doolittle; Sealer H. J. Magrane; Engineer James L. Stephens; Attorney Ralph H. Jernegan; Dr. Dresch, secretary, Board of Health.
3. R. L. Polk & Co., directories of 1949, 1956 and 1963 — the boards of works, safety and health as stated; library boards and librarians Fox (1949) and Spencer (1956, 1963); street commissioners Waidner and Connon; sealers Magrane and Patrick Simeri; engineers Miller, Fisher and McDonnell; surveyor Lee Bybee (1949); building commissioner Frederick G. Cecchi (1956); health officer Libero Baldoni (1949); juvenile probation officer George Parkes (1949).