author
Alfred Clark Chapin
1848–1936
A lawyer turned public servant, he moved easily through some of New York’s most important offices in the late 1800s, from Brooklyn’s mayoralty to a brief term in Congress. His career offers a compact look at Gilded Age politics in a city on the edge of becoming modern New York.
1 Audiobook
The future of Brooklyn
by Alfred Clark Chapin
About the author
Born in South Hadley, Massachusetts, on March 8, 1848, he studied at Williams College and then Harvard Law School before building a legal and political career in New York. He was admitted to the bar in 1872 and soon became active in Democratic politics.
His public career included service in the New York State Assembly, as New York State Comptroller, and as Mayor of Brooklyn from 1888 to 1891. In 1891 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, though his time in Congress was short because he resigned in 1892 after being chosen Lieutenant Governor of New York.
He lived until October 2, 1936, dying in Montreal at age 88. Remembered chiefly as a lawyer and politician, he is one of those regional figures whose path through local, state, and national office captures the layered world of 19th-century American public life.