Whiskey Men As Big City Mayors

Foreword:  Involvement in the liquor trade frequently led pre-Prohibition “whiskey men” into the political arena.  Their profits fueled investments and philanthropic giving that often brought them wide public attention.  Many also had an interest in politics and participated actively in elections.  For three such men their careers led them to becoming the mayors of large cities — Cleveland, San Francisco and Denver.  In office, however, their experiences differed, sometimes widely. 

Born on Christmas Day 1825 in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Stephen Buhrer was the son of farm folks who had immigrated from Germany.  Buhrer did not attend school and was educated mainly in Sunday school and by any education he could pick up after a long day’s work.  Buhrer learned the trade of coopering (making barrels) and did various jobs including work in breweries and slaughter houses.

After years of employment at such pursuits to little advantage, Buhrer decided to make Cleveland his home and turned his attention to the business of rectifying and purifying whiskey.  He had a definite talent for the liquor trade and became a well-known wholesale distributor of alcoholic beverages.  He eventually owned the Eagle Distilleries Company. 

 

At age 29 Buhrer had only been a resident of Cleveland for eleven years, when in 1855 he was elected a member of the City Council.  He also served on that body in 1863 and 1865, during the Civil War.  Eligible to be conscripted into the Union Army he was not drafted because of bad health.  Nonetheless Buhrer was a stalwarchampion of the Union and Federal government. After his three terms with the Council, he was elected Democratic mayor of Cleveland in 1867 serving in that post until 1870.  

Recognized as progressive, Mayor Buhrer was the driving force for creating a viaduct to connect the east and west sides of Cleveland.  A photo here shows him at a construction site.  Replacing an outmoded facility, a new Cleveland House of Correction & Workhouse was built during his two terms in office.  Turning down an opportunity to run a third time for mayor, Buhrer later was elected to a fourth term on the City Council. He died in Cleveland on December 8, 1907, just short of his 83rd birthday. 

Described by a biographer as a man of “active temperament and speculative turn,” Edward B. Pond, shown left, followed a career path that involved substantial twists and turns until he engaged in the liquor trade in San Francisco and was propelled into the job of that city’s mayor.  Accord to a biographer, despite the bitterness of politics in his day: “Mayor Pond’s name was unsmirched and in the midst of the frictions…he has without obsequiousness or compromise of his integrity, retained the confidence of all factions.” 

Born in Jefferson County, New York, in 1833, and given a good education by an affluent family, the young Pond caught “gold rush fever” and in 1854, five years after the strike at Sutter’s Mill, he saddled up and started from New York for California.  Interrupted by winter snows in the Rockies he laid up until spring in Salt Lake City, arriving on the West Coast in 1855, settling in Butte County in north central California.

Pond’s mining efforts apparently were not fruitful and he took up mercantile pursuits.  In 1868, partnering with two locals, he opened a wholesale and retail liquor house at 325 Front Street in San Francisco. The liquor business flourished, developing a clientele up and down the West Coast.   Pond, however, increasingly was investing in other enterprises.   Still restless at the age of 43,  after eight years at the helm of his liquor house Pond sold out and semi-retired.  In today’s dollar his net worth was estimated in the range of $2.1 million.

Said to have had a lifelong interest in politics, in 1882 Pond was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, apparently served with diligence, and was re-elected in 1884.  In the Fall of 1886, leaving his supervisor’s seat, he ran for mayor as a Democrat and was elected “not on strict party lines, but a large and complimentary vote from all parties,” says a biographer.  Two years later Pond was easily re-elected.  

Los Angeles City Hall

Some of his popularity may have come from his financial prowess. Upon taking office Pond inherited a city debt of $520,000, which was substantial for the time. As mayor he discovered that San Francisco gas and water companies had not been paying their share of taxes. He negotiated a settlement and turned the city’s deficit into a surplus.

Pond had one more political try — an 1890 run for Governor of California.  At the California Democratic State Convention, a San Francisco political boss backed Mayor Pond and he won the nomination. In the general election, however, he lost to the Republican candidate.  That appeared to end the whiskey man’s political ambitions. In 1910 Pond died at the age of 76.

While Buhrer and Pond served with distinction during their terms as mayors,  Wolfe Londoner had a different story. In 1899 liquor dealer Londoner, with the help of two Western desperadoes, won the mayoralty race in Denver by a narrow margin.  How this Manhattan-born son of Jewish immigrants got to this place and what happened afterwards is the stuff of fictional characters in novels. 

Often in poverty, the youthful Londoner bounced around America from coast to coast until settling in Leadville, Colorado, about 1860.  There he managed a general store, one selling liquor.  Only about 21 when he arrived in town Londoner early began his political career there.  A gifted orator, he spent four years variously as the elected Leadville county clerk and recorder, county treasurer and county commissioner.  

