George Brinton McClellan, Jr.
Compiled
by D. A. Sharpe
George Brinton McClellan,
Jr. was born in Dresden, Germany, November 23, 1865, during the family's first
trip to Europe. He is my seventh
cousin, being directly descended from Plymouth Colony
Governor William Bradford.
McClellan,
known to his family as "Max went to school in Trenton, New Jersey Ð where his father, former Union Army General, was Governor Ð and later to Saint John's School in Ossining, New York. From 1885 to
1888 he served in the New York Army National Guard. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree at Princeton in 1886 and his Master of Arts in 1889; Princeton, Fordham University, and Union College later gave him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. After leaving
school, he engaged in reportorial and editorial work at the New York World and other newspapers. In 1892
he was admitted to the bar. He served for
some time as secretary and treasurer of the New York and
Brooklyn Bridge.
In
1892, McClellan was elected president of the Board of Aldermen of New York City for the following two years, and for a part of 1894,
he served as acting mayor. His success and popularity enabled him in 1895 to
become a United States Congressman (as a Democrat), a position he held until
resigning to become the 93rd Mayor of New York City in late 1903,
serving through 1909. In Congress, he was a prominent member of the Ways and Means Committee. While in
Congress McClellan made speeches in favor of the gold standard, an issue that
divided the fiscally conservative from the agrarian wing of the Democratic
Party, although he avoided committing himself on the subject in the campaign of
1896.
In
November 1903, McClellan defeated the sitting mayor, Seth Low, for a two-year term. He was re-elected in 1905, after the
restoration of four-year mayoral terms, but not considered for a third term in
1909.
He is
notable in the history of movie censorship for canceling all moving-picture
exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908, claiming that the new medium
degraded the morals of the community and that celluloid film was an unacceptable fire hazard.
One of
the more famous stories about him occurred on October 27, 1904. On that day,
the Interborough Rapid Transit, New York City's
first subway, opened. McClellan was to start the first train at the City Hall Station, and then hand it
over to an IRT motorman. However, he was enjoying himself so much, he refused
to give up the controls until the train reached 103rd Street
Station.
McClellan ran for
president in 1904, receiving 3 votes on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention.
Throughout
his political career, McClellan remained interested in education, and in 1906,
he was named honorary Chancellor of Union
College. At Princeton he delivered the Stafford Little lectures on public affairs (1908Ð1910), served as
university lecturer (1911Ð1912), and subsequently was appointed a professor of
economic history.
McClellan
served in World
War I entering the Army
as major assigned to the Ordnance Department in May 1917 and he was honorably
discharged in May 1919 with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
McClellan
died childless on November 30, 1940, one week after his 75th birthday, and was buried
in Arlington National Cemetery.
Source
for most of this text:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_B._McClellan_Jr.
Compiled
by
Dwight
Albert (D. A.) Sharpe
805
Derting Road East
Aurora,
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