He solidified his power over the First Ward by using his influence to keep police pressure off the saloons and free his constituents from jail for minor crimes especially if their crimes were related to Pendergast-owned saloons. Joseph B. As the goats expanded out of the First Ward, certain demographic patterns stuck; unlike the old-guard Democratic Party associated with white Southerners, the local Democratic machine constituents were diverse and more likely to be Catholic, first- or second-generation immigrants of Italian, Irish, or Mexican descent, or African American.
When Tom joined Jim as a business and political partner, he provided a sturdy physical aura and stable leadership qualities.
His intimidating size and reputation as a brawler combined with an approachable and outwardly friendly, yet also blunt and resolute personality. Among other odd jobs, Tom worked a liquor and concession stand at a horseracing track named the Kansas City Driving Club. While serving as an associate to Jim—as did five of the other seven Pendergast siblings—Tom rose quickly, from First Ward deputy constable in , to deputy marshal in , and to superintendent of streets in The streets job foretold a lifelong pattern for Tom Pendergast, who secured jobs for political allies even while establishing a citywide reputation as an effective administrator.
Pendergast understood that a broad swath of constituents would tolerate corruption as long as they perceived that city services and infrastructure was being developed for the broader public benefit. Tom Pendergast took over the political machine when James died of natural causes in , although in the previous year he had already secured the alderman seat that Jim relinquished due to poor health.
In , Tom gave up his seat on the city council and focused on his unelected role as leader of the Jackson Democratic Club, the formal party organization of the Pendergast machine that was headquartered at his Jefferson Hotel at Sixth and Wyandotte Streets. In his hotel office, he worked to ensure the election of favorable candidates to city positions. He was also vice-president of Ready-Mixed Concrete Co. Other noteworthy companies with Pendergast connections included the T.
Pendergast Wholesale Liquor Co. Ross Construction Co. Even businesses not directly associated with Pendergast routinely had to make payments, often as much as 5 or 10 percent of gross revenue, to the machine in order to do business in Kansas City and avoid various forms of harassment or problems with licensing and city regulators.
He gained almost unchallenged control due to a change in the city government that was, ironically, first proposed by well-meaning reformers including the philanthropist William Volker. The mayor would hold little formal power. Somewhat surprisingly, Pendergast went along with the proposed reforms and was quoted in the Star as saying, "It ought to be as easy to get along with nine men as thirty-two [the number of aldermen in the old system].
McElroy as city manager. Other aspiring bosses, including Mike Ross and Cas Welch, fell in line. A few years later, in , the Irish-American Mike Ross found himself replaced as leader of the Italian North End when several of his associates were kidnapped by one of his lieutenants, Italian-American Johnny Lazia.
From until his indictment in , Pendergast, working through proxies such as McElroy, Lazia, and other associates, dictated the terms of day-to-day business in the city, including the operations of the police department, judicial appointments, elections officials, parks and recreation, and roads. His classier image included a new home on Ward Parkway , unfailing attendance at mass at Visitation Church , abstinence from alcohol and drugs, evenings reserved for his family, and an early bedtime.
Senators James A. Reed and Harry S. The Pendergast faction was well represented in the Missouri delegation to the Democratic National Convention that selected Franklin Roosevelt as the Democratic nominee for president. Federal and public scrutiny of Kansas City, however, began to grow after the November election, when thousands of fraudulent ballots were cast, four people murdered at polling stations, and an additional 11 voters shot and wounded.
Available funding for such projects expanded rapidly in , when Pendergast persuaded newly elected Senator Harry S. Truman to lobby for the appointment of Matthew S. In Tom Pendergast permanently relocated to Kansas City, where he joined his brother James, a former packinghouse employee and ironworker who had risen to become a successful businessman and owner of the American House, a hotel and saloon.
While his sisters Mary Anne and Josephine worked in the hotel, John and Michael Pendergast who would also become involved in the machine tended bar in the saloon. Tom Pendergast graduated from working odd jobs to serving as a bookkeeper for his older brother. James had established himself in the West Bottoms, an industrial section of the city bordered by the Missouri River and the Kansas state line. It had poor roads and sanitation and the housing was overcrowded and in disrepair.
Saloons like the ones owned by James were important places in neighborhoods like the West Bottoms. They provided recreation for workers especially men who worked long hours, and they served as banks in a part of the city where few others provided the service. James later extended his influence into the North End, another neighborhood of working-class people which bordered the West Bottoms. Well-known by their neighbors, saloonkeepers often made the leap from businessman to politician, and James Pendergast was no different.
Their popularity made them successful in the ward system of politics. At the turn of the century, cities were often divided into units called wards. Politicians were elected from these wards to represent their neighborhoods in city government.
He used his position as an elected official to advance the interests of his largely working-class constituents. He also opposed a deal between the city and a telephone company that he feared would make telephone service too expensive, a scheme to remove the only fire station in the West Bottoms, and cutting the pay of firemen. As a saloon owner and politician in a working-class ward, James benefited financially from the vice industries especially gambling , and he used his political power to protect them.
During the nineteenth century, many government jobs were awarded based on political connections. Reformers criticized this system for giving jobs to unqualified people, but the system also allowed working-class and immigrant residents to get jobs that were previously reserved for members of the white, native-born and usually Protestant elite.
In James gave his younger brother a job as a deputy constable in the First Ward city court. Two years later, Tom was appointed deputy marshal in the county court. In Kansas City mayor James A. James was increasingly slowed by illness after , and Tom stepped in to help him with his duties as alderman. It was during this period that Tom Pendergast began his rapid ascent as a political leader in Kansas City politics.
As a city alderman, Tom Pendergast sought to strengthen his control over Democratic politics in Kansas City. Over time, this compromise broke down, and Pendergast and Shannon fought for control. By Pendergast had forced Shannon into a subordinate role.
Only a decade after resigning from the city council in , Pendergast had emerged as the most powerful figure in Democratic politics in the city and county. As the machine grew in power, it continued to attend to the needs of poor and working-class Kansas Citians. Like his brother, Pendergast used his organization to finance the distribution of food, coal, and clothing to needy residents of the First Ward. Perhaps his best known charitable activities were the Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners for the poor.
Of course, these efforts to aid the poor and working class helped Pendergast, too. Workers repaid the boss with votes, and many of the projects were supplied by Pendergast-run businesses, especially the Ready-Mixed Concrete Company.
Pendergast, however, could not have gained as much political power as he did with only working-class support alone. Kansas City had a large population of clerks and other white-collar employees.
The machine organized baseball and bowling leagues as well as social clubs that held dinners, dances, picnics, and various kinds of parties during most of the year. It was one of the first syndicated television shows about hunting and fishing.
The show lasted for twenty-one years. Rufus "Freight Train" Jones was a professional wrestler who wrestled for the St. He received the nickname "Freight Train" for his immovability and sheer power. A songwriter born in Spurgeon, Mo.
Betty is buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Kansas City, Mo. An excellent resource is available at FindAGrave.
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