George Washington Oakes was a United States editor, civic leader, historian, and author, who was probably best known as the brother of newspaper magnate Adolph Ochs. His management helped improve the quality of his brother's newspaper and magazine empire. He also spent considerable time in politics.
Background
George Washington Oakes, the original name George Washington Ochs, was born on October 27, 1861, in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. In 1915, after the German sinking of the Lusitania, George Ochs legally changed his surname to Oakes and that of his sons to Oakes. He was a son of Julius Ochs and Bertha Ochs, maiden name Levy. His parents were German immigrants fiercely loyal to the United States. His name, George Washington, reflects his father's patriotism. Julius Ochs fought for the Union in the Civil War during George Washington's infancy. At the end of the war, Julius and Bertha Ochs chose to remain in Knoxville, a city equally divided in sympathy between the North and the South, where neither would feel adverse effects of their wartime sentiments. Julius opened a number of dry goods stores, buying merchandise on credit, and selling it at a good profit.The family established its first permanent home and acquired an eighty-acre farm a few miles outside of town, and Julius became the first rabbi for the fledgling Jewish congregation, Beth El. Like his father, Julius insisted that his children be well educated although business circumstances were to preclude this for Adolph. Once the war ended and the soldiers garrisoned in and around Knoxville dispersed to their homes, though, the demand for the merchandise that Julius had stockpiled dropped precipitously. With creditors knocking on his door and without a steady income, Julius declared personal bankruptcy in late 1868, sold the house and farm, and in 1865 moved the family into rental quarters in Knoxville. His mother, Bertha, was an outspoken Southern sympathizer who was once caught trying to smuggle medicine across the Ohio River in George's baby carriage. George's childhood was one of penury and hardship. Unlike his older brother, however, George was too young to work to help support the family. As a result, George acquired formal education.
Education
George Oakes attended public and private schools in Knoxville, Tennessee. In the fall of 1876, he entered East Tennessee University (later the University of Tennessee). On the completion of his junior year in 1879, he joined his family in Chattanooga. He won the highest distinction in his class in mathematics and Greek in his sophomore and junior years, and when his class graduated in 1880, on account of his high record during his three years, he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree along with the other graduates. In 1925-1931, he studied history at Columbia University. He nearly completed the requirements for a Doctor of Philosophy degree at the time of his death.
In 1868-1880, George Oakes was a newspaper boy in Knoxville. His elder brother, Adolph Ochs, had become the owner of the Chattanooga Daily Times, and after leaving college Oakes began his journalistic career as a reporter on this paper. He became a familiar sight on Chattanooga's muddy streets and soon earned a reputation as a fair-minded reporter. Others, however, were less pleased with his coverage. On one occasion, George Oakes was compelled in self-defense to shoot a man who attacked him over his writing. In two years' time he was made a city editor; a year later, a news editor; and in 1884, a managing editor. This position he occupied until 1981, when he assumed charge as a manager of the Tradesman, a semimonthly industrial magazine controlled by the Times.
George Oakes was prominent in the public life of the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Elected delegate, he attended the National Democratic Convention held in Chicago in 1892, seconding on behalf of his state the nomination of Grover Cleveland; and in 1896 he was appointed delegate-at-large from Tennessee to the Palmer-Buckner Gold Democratic Convention held at Indianapolis in that year. In 1891, he was appointed a police commissioner. A delegate to the National Democratic Convention the following year, he delivered a speech in support of Cleveland and was active in his interests during the campaign that followed. On October 10, 1893, he was elected mayor of Chattanooga and assumed office on October 16; he was reelected in 1895 and served until October 1897. His administration was characterized by such economy and business efficiency that the city debt was practically wiped out and a low tax rate maintained, although new school buildings were erected and a park system and city hospital established. In 1895, he served as a vice-president of the National Municipal League. During the Bryan campaign of 1896, the Chattanooga Times supported John M. Palmer, the candidate of the Gold Democrats, much to the annoyance of local politicians, some of whom demanded that Oakes resign as a mayor. He continued, however, as a president of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce in 1899-1900.
After the completion of his second term as mayor, he served as the president of the board of education. He was active in the establishment of the earliest public library in the city and became its president. In 1891, he made the first of numerous trips to Europe, during which he recorded his experiences in a series of letters that were published in the Chattanooga Times. In 1900, his brother Adolph placed him in charge of the publication of a daily edition of the New York Times at the Paris Exposition Universelle.
Upon his return to the United States, he became general manager of the Philadelphia Times (later Public Ledger), which his brother had purchased on May 5, 1901. The following year the Public Ledger was acquired and merged with the Times and George Oakes was made a publisher and a general manager. This publication became the reform newspaper of Philadelphia and was in part responsible for the election of Rudolph Blankenburg as mayor. In 1912, Cyrus H. K. Curtis bought the Ledger from Adolph Ochs, and George remained as a publisher. Finding himself out of sympathy with Curtis's policies and methods he resigned at the end of 1914.
In the summer of 1915, he went to New York at the invitation of his brother to become an editor of the New York Times Current History and of the Mid-Week Pictorial, also an auxiliary of the Times. With the former, he was associated for the remainder of his life. It was founded to record impartially the economic, political, and military developments growing out of the World War, and at the close of the war, it was continued as a journal of significant happenings throughout the world. He was too old to be accepted for service in the war and was unwilling to accept a "swivel-chair position with a commission;" but he enlisted as a private in the New York militia. In New York, he abstained from political activities but was a member of numerous civic and social organizations.
George Oakes served during World War I in the National Guard and became a private.
George Oakes faced formidable problems when he became mayor of the city of Chattanooga. The nation was in the grips of the Panic of 1893, a global economic crisis caused by reckless railroad speculation. Chattanooga's problems were compounded by the collapse of the local iron and steel industry, as local mills and foundries were driven out of business by rising Birmingham firms. Oakes also inherited a city government ill-equipped to deal with this crisis. Like most cities of the day, Chattanooga's government was riddled with patronage, with even minor offices handed out as rewards to political supporters. On entering office, Oakes and his supporters took immediate steps to reform the city government. His first act was to survey 100 cities across the country to determine their salaries and policies. He then eliminated unnecessary offices, consolidated others, and aggressively attacked the city's debt. He also resisted calls for political favor, alienating, for example, Catholic voters by refusing calls for public support of parochial schools. Oakes took steps to assist the city's unemployed, establishing a sawmill and laundry to provide relief work and instituting public works projects to create much-needed jobs.
Membership
George Oakes was a president of Tennessee Society in New York and a historian of the Camp of Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Jewish Chautauqua Association
,
United States
1907 - 1914
Civitan Club of New York
,
United States
Personality
George Oakes was a sagacious editor, a man of delightful personality, and had an unquenchable interest in things of the mind. Perhaps his most marked characteristic was his tolerance. Himself conservative, orthodox in economic beliefs, and austere in morals, he welcomed and sought for all shades of thought.
Connections
George Oakes had six siblings: Louis (1856-1859), Adolph (1858-1935), Nannie Bertha (1860-1947), Milton Barlow (1864-1955), Ada (1866-1956), and Mattie (1868-1963). On January 30, 1907, George Oakes married Bertie Gans of Philadelphia, by whom he had two sons: John Bertram, George Washington.