William J. Gaynor
| William Jay Gaynor | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 94th Mayor of New York City | |
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In office January 1, 1910 – September 10, 1913 |
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| Preceded by | George B. McClellan Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Ardolph Loges Kline |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
February 2, 1849 Oriskany, New York |
| Died | September 10, 1913 (aged 64) At sea |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Children | Edith Augusta Gaynor |
William Jay Gaynor (February 2, 1849 – September 10, 1913) was an American politician from New York City, associated with the Tammany Hall political machine. He served as the 94th mayor of the City of New York from 1910 to 1913, and previously as a New York Supreme Court Justice from 1893 to 1909. As mayor he was noted as a reformer who broke ranks and refused to take orders from the Tammany boss Charles Francis Murphy.
Gaynor was born in Oriskany, New York on February 2, 1849 to Keiron Gaynor. He grew up on a farm with his brother, Thomas. As a boy, he developed an interest in wandering the countryside where they lived, exploring nature and trying to figure out why things were the way they were.
He was a studious boy, a trait which his father encouraged. As he was on the clumsy side, when it came to farmwork, his brother Tom usually took on the heavier chores. For his education, he first attended the local public school, then was sent to the Whiteboro Seminary. The Gaynor family were Irish and devout Roman Catholics, thus, when weather permitted, on Sundays they would head to the nearby city of Utica to attend Mass at St. John's Church on Bleecker Street. As William entered his teenage years, he began to show a religious fervor that led his parents to think that he might have a vocation to the Church. Both to test this, and for reasons of affordability, he was enrolled in the Assumption Academy in Utica. This was staffed by the Brothers of the Christian Schools, who had recently come to the United States from France in 1848. William flourished in that school, and soon decided that he did indeed wish to become a member of their religious congregation.
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