Columbus, founded in 1812, is not the oldest city in Franklin County, but almost since the first tree was felled to make room for the new city it has been the most important. Columbus is one of a handful of state capitals that was built specifically to be the seat of state government. From 1803 to 1816 the state capital moved from Chillicothe to Zanesville and back to Chillicothe. Since its first mayor was sworn in Columbus has grown to be the largest city in Ohio and one of the reasons is that the city has been served by many dedicated men and women from all walks of life. Listed on this page are the names of the forty-seven mayors who have guided Columbus throughout its history. Surprisingly, there has never been a woman mayor.

In 1975 the Columbus Citizen-Journal, a subsidiary of Scripps Howard News Service, published a series of articles summarizing the life stories of the first forty-four Columbus mayors. As one of the "newspaper's services to Columbus and Ohio during our country's Bicentennial" those articles were "presented in book form." I recently received permission to publish the book as a PDF document to be used on this Web site. I want to thank Mr. Peter Copeland, Editor and General Manager of Scripps Howard News Service for his gracious consent to my request.


Columbus Mayors; A Bicentennial Presentation
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A few of the early mayors appear in the pages of the 1880 Williams Bros., History of Franklin & Pickaway Counties, Ohio; links to those biographical sketches appear below. I hope to add additional information and/or obituaries as time permits.
MAYOR YEARS SERVED
Jarvis W. Pike 1816 - 1817
John Kerr (1778 - 1823) 1818 - 1819
Eli C. King 1820 - 1822
John Laughery (1784 -   ) 1823
William T. Martin (1788 - 1866) 1824 - 1826
James Robinson 1827
William Long (1781 - 1851) 1827 - 1833
Philo H. Olmsted (1793 - 1870) 1833, 1838 - 1839
John Brooks (1785 - 1869) 1834
John Bailhache (1787 - 1857) 1835
Warren Jenkins (1804-1866) 1836 - 1837
John G. Miller (1795 - 1871) 1840
Thomas Wood (1782 - 1861) 1841
Abram Irvin McDowell (1793 - 1844) 1842
Smithson E. Wright (1807 - 1881) 1843
Alexander Patton (1791 - 1858) 1845, 1847 - 1849
Augustus Stoner Decker (1813-1872) 1846
Lorenzo English (1819 - 1888) 1850 - 1861
Wray Thomas (1810 -   ) 1861 - 1864
James G. Bull (1838 -   ) 1865 - 68, 1871 - 74
George W. Meeker (1833 - 1890) 1869 - 1870
John H. Heitmann (1841 - 1894) 1875 - 1878
Gilbert G. Collins (1830 - 1885) 1879 - 1880
George Silas Peters (1846 - 1928)
Photo & Death Notice and Obituaries
1881 - 1882
Charles C. Walcutt (1838 - 1898) 1883 - 1886
Philip H. Bruck (1845 - 1920) 1887 - 1890
George J. Karb (1858 - 1937) 1893-94 & 1912-19
Cotton H. Allen (1834 - 1900) 1895 - 1896
Samuel L. Black (1859 - 1929) 1897 - 1898
Samuel J. Swartz (1854 - 1905) 1899-1900
John N. Hinkle (1854 - 1905) 1901 - 1902
Robert H. Jeffrey (1873 - 1961 1903 - 1905
DeWitt C. Badger (1858-1826) 1906 - 1907
Charles Anson Bond (1873 - 1943) 1908 - 1909
George S. Marshall (1869 - 1956) 1910 - 1911
James John Thomas (1868 - 1947) 1920 - 1931
Henry William Worley (1877 - 1938) 1932 - 1935
Myron B. Gessaman (1894 - 1975) 1936 - 1939
Floyd F. Green (1900 - 1952) 1940 - 1943
James Allen Rhodes (1909 - 2001) 1944 - 1952
Robert T. Oestreicher (1894 - 1955) 1953
Maynard E. "Jack" Sensenbrenner (1902 - 1991) 1954-59 & 1964-71
W. Ralston Westlake (1907 - 1978) 1960 - 1963
Tom Moody (1930-2008) 1972 - 1984
Dana G. "Buck" Rinehart 1983 - 1991
Gregory S. Lashutka 1992 - 1999
Michael Coleman 2000 -        


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