Cobb, Samuel C. (Samuel Crocker), 1826-1891

Biography

Samuel Crocker Cobb, Boston's twenty-third mayor, served from 1874 to 1876. He was long one of the merchants who carried on a foreign trade with Europe and South America. He was born at Taunton, May 22, 1826, and prepared for Harvard at Bristol Academy, Taunton, a school founded by his grandfather. But he was obliged to go to work when he was about sixteen as a clerk with A. and C. Cunningham, foreign shipping merchants at 15 Rowe's Wharf. In 1847, he went into business with J. Henry Cunningham, his friend and fellow clerk, under the name Cunningham and Cobb. He was an alderman for Roxbury in 1860, and, when Roxbury was annexed, became a member of the Boston Board of Aldermen.

At a meeting of the citizens November 11, 1873, he was nominated for mayor, and was elected by 19,191 votes. So great was the demand for his renomination that he again ran, and was elected unanimously; and again he was elected in 1875. As the annexation of Charlestown, West Roxbury, and Brighton had added forty-four thousand inhabitants to Boston, Mayor Cobb supported heartily the revision of the charter by the commission which had been appointed by Mayor Pierce. The recommendation of the commission was not adopted, but many of the provisions they suggested were afterward incorporated in special laws. He recommended to the General court the organizing of the present system of public parks, established a paid Water Board, and helped to pass an act limiting the indebtedness of municipalities. After he retired from office, he had many public and private trusts, and was a director in many institutions. At the time of his death, February 19, 1891, he was president of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati.

Taken from "Boston's 45 Mayors from John Phillips to Kevin H. White," City Record, Boston, 1979.

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