New York Times 20 December 1920 John F. Ahearn Dies at His Home Here Among the Last of the Political Leaders of the Old Tammany Regime Five Times State Senator Lost Long Fight to Retain Borough Presidency After Removal by Hughes John F. Ahearn, one of the few remaining Tammany leaders of the old regime, died late yesterday afternoon of pleurisy at his home, 296 East Broadway. He had been ill since returning from the San Francisco convention last Spring. At the bedside were the members of his immediate family and Drs. John F. Erdman, George Vandergrift and S. P. Leveridge. Born in this city April 18, 1853, Mr. Ahearn took an active interest in politics while still a boy working as a clerk in various business houses. The Fourth Assembly District sent him to Albany in 1882, and from that time politics was his sole occupation until he finally lost his long fight to retain the office of Borough President of Manhattan after Governor Hughes had ordered his removal. After retiring from the Assembly in 1888 he was appointed a police court clerk. In 1889 he first showed his strength as a political combatant, defeating Thomas F. Grady for the Senatorial nomination in the Tenth District. Tammany at once recognized his strength and drew him into its councils. Five terms he served in the Senate, and "Senator" was the title by which he ever afterward liked to be addressed. While in the Senate he espoused particularly the interests of school teachers, firemen and the police. He put through a bill pensioning the teachers who showed their gratitude by starting a $20,000 fund to build him a house, but he refused the gift. His "Mothers bill" to improve the system of committing dependent children was vetoed, but its provisions were later carried out in the children's branch of the Court of Special Sessions. As a district leader Ahearn exemplified to a high degree the Tammany type in his intense and constant playing of the political game and his devotion to the intimate personal needs of the men and women of his district. John Purroy Mitchel, as Commissioner of Accounts, handed a damaging report on Ahearn's administration to Mayor McClennan in July, 1907. The City Club took up the evidence and its President, George McAneny, laid charges before Governor Hughes. The Governor, after a thorough investigation, ordered Mr. Ahearn's removal on Dec. 9 of that year. Governor Hughes relieved him from suspicions of personal dishonesty, but denounced his administration as flagrantly inefficient and wasteful. The Governor's order proved to be only the opening gun in a two-year legal battle, in which Mr. Ahearn's counsel was Martin W. Littleton. The Board of Aldermen re-elected him Borough President that December and Mayor McClellan was finaly obliged for administrative reasons to recognize him as de facto Borough President. Meanwhile Mr. Littleton kept up a steady fire of varied court orders to keep his client in office and carried the case to the Court of Appeals. It was not until the final month of his elected term, in December, 1909, that Mr. Ahearn was at last compelled to acknowledge the force of the Hughes decision. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Dennis Ahern | The Ahern Family Genealogy Website Acton, Massachusetts | http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~aherns/ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -