Darr Mine Relief Fund Report to the Executive Committee, Covering the Collection and Distribution of the Public Fund for the Dependents of the men ... Pittsburgh Coal Company, December 19th, 1907
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Oliver McClintock was an Americam merchant and political reformer.
Background
Oliver McClintock was born on October 20, 1839 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the eldest of seven children of Washington and Eliza (Thompson) McClintock. He was a descendant of Scotch ancestors who came to Pennsylvania from Ireland in 1740. His grandfather engaged in Conestoga wagon freighting between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and ran a blacksmith shop and ferry at Fort Pitt. Washington McClintock entered the business of his father-in-law, Samuel Thompson, who manufactured uniforms in the War of 1812 and established a carpet and dry goods store in Pittsburgh. In 1844 the firm became W. McClintock & Company.
Education
Oliver received a good education in local academies and graduated from Yale in 1861.
Career
McClintock served as a corporal in the 15th Pennsylvania Emergency Militia during Lee's invasions, and was also a member of the subsistence committee which fed 500, 000 Federal troops as they passed through Pittsburgh. He was taken into his father's business in 1862, but shortly established a separate store, which merged with the parent company in 1864 as Oliver McClintock & Company. His brothers, and later two of his sons, were admitted to the firm, which attained a position of leadership in the mercantile life of the city and was finally dissolved on April 1, 1914, after 106 years of activity by three generations. McClintock was a prime mover in many civic enterprises. He was an elder of the Presbyterian Church, first president of the Pittsburgh Young Men's Christian Association (1866), a trustee and president of the board of Western Theological Seminary and of Pennsylvania College for Women. In 1883 he and his brother-in-law, Albert H. Childs, founded Shadyside Academy; and his sons were members of its first graduating class. He was long an official of the Chamber of Commerce and at his death was its oldest member. When the city government collapsed during the railroad-strike riots of 1877, McClintock acted for two weeks on the Emergency Public Safety Committee authorized by a mass meeting. He was a founder and director of the Civic Club of Allegheny County, and was active in such national and state bodies as the American Civic Association, National Civil Service Reform League, National Municipal League, Ballot Reform Association, and Indian Rights Association of Pennsylvania.
In the 1880's and '90's Pittsburgh was in the grip of a political ring led by Christopher L. Magee, which distributed long franchises to utilities, let bids for public works at exorbitant prices, and generally battened on public moneys under cover of legal forms. A small group of citizens, inspired by McClintock and David D. Bruce, had for years vainly fought the public-works corruption in and out of court. In 1895 they aroused enough public sentiment to organize a Citizens' Municipal League, and campaigned to beat the ring in the election of February 1896. McClintock was a member of the executive committee of five, which nominated for mayor George W. Guthrie, an able Democratic lawyer. The Magee machine was hampered by a factional fight with the state boss, Senator Matthew S. Quay, and Guthrie actually won a majority; but he was fraudulently counted out and denied a recount by the courts. In 1902 McClintock again led a Citizens' Party, which partially broke the hold of the Magee ring. In 1906 the independents succeeded in electing Guthrie mayor, and a great exposé of council manic iniquity followed. McClintock secured in 1907 the passage of a state civil-service law for second-class cities (Pittsburgh, Scranton). In 1910 the veteran reformer threw his influence into the fight for a new city charter which replaced the corrupt and inefficient two-chambered council, elected by wards, with a small council of nine, elected at large on a non-partisan ballot.
Achievements
McClintock known as president of O. McClintock and Company, a mercantile house. His brothers Frank T. and Walter Lowrie, were also associated with the business. Additionally, he served as president of the YMCA; as an elder in Second Presbyterian Church; and as a trustee of the Western Theological Seminary. He and his brother-in-law A. H. Childs were founders of Shady Side Academy. He was a director of the Chamber of Commerce.
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Views
McClintock himself never sought public office. His tireless efforts for good government were attended by ridicule, threats, and boycotts of other business men. He said that he met his greatest discouragement in the cowardice and civic apathy of prosperous citizens. He attributed his reforming zeal to a hatred of autocracy inherited from his Revolutionary and Scotch-Irish ancestors.
Membership
member of the Duquesne Club, the University Club of New York
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
"This single citizen's long, brave fight is one of the finest stories in the history of municipal government. " - Lincoln Steffens
Connections
McClintock was married, June 7, 1866, to Clara Courtney Childs of Pittsburgh. He had three sons and three daughters, all of whom survived him.
