James McManes

Background

James McManes was born on April 13, 1822 in County Tyrone, Ireland. He was the son of James and Rebecca (Johnson) McManes. He emigrated with his parents to the United States at the age of eight years, and settled in Philadelphia.

Education

Because of his family's poverty, he left school before completing the elementary grades and went to work as a bobbinboy in the cotton-mills.

Career

At the age of twenty-five McManes began spinning for himself on a modest scale, but his mill burned, and he returned to the older mills as an employee. In 1855 he left to establish a real-estate business. Meanwhile, in 1844 he had received naturalization papers and joined the Whigs. In 1852 he was moderately active in support of Winfield Scott; after Scott's defeat he turned to the People's Republican ranks and got himself elected to the ward school board, and by 1858 he controlled the politics of Philadelphia's Seventeenth Ward. In 1860 he sat as a Lincoln delegate in the Republican National Convention and at the state convention helped nominate Andrew G. Curtin for governor. Two years later he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the national House of Representatives. In 1865 he became one of the trustees charged with the management of the municipal gas works and during his twenty years of service had much to do with making the gas trustees a ring which almost completely dominated Philadelphia politics. In 1866 he received election as prothonotary of the district court and a seat on the city board of education. Thenceforward until 1881 his power in Philadelphia politics exceeded that of any other person. At the Republican National Convention in 1880 McManes favored Garfield, refusing to support Grant for a third term in spite of the state boss, Senator James Donald Cameron. As a reprisal, Cameron invaded Philadelphia in 1881 and with the support of a reform movement inflicted on McManes a bad defeat. The next two years were turbulent and in 1883 McManes even temporarily lost his position as gas trustee. By 1884, however, the uprising had sufficiently receded for him to elect the mayor. During the years following 1885, when Matthew S. Quay attempted with considerable success to dominate Philadelphia politics, McManes devoted much of his time to private business and to Fairmount Park, which he served as commissioner. Starting with real estate, he later became interested in street railways and merged the important lines of Philadelphia into the Union Passenger Railway. After helping organize the People's Bank, he became a director and later its president, and although apparently not personally cognizant of the acts that led to its failure, he felt obligated to the depositors and paid out of his own pocket more than half a million dollars. He died in Philadelphia.

Achievements

• James McManes is known as prominent and powerful Republican politician in Philadelphia in the lat 19th Century.

Personality

Although gentle to his family and friends, devoted to his wife, Catherine McNamee, simple in habits, taciturn, and of exemplary private life, McManes possessed an imperious nature which together with a pronounced bluntness of manner alienated many, particularly during his later years. He overcame the lack of a formal education by keen powers of observation, dogged perseverance, and ability to judge men. Withal he dealt generously with the poor and faithfully attended the Presbyterian Church. Thrifty and shrewd, he accumulated a fortune of approximately two and a half million dollars.

Connections

McManes was married to Catherine McNamee.

Father:

James McManes

Mother:

Rebecca (Johnson) McManes

Wife:

Catherine McNamee

References

• City Bosses in the United States: A Study of Twenty Municipal Bosses