Edwin J. Brown (1864–1941) was mayor of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, elected in May, 1922, and again in 1924. He graduated from

Kansas City School of Law Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

in 1899, and worked as a dentist, thus earning the moniker "Doc" Brown. As a politician during

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

, Brown personally did not drink alcohol, but supported the public's right to drink. When Brown left to attend the

1924 Democratic National Convention The 1924 Democratic National Convention, held at the Madison Square Garden (1890), Madison Square Garden in New York City from June 24 to July 9, 1924, was the longest continuously running convention in United States political history. It took ...

, he appointed city council member

Bertha Knight Landes Bertha Ethel Knight Landes (October 19, 1868 – November 29, 1943) was the first female mayor of a major American city, serving as mayor of Seattle, Washington from 1926 to 1928. After years of civic activism, primarily with women's organization ...

as acting mayor. Landes began her own law and order campaign, firing Police Chief William B. Severyns for corruption and closing down lotteries, punchboards and speakeasies. Upon his return, Brown reinstated the police chief. In 1926, Brown ran for a third term, but lost to Landes. He died on July 28, 1941, at the age of 76, of a heart attack.

References

Mayors of Seattle 20th-century mayors of places in Washington (state) 1860s births 1941 deaths American socialists Washington (state) socialists {{Washington-mayor-stub

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