Frank Wenter

Chicago Sanitary District Wenter served three terms on the Chicago Sanitary District's board of trustees He was first elected on December 12, 1889, in the special election to select the inaugural board members. Prior to this, during the November 5, 1889 election, voters approved the ballot measure that created the district. He was reelected on November 5, 1895 and November 5, 1900. His tenure ended December 4, 1905. On December 8, 1891 , the board of trustees voted for Wenter to serve as its president, a role he held until December 3, 1895.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal occurred on September 3, 1892. Wenter performed the ceremonial first shoveling. On November 1, 1893, Wenter served as an honorary pallbearer at the large public funeral procession for Carter Harrison III, the assassinated mayor of Chicago.

Mayoral campaigns

1893

Wenter unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party nomination in the 1893 special election held after the assassination of Mayor Harrison. The death of Harrison had not only resulted in a mayoral vacancy, but had also left Chicago's Democratic Party in search of a leader. Wenter ultimately went all-in as a candidate and campaigned heavily. He was backed by the Chicago Times and Cook County Democratic Party Chairman John McGillen. In the primary election held to elect delegates for the city's nominating convention, John Patrick Hopkins had a clear victory. In a last minute move, McGillen attempted to appoint himself the chair of the convention, presumably so that he would be in a position to disqualify delegates supporting Hopkins. However, the party's executive committee overruled this by a vote of 7 to 2. Swift withdrew from contention, and Wenter was nominated by acclamation at the city's Democratic Party convention. Wenter was better-known in 1895 than he had been in 1893.

Wenter was seen as a strong Democratic candidate in what was expected to be a terrible election cycle for Democrats. Amid the Panic of 1893, the Democratic Party experienced a national decline in support and Republicans experienced a national rise in support. In Chicago, local decline in Democratic support was also attributable to both local matters and the overall national decline in support of Democrats.

Wenter sought to present himself as an individual who was not a "machine politician". He also sought to make it clear was not intending to run on Hopkins' record. He argued the central concern of the election should be "competence". He contrasted his well-regarded record as head of the Sanitary District with what had been a controversial brief tenure of Swift as interim mayor.

On May 4, 1907, new mayor Fred A. Busse dismissed all of the Civil Service Commission's members from their posts. Wenter and other commission members attempted to refuse to comply with their removal.

Personal life Wenter and his wife, Anna, had three children.

In 1908, James F. Stepina was granted a divorce from his wife after he alleged in his divorce filing that his wife had carried out an extramarital affair with Wenter. Days later, Wenter's wife Anna filed for divorce. Wenter did not contest the divorce suit, which alleged that Wenter had had an extramarital affair with Manitou, Colorado resident Dell Myers. Anna Wenter was friendly with Mrs. Stepina and opted not to name her in the divorce filing, though it was understood that the revelations in the Stepinas' divorce were the impetus for the Wenters' divorce.