William Alexander Gaston

Gaston, William (3 Oct. 1820-19 Jan. 1894), lawyer, mayor of Boston, and governor of Massachusetts, was born in Killingly, Connecticut, the son of Alexander Gaston, a merchant, and Kesia Arnold. After graduating from Brown University in 1840 he moved to Roxbury, Massachusetts, where his parents had settled two years earlier. In 1844 he passed the bar examination and opened a practice. He married Louisa A. Beecher in 1852; they had three children.

Gaston quickly built his law practice and became politically active. From 1849 to 1853 he served on the Roxbury Common Council, becoming its president in 1852. He was elected to the state legislature in 1853 and 1854 as a Whig; after antislavery controversies led to the breakup of the party, he became a Democrat. Although he was a Yankee, his opposition to the Know-Nothing movement won the support of many Irish voters. He was again elected to the legislature in 1856, and then served as Roxbury city solicitor from 1856 to 1860. Capping his early political career, he served as mayor of Roxbury in 1861-1862, helped to promote the town's annexation by Boston in 1867, and won a seat in the state senate in 1868.

Meanwhile, Gaston's skill as a trial lawyer won him high professional standing, and the firm of Jewell, Gaston & Field, established in 1865, prospered. As a Yankee Democrat with Irish supporters and a fiscal conservative able to attract Republican votes, he was widely popular. He lost a congressional election in 1870, but the Democrats nominated him for mayor of Boston. He won the election and served two terms, 1871-1872. As mayor he tried to strengthen the party by appointing both Irish and Yankee Democrats, but his narrow interpretation of the mayor's executive powers led him to respond less decisively than many Bostonians wanted to the Great Boston Fire of 1872 and the smallpox outbreak that followed, and later in 1872 voters rejected his bid for a third term.

Gaston's political career was not over, however. Although Republicans had dominated state elections since 1852, the Liberal Republican bolt of 1872 weakened the GOP. The following year, Gaston nearly won the gubernatorial race. In 1874 he ran again and won, aided by Republican disunity, the U. S. Grant administration scandals, and a national depression. As governor he was moderate and cautious--moderate in resisting pleas from some Democrats that he sweep all Republican appointees from office and cautious in handling the politically dangerous prohibition issue by successfully urging the legislature to pass a local option law. By 1875, however, the Republicans rallied, and he was defeated for reelection.

Gaston did not seek office again. Instead, he vigorously pursued his legal practice into the 1890s. He died in Boston.

Bibliography

Gaston's papers are at Brown University. J. M. Bugbee, "Boston under the Mayors," in The Memorial History of Boston, ed. Justin Windsor, vol. 3 (1881), discusses Gaston's terms as mayor. Dale Baum, The Civil War Party System: The Case of Massachusetts, 1848-1876 (1984), provides information on party battles during Gaston's gubernatorial career. See also Melvin G. Holli and Peter d'A. Jones, eds., Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors (1981). Obituaries are in the Boston Transcript, 19 Jan. 1894, and the New England Historic and Genealogical Register 48 (July 1894): 351-53.

Gerald W. McFarland

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