Politics
John W. Smith
1882–1942 · pipefitter, postmaster, mayor of Detroit
Former newsboy and pipefitter who rose to postmaster and mayor, defeating a Klan-backed write-in candidate in 1924 and serving twice (1924–1928 and 1933).
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 60- Detroit years
- 1882–1942
- Field
- Politics
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
John W. Smith was born in Detroit in 1882 and grew up poor after his father died when he was five. He sold newspapers from the age of six, left school after the fifth grade, set pins in a bowling alley and boxed, and at fifteen joined the Army for the Spanish–American War and service in the Philippines. Back in Detroit he spent a year at the University of Detroit while training as a pipefitter, then worked at the Detroit Shipbuilding Company. Active in Republican politics from 1908, he became deputy state labor commissioner, a sheriff's deputy, deputy U.S. marshal and state senator, and in 1922 President Harding named him Detroit postmaster. In the bitter 1924 special election he won a three-way race while the Klan-backed Charles Bowles nearly triumphed as a write-in, and he stayed mayor until 1928. He served again briefly in 1933 after Frank Murphy's resignation, and sat on the City Council for most of the decade until his death in 1942.
Highlights
- Mayor of Detroit 1924–1928 and in 1933
- Defeated a Ku Klux Klan-backed write-in campaign in 1924
- Postmaster of Detroit, appointed 1922
- Detroit City Council member, 1932–1942