Boston elects its first ever Democratic Party mayor

With the endorsement of both wings of his own party and the Whigs, Joseph Wightman, an inventor and designer of scientific instruments, was elected as the seventeenth mayor of Boston, the first Democrat so elected.  His vote count of 8,768 on rain-filled day in the city easily outpaced his nearest rival, Republican Moses Kimball, who garnered 5,681. Wightman was reelected the following year but lost his bid for a third term to the Republican candidate, former major Frederic W. Lincoln, Jr.  (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
"Municipal Election in Boston," New York Times, December 11, 1860
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Type
    Campaigns/Elections
    How to Cite This Page: "Boston elects its first ever Democratic Party mayor," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/35024.