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26 HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
for the conduct of a coopering enterprise, which he conducted for three years.
He then sold his interest to his partner in 1853, which time he turned his
attention to the business of rectifying and purifying spirits, which undertaking
continued to claim his time and energies throughout his remaining days and
returned to him a very substantial reward for his labor and capable business
management.
In the meantime Mr. Buhrer had won recognition among his fellow citizens
by reason of his upright life, his industry, his laudable ambition and determination
in business affairs, and the spirit of progressive citizenship which he at
all times manifested. He had been a resident of Cleveland for only eleven years
and was but twenty-nine years of age when, in 1855, he was elected a member
of the city council and in 1863 and 1865 was again chosen to the same position,
the last time without opposition. He served in the council during the period
of the Civil war and was known as a stalwart champion of the Union cause
and an active participant in every movement to advance the interest of the
Federal government. It was only a physical infirmity that prevented him from
doing active military service on the battlefields of the south. However, he did
valuable work as a member of the city council and especially was his presence
needed in his own ward, where his friendly care and helpful spirit were continually
called into requisition in behalf of many women and children whose
fathers were doing service at the front or had already fallen in battle. Twice
was his ward subjected to draft and would have had to submit to a third but
for the energetic action of Mr. Buhrer, who prevented this by largely contributing
to the payment of bounties to volunteers. He gave most freely to
this cause as also to assistance in individual cases and thus rendered untold
benefit to the Union, for it was as necessary to care for those at home as it
was to meet the enemy upon the fields of carnage. It was doubtless in recognition
of his important service in his ward and in the city during the most
gloomy days of the civil strife in his capacity of trustee that he was returned to
the council for a third term with unprecedented unanimity.
Hardly had his third term as councilman expired when higher honors were
conferred upon Mr. Buhrer in his election to the mayoralty in April, 1867.
His party was not usually in the ascendant but his personal popularity and the
confidence reposed in him by his fellow townsmen gained for him the strong
support which was given him and which placed him in the chair of Cleveland's
chief executive. His administration was characterized by all that marks the
loyal citizen and the careful man of business. His duties were then no sinecure,
for the work that devolved upon him as the head of the city government
was often of a most strenuous character. The only official colleagues of the
mayor then were the city clerk, who was also auditor, and the treasurer and
a board of city improvement, of which the mayor was chairman, having in
charge public works of great magnitude and including the expenditure of large
sums of money. He was entrusted with the sole control and management of
the police force and was therefore made responsible for its fidelity and efficiency,
besides exercising a careful and constant supervision over the fire and
water and every other department of the city government with a view to the
promotion of financial economy. The rigid discharge of duty which he had
required of the police and the avoidance at the same time of everything oppressive
or of the exercise of a seemingly undue official severity, won alike their
regard and the public approbation.
Largely through the influence and during the mayoralty term of Mr.
Buhrer, the Cleveland House of Correction and Workhouse was completed, its
humane purpose being to reform and reclaim, if possible, as well as punish,
the vicious and criminal. This work had the hearty endorsement of Mayor
Buhrer, who at all times stood for enterprises and projects of public progress,
improvement and advancement. He opposed anything like misrule in public
affairs and his name has ever been largely regarded as a synonym for all that
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