The Newsboy Governor, Now Buried in Calvary Cemetery

You never know what you might find at First Calvary Cemetery in Queens.

Here lies Tammany, gazing eternally upon their work. The city. That great city. The greatest and last of their projects is promontory above the shield wall of Manhattan, and the familiar vista of Calvary Cemetery is offered as an iconic representation by most. It’s immediately recognizable, because of that singular tower.

The tower – called the Empire State building – was built in just over single year, under the supervision of a former Newsboy, from South Street in Manhattan, who watched the Brooklyn Bridge being built from his bedroom window.

From Wikipedia:

The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark Art Deco skyscraper in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world’s tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center’s North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building once again became the tallest building in New York City and New York State.

Calvary opened in 1848, when this part of Queens was still known as the town of Blissville, in Newtown. The people who were buried here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries arrived in, and encountered, a very different city – a divergent concept of a city – than the one we know. They fled religious war and famine, as even the hazardous journey to an unknown country was better than staying where they were, and found themselves at the bottom of the economic ladder when they landed in New York. The first big surges of these immigrants in the years leading up to the Civil War were Catholics, fleeing war and famine in Poland, Germany, Italy – and like that newsboy from South Street – Ireland.

Before the Civil War, New York was ruled by members of the “knickerbockracy,” a social elite who were labeled “the 400” by Samuel Ward MacAllister. They were not at all happy about the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” arriving in NYC every day and crowding up the place. Disgusted Anglophiles, and the remaining Dutch elite, saw to it that these wretched people would be excluded from power and opportunity in an unofficially Protestant municipal establishment. Particular outrage was felt by Catholics towards the school system, which taught the “evils of papacy” as a part of course work.

Also from Wikipedia:

The Empire State Building was designed by William F. Lamb from the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, which produced the building drawings in just two weeks, using its earlier designs for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the Carew Tower in Cincinnati, Ohio (designed by the architectural firm W.W. Ahlschlager & Associates) as a basis. Every year the staff of the Empire State Building sends a Father’s Day card to the staff at the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem to pay homage to its role as predecessor to the Empire State Building. The building was designed from the top down. The general contractors were The Starrett Brothers and Eken, and the project was financed primarily by John J. Raskob and Pierre S. du Pont.

Ethnic associations formed amongst the new immigrants, who were victimized by discriminatory policies of government and racial or religious prejudices. Several of these ethnic clubs began to try their hand at and attempt political organization via the immigrant grass roots, and registered voters began to appear in the riverfront slums in great numbers, and especially in the Five Points in Manhattan. These new voters could be relied upon to vote their interests, and opportunistic politicians saw the value in catering to the “great unwashed,” as long as their man won by a wide margin on election day.

From Wikipedia:

Tammany Hall (Founded May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society, and also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order), was the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in controlling New York City politics and helping immigrants (most notably the Irish) rise up in American politics from the 1790s to the 1960s. It usually controlled Democratic Party nominations and patronage in Manhattan from the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854 through the election of John P. O’Brien in 1932. Tammany Hall was permanently weakened by the election of Fiorello La Guardia on a “fusion” ticket of Republicans, reform-minded Democrats, and independents in 1934, and despite a brief resurgence in the 1950s, it ceased to exist in the 1960s.

What to modern eyes would be an impeachable offense was just part of doing business back in the 19th century, and the ethnic associations could muster significant and reliable turnouts on election day for whoever was willing to pay. Political clubs formed, who ensured that loyal voters would be offered jobs in Municipal employ in return for voting the way they were told. We would term this as “pay for play” or something, and jump up and down screaming about corruption, and invoke the good old days. Trust me, the more you know about the good old days, the more you appreciate modern government.

The largest and most influential of these Political Clubs was called Tammany Hall, and it began to pick its own people to run for office instead of supporting the landed gentry or the degenerate Dutch candidates. Before long, Tammany was the defacto government and you’d have to head over to Union Square to strike a deal before going downtown to City Hall. If you wanted in, you had to be “in” with Tammany.

