William W. Irwin

William Wallace Irwin (January 8, 1803 – September 15, 1856) was Mayor of Pittsburgh and a Whig member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.

Early life

William Irwin was born in Pittsburgh in 1803, and as a boy earned the lifelong nickname "pony Irwin" because of his habit of riding a pony everywhere he went. He graduated from the Western University of Pennsylvania, now known as the University of Pittsburgh, in 1824.^[1][2] He was also a graduate of Allegheny College. He became a member of the Allegheny County bar on May 6, 1828,^[3] and by 1835 was serving as the president of the Western University's alumni association.^[4] He ran successfully for Allegheny County District Attorney in 1838.

Marriage and family

Irwin‍ '​s first wife was Frances Everallyn Rose Irwin (April 1809–February 24, 1836), the niece of Illinois Supreme Court justice Theophilus W. Smith and aunt of bridge engineer Charles Shaler Smith. They were the parents of United States Navy Rear Admiral John Irwin (1832-1901).^[5][6]

After his first wife‍ '​s death, Irwin remarried on February 28, 1839 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sophia Arabella Bache, born November 14, 1815 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and died on March 24, 1904 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Richard Bache, Jr., who served in the Republic of Texas Navy and was elected as a Representative to the Second Texas Legislature in 1847 and Sophia Burrell Dallas, the daughter of Arabella Maria Smith and Alexander J. Dallas an American statesman who served as the U.S. Treasury Secretary under President James Madison. She was also granddaughter of Sarah Franklin Bache and Richard Bache, and more notably she was the great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin as well as a niece of George Mifflin Dallas the 11th Vice President of the United States, serving under James K. Polk. They were the parents of educator Agnes Irwin and American businessman and the Kingdom of Hawaii's Minister to Japan, Robert Walker Irwin.

Pittsburgh politics

Upon being elected mayor in 1840 Irwin oversaw the expansion of infrastructure and government in the city to catch up with the regions rapid expansion. Under his administration four additional wards were added to the city.

United States House of Representatives

Irwin used his term as mayor as a touchstone for his race as a representative for U.S. Congress. He was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-seventh Congress. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1842

Later life

After his term in Congress, Irwin was United States Ambassador to Denmark 1843-1847. He died in Pittsburgh in 1856. Interment in Allegheny Cemetery.

References

External links

• William W. Irwin at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• The Mayors of Pittsburgh
• The Political Graveyard
• William W. Irwin at Find a Grave

Mayors of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania since the 1816 City Charter Denny Darragh Snowden Murray M. Lowrie Murray Pettigrew McClintock Little Irwin Thomson Hay Howard Kerr Adams J. Herron Barker J. Guthrie Riddle Volz Bingham Weaver Wilson Sawyer J. Lowry McCarthy Blackmore Brush Blackmore McCarthy Liddell Lyon Fulton McCallin Gourley McKenna Ford Diehl A. Brown J. Brown Hays G. Guthrie Magee Armstrong Babcock Magee Kline J.S. Herron McNair Scully Lawrence Gallagher Barr Flaherty Caliguiri Masloff Murphy O'Connor Ravenstahl Peduto