Richard Welstead Croker Sr.

Background

Richard Croker was born in the townland of Ballyva, in the parish of Ardfield, six miles south of Clonakilty in County Cork on November 24, 1843, son of Eyre Coote Croker and Frances Laura Welsted. When Richard was three years old, his father and mother, with their nine children, migrated to America, settling in New York City.

Education

Richard attended a public school irregularly from his eleventh to his thirteenth year.

Career

At thirteen he was large for his age and began working as a machinist. At nineteen he was leader of the “Fourth Avenue Tunnel Gang” and a prize-fighter of no slight distinction among the youth of New York’s upper East Side. After he reached his majority, he attached himself to Tammany Hall, which was in control of the city government, under William M. Tweed.

He was appointed an attendant in the supreme court, but left that sinecure to become an engineer on a Fire Department steamer. From this comparative obscurity he emerged in 1868 as a member of the “Young Democracy, ” a faction of Tammany,

headed by “Honest John” Kelly, which made war on Tweed and all his cohorts.

Thirty years later Croker declared that in this fight he was actuated solely by a consuming zeal to release the city from the clutches of Tweed, who had stolen millions of public money, had operated crudely, and had been found out.

Croker was elected a member of the board of aldermen and in that capacity he signed, with other members, on March 20, 1870, an agreement to take no official action on any proposition affecting the city government without first obtaining the consent of certain leaders of the Young Democracy, who were named. In that year (1870) Croker, with other anti-Tweed aldermen, was legislated out of office by a bill passed through Tweed’s influence in the state legislature.

Yet Croker’s part in the premature attempt to purify Tammany did not stand in the way of his appointment by the comptroller to a lucrative post in the city administration.

After Tweed's downfall and imprisonment in 1871 Croker’s star continued in the ascendant. He was elected coroner and in that office received fees amounting to $20, 000 or $25, 000 a year. He gave whole-hearted support to John Kelly, Tweed’s successor as boss.

On election day in 1874, a man belonging to a faction opposed to Croker’s was shot and killed. Croker was charged with the crime, but the case was dismissed, the district attorney admitting a lack of evidence.

In after years Croker declared that the guilty man was one of his own henchmen, that the shot had been fired in self-defense, and that he would not “give away” a friend under such circumstances.

It was the law of the gang, not that of the state, which most strongly influenced his decisions throughout his life. After a month in jail he resumed the office of coroner, to which he was reelected two years later. His next promotion was an appointment by Mayor Edson to a fire commissionership.

In 1885 he brought about the nomination of Hugh J. Grant for sheriff. In the following year, after ten years’ tutelage under John Kelly, Croker succeeded his old chief in the Tammany leadership.

He became chairman of the Tammany Finance Committee (which kept no books) and for sixteen years his word was law in the Democratic organization of New York City.

As leader, he was shrewd enough to surround himself with advisers who had qualities that he himself lacked. Certain of his traits as a political strategist were displayed in the mayoral campaign of 1886, when the labor vote was an important factor. The Republican nominee was Theodore Roosevelt. Hewitt was elected and served a term of two years, but antagonized Tammany by his independent attitude and did not receive a renomination.

The next two mayors, Grant and Gilroy, were named by Croker and elected by the efforts of the 90, 000 enrolled workers, marshaled by thirty-five district leaders, who now made up the Tammany phalanx. The keystone of Croker’s political theory was the spoils system, as developed and practised by Tammany.

At the same time he was the first Tammany chieftain to turn over the handling of local patronage to the district leaders, whom he held to a strict accounting.

The last public office held by Croker was that of city chamberlain, in 1889-90, at a salary of $25, 000. The disclosures before the Lexow Committee concerning the Police Department led to a fusion against Tammany in 1894 and the election of Mayor Strong. Croker’s leadership was discredited and he went to England to live.