Having saved his money, in 1865 Londoner moved to Denver and opened a grocery and liquor store.  Successful, in 1887 he built his own four story building. It was a large establishment with well stocked shelves and a whiskey-tasting bar. The upper floors allowed ample storage and allowed him to mix up his own liquor.  Using stocks received from Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Maryland, Londoner  created his own brands of whiskey, then bottled, labeled, and sold it.  Soon he was doing the equivalent today of $25,000,000 in sales annually.

Londoner came to public notice in Denver when he took time off from his liquor business to manage the construction of a new courthouse, right.  He was described by one author as “faithful and conscientious….He was proud that not a penny’s worth of graft occurred in the construction….”  The building quickly became the pride of Denver.   For the manner in which he had discharged his trust, Londoner wrote, city officials “drew up a resolution which was good enough to put on my grave when I die.”

With his stock high after completion of the courthouse Londoner decided to run for mayor.  He was a Republican, however, in a city that usually voted Democrat over the “free silver” issue.  As friends and supporters he could count on the local saloon and gambling proprietors, men who wielded considerable political influence in Denver.  They provided him with paid “volunteers.”  Among them were notorious Western gunslingers Bat Masterson and “Soapy” Smith.  

Led by those “bad boys,” Londoner’s supporters stuffed ballot boxes and traded drinks for votes at local saloons on election day.  As a result, Londoner became Denver’s 20th mayor by a whopping 77 votes.  Even before he could take office opponents were filing corruption charges against his campaign.  It took months before the legal challenges could make their way through the courts. While they were pending Londoner served more than a year as mayor, until forced by a court order to resign.  He was the only mayor in Denver’s history ever removed from office.  

Londoner seems not to have been daunted by his fall from power.  A skilled writer and wit, he subsequently devoted himself to the Denver Press Club and went back to selling groceries and liquor.  Managing his business to the end, in 1912 Londoner died at the age of 70.  A half century earlier when Wolfe Londoner first came to Colorado he had $1.50 in his pocket and knew not a soul.  When he took his leave he was extravagantly wealthy and known by virtually everyone.  

Note:  More complete vignettes on each of these three whiskey men may be found elsewhere on this blog:  Stephen Buhrer, April 3, 2018;  Edward B. Pond,  June 10, 2020, and Wolfe Londoner, November 26, 2017.  References for each article may be found there.  

E. B. Pond and His “Wet” Path to Frisco’s Mayor

Described by a biographer as a man of “active temperament and speculative turn,” Edward B. Pond, shown left, followed a career path that involved substantial twists and turns until he engaged in the liquor trade in San Francisco and was propelled into the job of that city’s mayor.  Accord to a biographer, despite the bitterness of politics in his day: “Mayor Pond’s name was unsmirched and in the midst of the frictions…he has without obsequiousness or compromise of his integrity, retained the confidence of all factions.”

Pond began life 2,860 miles from San Francisco, born December 7, 1833, in Jefferson County, New York.  He was the son of Massachusetts-born Abigail Russell and the Rev. Charles B. Pond, a Congregationalist minister, described as a “gentleman of liberal education and honorable repute.”  Edward had a distinguished heritage.  His Puritan ancestors had come from England a mere fifteen years after the Mayflower and a grandfather served as an officer in George Washington’s army.

Edward was the fifth of nine children from his parents marriage.  When he was only eight years old, his mother died at age 39, possibly of the effects of childbirth, along with a newborn daughter. The Rev. Pond, faced with raising six minor children, married five months later.  His bride was Katherine Whipple, a sister of his first wife.

Although his father was financially able to give him a college preparatory education, Edward’s interests lay in a different direction.  The 1850 federal census when he was 16 lists Pond’s occupation as “saddler,” someone making or repairing saddles.  By 21 he had caught “gold rush fever” and in 1854, five years after the strike at Sutter’s Mill, Pond saddled up and started from New York for California.  Interrupted by winter snows in the Rockies he laid up until spring in Salt Lake City, arriving on the West Coast in 1855, settling in Butte County in north central California.

How much prospecting for gold Pond attempted is unclear. By 1858 he was deeply engaged in the livestock business, traveling to Texas, buying cattle there and driving them across mountains and plains back to Butte County.  Having made considerable profit from this enterprise, Pond opened a general store in the new town of Chico in Butte County, counted among the first of its residents.  There it is likely he had his first experience selling liquor.

Pond also found a wife in Chico.  She was Sarah McNeill, born in Ohio of Scotch and German ancestry.  Edward was 25; although the records are variable, Sarah may have been as young as 16. They are accounted the first couple to be married in Chico.  Sarah has been described as a “cultured lady” and Edward’s “helpmate through intervening years.”  They would have three children, two boys and a girl.

After six years of operating his Chico store and evidently gaining considerable wealth, Pond once again was restless.  Packing up Sarah and their firstborn, Catherine, he headed back East.  There ensued two years of what Pond himself described as having “cruised about.”  Seemingly tiring of the gypsy life and with a second baby on the way, California called to him again.  Accompanied by his family, he returned to the West Coast, settling in San Francisco.  For a time the Ponds lived in the Russ House, shown above, a first-class hotel in the city’s financial district.

