Alexander Calder (Beaumont, Texas)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alexander Calder (1806 - August 23, 1853), a New Yorker, became the first mayor of Beaumont, Texas, on August 8, 1840.

On July 28, 1840, an election was held under the Incorporation Act, and on August 8, Beaumont's first elected officials were sworn into office. Elected Mayor was Alexander Calder, a New Yorker who had traveled to Beaumont by horseback in 1838 and had become a lawyer after his arrival. The new Mayor promptly addressed himself to the problems at hand, appointing committees in charge of roads and streets, finances, landings, wharves and ferries, and to be sure that all miscellaneous ground was covered, general expediencies. One of the first ordinances passed by the new City Council established liability for removing carcasses of cattle that had drowned while they were being driven across the Neches River.