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Name:    Mullanphy, Bryan
Mayor
Profession:  Mayor
Category:  Politics and Government    (Number 10)
Term as Mayor:    1847-1848
Born/Started:    1809
Died/Ended:     Jun. 15, 1851
Description:    Bryan Mullanphy was the 10th mayor of St. Louis, from 1847 to 1848. He was the City´s first bachelor mayor and never married during his short life. During his administration, the City provided for the construction of a new Waterworks reservoir at Twentieth and Benton Streets which was completed in 1849. The City continued to take steps to encourage the building of a railroad into St. Louis. Permission was granted to the company for the erection of posts and wires that brought the telegraph system into the City.

Mayor Mullanphy was born in Baltimore, in 1809, the son of a wealthy merchant and philanthropist. From 1798 to 1804 the family lived in Frankfort, Kentucky where they met Charles Gratiot, an early St. Louis settler, who persuaded them to move to St. Louis in 1804. The family moved several more times before returning to make St. Louis their permanent home in 1819.

Mullanphy was a member of the board of aldermen in 1835 and 1836. He served as judge of the St. Louis Circuit Court from 1840 to 1844. He was also a wealthy man noted for his many charities and many eccentricities. He wanted to help poor people but he was determined not to pauperize them. He would buy furniture for one of his empty houses and pay a poor family to live in it and keep it clean. He paid one poor widow a certain sum each month to take care of his cow, then let her have use of the milk. His will provided that one-third of his holdings was to go into a City trust fund for the relief of immigrants and travelers coming to St. Louis on their way to settle in the western part of the United States. This fund remains in use today, with offices at Union Station and the Greyhound Bus Terminal.

Mr. Mullanphy died June 15, 1851 at the age of 42. Burial was at Calvary Cemetery.


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