In 1868, partnering with two locals, Frank B. Reynolds and Samuel More, Pond opened a wholesale and retail liquor house at 325 Front Street in San Francisco. Reynolds had been an employee of Hosmer, Goewey & Co. and Nudd, Lord & Co., both liquor stores that recently had gone out of business.  The 1870 census contains financial data indicating that Pond’s investment in the enterprise made him the majority owner. 

Under this management team, Pond, Reynolds & Company prospered, eventually outgrowing its quarters and prompting a move to 212 California Street.  Although firm evidence is lacking, the firm may not have marketed its own brands but imported well-known whiskeys from the East and Midwest.  Among the most evident of those was its offering G. O. Blake, a Kentucky whiskey that had a coast to coast reputation for quality [See my post on Blake, January 3, 2012].  Not only were Pond, Reynolds selling the brand, they were marketing it in their own embossed glass bottles.  Seen here in varying shades of amber, those bottles today avidly are sought by collectors.

The liquor business flourished, developing a clientele up and down the West Coast.   Pond, however, increasingly was becoming involved in other enterprises.  He was a director and later president of the San Francisco Savings Union, a large local bank; a director of the Sun Insurance Company, and an investor in other local businesses.  Still restless at the age of 43,  after eight years at the helm of Pond, Reynolds Co. Edward sold out and semi-retired.  In today’s dollar his net worth was estimated in the range of $2.1 million.

Said to have had a lifelong interest in politics, in 1882 Pond sought election on the Democratic ticket to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Since 1856 the City and County of San Francisco has been a consolidated city-county,  simultaneously a charter city and charter county with a single government.  As a result, the county board of supervisors also acted as the city council and the mayor was also the county executive.

Pond was elected to the Board, apparently served with diligence, and was re-elected in 1884.  In the Fall of 1886, leaving his supervisor’s seat, he ran for mayor as a Democrat and was elected “not on strict party lines, but a large and complimentary vote from all parties,” says his biographer.  Pond took up residency in the Mayor’s office in San Francisco’s extravagant city hall, shown above.  Two years later was a presidential election year, one bitterly fought between incumbent Democrat Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison. The Republican won. It had no effect on Pond who easily was re-elected.

Some of his popularity may have come from his financial prowess. Upon taking office Pond inherited a city debt of $520,000, which was substantial for the time. He discovered that the gas and water companies had not been paying their share of taxes. He negotiated a settlement and turned the deficit into a surplus.   At the same time Pond did not always get along with the Board of Supervisors, regularly vetoing their legislative acts.  Known as the “Solid Nine,” the supervisors just as regularly overrode his vetoes.

During the period in which he served in political office, Pond and his family resided in a mansion home at 1019 California Street. Shown here, its size and unusual architecture, including a cupola on the roof, made it stand out in the neighborhood.  As politicians must, the Ponds entertained frequently with Sarah said to preside with “great grace” over the home.  The 1880 federal census recorded the Pond family residing there.  The boys, Edward and Samuel, were in school.  Daughter Catherine had died years earlier.   Also living with the family was Sarah’s sister and two servants, sisters from Ireland.

One of Mayor Pond’s speeches, made during an 1890 celebration of the 40th anniversary of California becoming a state, has survived the years.  Pond might have been talking about his own experience coming to the West Coast:  “Remember that what you are today our Pioneers were forty years ago —young, full of spirit and adventure.  The flower of the youth in every state, they dared the dangers of the stormy cape and of the desert plains, beset with lurking foes.  An army of valiant spirits…they came to carve out homes from the wilderness and to form a state.”

Pond himself had one more adventure awaiting — an 1890 run for Governor of California.  At the California Democratic State Convention, San Francisco political  boss Christopher Buckley backed Mayor Pond and he defeated William D. English of Oakland for the nomination. In the general election, Pond lost to Republican Henry Markham.  That appeared to end the whisky man’s political ambitions.

Pond, shown here approaching 60, retired from active business, preferring to watch over his investments from a one room office at 318 Pine Street.  He called himself,  “a capitalist” on the Federal census, a term that has a somewhat different meaning than today.  Then it meant someone who was an investor, today perhaps a “venture capitalist.”  The 1910 census found Edward and Sarah living alone in a posh hotel in downtown San Francisco. They had been married 48 years.

That same year Pond died at the age of 76.  He was buried in Oakland’s Mountain View Cemetery where a monument was erected to mark the family plot.  Sarah joined him there eleven years later.  The whiskey man’s obituary appeared alongside that of Mark Twain in the San Francisco Call.  That was fitting:  Both men as youths had followed their spirit of adventure with courage and conviction:  Twain to literary fame and greatness;  Pond to wealth and leadership of a major Western city.

Note:  The information for this post has been gathered from a variety of sources.  Principal among them was the volume, San Francisco’s Representative Men, Volume 1, published by the San Francisco Journal of Commerce Publishing Co., dated 1891, no author(s) given.  An additional important source was an unsigned obituary posted on the website depicting Pond’s grave.  Thanks go to Richard Siri for his permission to use images of bottles from his collection.