Owen McAleer

Owen McAleer
Portrait of Owen McAleer (1905)
25th Mayor of Los Angeles
In office December 8, 1904 – December 13, 1906
Preceded by	Meredith P. Snyder
Succeeded by	Arthur C. Harper
Personal details
Born	February 3, 1858 Canada
Died	March 7, 1944 (1944-03-08) (aged 86) Los Angeles, California
Political party	Republican

Owen McAleer (February 3, 1858 – March 7, 1944) was a Los Angeles, California, businessman who was mayor of the city between 1904 and 1906.

McAleer was born on February 3, 1858, in Canada, the son of Owen McAleer of Ireland and Mary Miller of England. In 1863 the family moved to Youngstown, Ohio, where the elder McAleer died in 1865, leaving a wife and eight children, the youngest just 6 months old.

In 1888 he moved to Los Angeles, and on January 8, 1891, he and Rebecca B. Wanchope of Ireland were married. She died on August 4, 1893, at the age of 29. He married again, on April 5, 1898, to Gertrude E. Mullaly of Covington, Kentucky, when he was 40 and she was 28.

He became a citizen of the United States on May 15, 1896, and in 1897 he was on the board of directors of the 150-member East Side Cycling Club, with its clubhouse at 163 South Avenue 21 in today's Lincoln Heights.

He owned and trained driving horses (in 1905 he had five of them) and rode them "on a sort of private speedway of his own, near Eastlake Park." He pushed the sport for others, too, and as mayor he set aside a stretch of West Washington Street for a mile west of Western Avenue for use by "drivers who delight in vying with each other off the racetrack," and, according to the Los Angeles Times, "policemen have been given to understand that some latitude be allowed horsemen there."

An automobile driven by Mayor McAleer struck and injured Charles Hughes, a delivery boy on a bicycle, on Central Avenue at Ninth Street the afternoon of July 17, 1906. Three witnesses said that in their opinion the vehicle was exceeding the speed limit and that "in approaching the corner no warning was given by tooting the horn, and that the occupants made no effort to assist the little fellow in any way." Called to the location by the boy's employer, "a stormy scene ensued," but McAleer "finally agreed to consider a bill for the repair of the bicycle."

In 1935 the McAleers were living at 3817 South Main Street in today's Historic South Central.