Patrick Gleason

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Patrick Gleason was an Irish-born mayor of Long Island City, New York.

Patrick James Gleason served as mayor from 1887 to 1892 and during the last two years before New York City swallowed up its neighbors on New Year's Day, 1898.

Gleason was belligerent and corrupt, like his Tammany Hall colleagues across the river in the big town, and he was an embarrasment to the Brahmins, such as piano magnate William Steinway. In Boston, they say about the "Last Hurrah" mayor, James Michael Curly, "He served a term as mayor and a term in jail and he deserved both of them." Gleason was a man in that mold.

On December 29, 1888, he received his nicknames, "Battle Ax". The Long Island Rail Road built a shed and barrier on the street to keep riff raff without tickets away from the ferry to 34th St. in Manhattan. Hizzoner disputed the right of the railroad to block off the public street and he didn't need no stinking injunction to solve the problem.

For further information, see The LIC Star at the Greater Astoria Historical Society, The Political Graveyard and The Brooklyn Eagle at the Brooklyn Public Library