During the campaign of 1896 the organization was in the hands of John C. Sheehan, and McKinley carried the city by 20, 000. In the next year occurred the first mayoral election for the newly created Greater New York, including Brooklyn, Staten Island, and portions of Queens and Westchester counties.

Croker returned from England in September 1897, and despite the disaffection of three-fifths of the Tammany district leaders, he succeeded in nominating and electing Robert C. Van Wyck as mayor, although a strong anti-Tammany ticket, headed by Seth Low.

The running of General B. F. Tracy on a Republican ticket contributed powerfully to Tammany success.

In 1899 Croker admitted before a legislative committee that the officials in the Van Wyck administration were selected by himself or his close associates.

When asked by counsel whether he was working for his own pocket all the time, he replied that he was doing just that. Although he had been a poor man before he became Tammany’s recognized leader, afterward he paid $250, 000 for a stock farm and more than $100, 000 for race horses, and later $200, 000 for a residence.

It was never shown that he acquired this wealth illegally. According to a general belief at the time, it was what an associate of Croker’s called “honest graft, ” stock in contracting companies and other enterprises for which the friendship of men in control of certain city departments was helpful, if not essential.

In 1900 the English tax officers assessed Croker’s income at $100, 000, the tax being fixed at $5, 000 (World, New York, December 12, 1900). At the end of four years under Van Wyck a genuine fusion movement, with no third ticket in the field, resulted in Seth Low’s election.

From that time Croker never regained dominance in New York City affairs. He lived for several years at Moat House, Wantage, England, and later bought Glencairn, near Dublin, Ireland, where he maintained racing stables, breeding horses that won a series of Irish races and in 1907 sending Orby, a half-American horse, to win the classic Derby in England, with betting odds of ten to one against him.

As an owner of racers, Croker seems to have conformed to the standards of English sportsmanship. He declined to wager money on his own horse in the Derby.

His latter years were embittered by disputes and litigation with his children concerning property.

Achievements

• He was a leader of New York City's Tammany Hall and a political boss. Croker's greatest political success was his bringing about the 1897 election of Robert A. Van Wyck as first mayor of the five-borough "greater" New York, and during Van Wyck's administration Croker is popularly supposed to have completely dominated the government of the city.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Boomer Century, 1946-2046: How America's Most Influential Generation Changed Everything

    (The Baby Boom generation has always been known as a demog...)

  • No Greater Courage: A Novel of the Battle of Fredericksburg

    (A dramatic re-creation of the bloody 1862 battle of Fredr...)

  • A History of Musical Style (Dover Books on Music)

    ( Style — the distinctive manner of presentation, constru...)

  • To Make Men Free: A Novel of the Battle of Antietam

    (A fictional account of the bloody Civil War battle of Sep...)

  • Y’all Is Always Plural!

    ("I once heard a story about Margaret Mitchell and David O...)

Politics

He always maintained that a corrupt official could be dealt with more effectively by a disciplined organization such as Tammany than by any other agency.

Membership

He was a member of the New York City Council and a member of Tammany Hall.

Personality

All his mature life Croker was a reserved, silent man, at times taciturn. He was called a “good listener” in conferences with his aides. His physical resemblance to President Grant was often noted.

Connections

His first wife (Elizabeth Frazier of New York) whom he had married in 1873 and from whom he had been estranged for some years, died in 1914. They had several children.

He then married Beula Benton Edmondson, a twenty-three-year-old Cherokee Indian from Oklahoma.

Father:

Eyre Coote Croker

Mother:

Frances Laura Welsted

Daughter:

Florence Genevieve Croker

Daughter:

Ethel J. Croker

2nd spouse:

Beula Benton Edmondson

1st spouse:

Elizabeth Frazier

Son:

Herbert Vincent "Bertie" Croker

Son:

Joseph Croker

Son:

Richard Samuel Croker "Jr."

Son:

Howard F. Croker

Son:

Francis H. "Frank" Croker

References

• Master of Manhattan - The Life of Richard Croker
• Richard Croker (Classic Reprint)