|
|
|
Bryan Mullanphy
|
|
|
| Term: |
1847
-
1848
|
| Party: |
Democratic
|
| Born: |
1809
|
|
Baltimore, Maryland
|
| Died: |
June 15, 1851
|
|
St. Louis, Missouri
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Bryan Mullanphy (Mayor 1847-1848)-Background
|
|
Mayor (1847-1848). Bryan Mullanphy was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1809. His father, John Mullanphy, was a wealthy Baltimore and St. Louis merchant and philanthropist. In 1792 John Mullanphy and his wife had come to America from Ireland. They lived in Philadelphia and Baltimore from 1792 to 1798. From 1798 to 1804 they were in Frankfort, Kentucky. It was here that they met Charles Gratiot, early St. Louis settler and merchant, and were persuaded by Mr. Gratiot to move to St. Louis in 1804. After three years the family moved to Natchez, Mississippi, and then back to Baltimore to be nearer schools for the children, Mr. Mullanphy spent about half of each year looking after his financial interests to St. Louis and elsewhere. In 1819 the Mullanphy family returned to St. Louis to make it their permanent home. Young Bryan was sent to France and England at the age of nine for his early education. After returning to America, he became a lawyer and practiced in St. Louis. Mullanphy was the City's first bachelor Mayor and never married during his short life.
Mr. Mullanphy was a member of the Board of Alderman in 1835 and 1836. He served as Judge of the St. Louis Circuit Court from 1840 to 1844.
|
|
| |
Back to the top
|
|
|
|
Bryan Mullanphy (Mayor 1847-1848)-Administration
|
|
In 1847 Bryan Mullanphy became the twelfth Mayor of St. Louis.
He was elected Mayor on the Democratic ticket and held office for the one-year term. During his administration, the City provided for the construction of a new Waterworks reservoir at Twentieth and Benton Streets and it was completed in 1849. The City continued to take steps to encourage the building of a railroad into St. Louis. Permission was granted to the company for the erection of posts and wire that brought the telegraph system into the City.
|
|
| |
Back to the top
|
|
|
|
Bryan Mullanphy (Mayor 1847-1848)-Post-Administration
|
|
Mr. Mullanphy was a wealthy man noted for his many charities. He was also a man of many eccentricities. But in the language of the resolution adopted by the St. Louis Bar at his death, 'All his oddities are but as dust in the balance when weighed against the uprightness of his life and the succession of his charities.' He wanted to help poor people but he was determined not to pauperize them. Mullanphy would buy furniture for one of his empty houses and pay a poor family to live in it and keep it clean. A poor widow was supplied with a cow providing that she take best care of the animal. He paid the widow a certain sum per month for taking care of the cow and let her have the use of the milk.
Bryan Mullanphy's will provided that one-third of his holdings were to go to the City into a trust fund for the relief of emigrants and travelers coming to St. Louis on their way to settle in the western part of the United States.
Bryan Mullanphy died June 15, 1851 at the age of 42. Burial was at Calvary Cemetery.
|
|
| |
Back to the top | |
