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)