That Newsboy from the South Street waterfront, who watched as the East River Bridge being built, lost his father at age 13.

He left school and went to work, first at an oil company and later at the Fulton Fish Market – which netted him the astounding salary of $15 per week. He developed a certain celebrity in the 4th ward of Manhattan because of his good fortunes, and soon came to the attention of the Tammany men, who pronounced that they had discovered a certain “likeability” about him.

Also from Wikipedia:

Despite occasional defeats, Tammany was consistently able to survive and, indeed, prosper; it continued to dominate city and even state politics. Under leaders like John Kelly and Richard Croker, Charles Francis Murphy and Timothy Sullivan, it controlled Democratic politics in the city. Tammany opposed William Jennings Bryan in 1896.

In 1901, anti-Tammany forces elected a reformer, Republican Seth Low, to become mayor. From 1902 until his death in 1924, Charles Francis Murphy was Tammany’s boss. In 1927 the building on 14th Street was sold. The new building on East 17th Street and Union Square East was finished and occupied by 1929. In 1932, the machine suffered a dual setback when Mayor James Walker was forced from office and reform-minded Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president of the United States. Roosevelt stripped Tammany of federal patronage, which had been expanded under the New Deal—and passed it instead to Ed Flynn, boss of the Bronx. Roosevelt helped Republican Fiorello La Guardia become mayor on a Fusion ticket, thus removing even more patronage from Tammany’s control. La Guardia was elected in 1933 and re-elected in 1937 and 1941. He was the first anti-Tammany Mayor to be re-elected and his extended tenure weakened Tammany in a way that previous “reform” Mayors had not.

By 1895, the young man was appointed a clerk to the Commissioner of Jurors and was noticed by Thomas F. Foley – the boss of Tammany. Shortly, the Newsboy was an Assemblyman in Albany, and spent 12 years gathering patronage and clout in the capital of New York State. By 1913, he had become Speaker of the House and the most influential man in Albany. As a reward for his services, Tammany appointed him Sheriff of New York, a lucrative position in those days. By 1918, the Newsboy with the “likeability” was elected Governor of New York State and came to national prominence during his 4 terms in office.

In 1928 he ran for President of the United States, this Irish kid from South Street, and a young Franklin D. Roosevelt was honored with placing his name before the convention. He lost to Herbert Hoover, whose many supporters publicly voiced concern about the Tammany contagion spreading into Washington and across the nation. In 1932, he lost the nomination of his party to Franklin D. Roosevelt and retired from politics.

Disgusted with the vagaries of politics and betrayed by the last of the Knickerbocker elites, the Newsboy governor turned to private business. Amongst other ventures, he became president of the company which would construct the Empire State Building at the height of the Great Depression. One or two of his friends also came in on the venture.

That iconic structure is located, incidentally, on the former site of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel – a regular haunt and preferred meeting place for the elite “four hundred.”

As Governor, this Tammany man and former Newsboy rewrote the NYS Labor Law after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and oversaw the creation of much of modern New York, including the building out of the Subway system. As a private citizen, he used his extensive patronage and political muscle to build the Empire State Building in an astounding 410 days. It was President Herbert Hoover who cut the ribbon on opening day, however.

His name was Alfred E. Smith. Al the happy warrior to his constituents.

Governor Smith died October 4, 1944 at 6:28 AM. He lies in Calvary next to his wife, Catherine A. Dunn Smith.

Click here to listen to a history.com audio file of Al Smith speaking “on New York”.

From alsmithfoundation.com:

In 1918, to the surprise of many, he was elected Governor of the State of New York. Although he lost the 1920 election, he ran successfully again in 1922, 1924, and 1926 – making him one of three New York State Governors to be elected to four terms. While Governor, he achieved the passage of extensive reform legislation, including improved factory laws, better housing requirements, and expanded welfare services. Additionally, he reorganized the State government into a consolidated and business-like structure.

Governor Smith won the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States in 1928. During his campaign he continued to champion the cause of urban residents.

Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman lives in Astoria and blogs at Newtown Pentacle.