GAYNOR, William Jay, American jurist and public official: b. Whitestown, Oneida County, N. Y., 23 Feb. 1848; d. at sea, 10 Sept. 1913. He was educated at the Whitestown Academy and Assumption Academy, and studied theology for about three years at Saint Louis, Mo. He traveled for sometime, taught school in Boston, removed to Brooklyn in 1873, where he was for a time a journalist. He studied law also at this time and was admitted to practice in 1875, removed to the town of Flatbush, and gained considerable fame as a political reforiner, helping elect a reform administration, and be coming police commissioner himself. In 1885 he removed to the city of Brooklyn, and con tinued his reform work, successfully exposed several corrupt politicians and frauds, was elected to the Supreme Court of New York in 1893. For frauds committed at this election he secured the conviction of John Y. McKane and several of his political henchmen. He was re elected judge in 1907, and in 1909 was elected mayor of New York by a large plurality, being the only candidate on the Democratic ticket to secure election. He at once set about putting
the city administration on an efficient basis, and thereby lost the support of Tammany Hall. On 9 Aug. 1910 he was shot by a discharged city employee just as he was going aboard a steamer for Europe. He never fully recovered from the effects of the wound, although he resumed his official duties. In the autumn of 1913 he was a candidate for re-election, this time on an independent ticket, having by his efficient busi ness methods and incorruptibility incurred the displeasure of his former supporters, the poli ticians of Tammany. His letters brought him considerable fame and were remarkable for their caustic wit and their exposure of fraud and sham in any guise, and were a constant joy to the newspapers and the public. He died before election, while on a voyage to Europe. Consult the volume 'Some of Mayor Gaynor's Letters and Speeches) (New York 1913).