Herman Silver

Herman Silver (1831–1913) was the chairman of the Republican County Committee in LaSalle, Illinois, superintendent of the United States Mint in Colorado, a collector of internal revenue, a railroad official and a member of the Los Angeles City Council. According to the Jewish Museum of the American West, he was fluent in Hebrew and English.

He settled in Kankakee County, Illinois, where he was a Free Soiler under John C. Fremont. He helped organize the Republican Party and became chairman of the Republican county committee in LaSalle County.

In 1864 Silver was elected as county clerk on the Republican ticket, after he had "made a vigorous canvass, not only for himself and the rest of the local ticket, but [also] for Lincoln and the Union." He was reelected at the end of his term.

In July 1872 Silver and 22 other men from Aurora, LaSalle, Ottawa and Peru were charter members of a new B'nai B'rith lodge that met at Turner Hall in Ottawa.

He was appointed by Illinois governor John Lourie Beveridge as a representative of Illinois to attend a World's Fair in Vienna, Austria, in the summer of 1873. That same year he was given a new job by the federal government as United States marshal in the Dakota Territory.

Colorado

He was next identified, in 1875, as "Register of Uncle Sam's land office at Denver, Colorado," with his former hometown Illinois newspaper's editorial comment that:

The main inducement to Mr. S. to accept a government position in Colorado was the hope of the air in that region might be beneficial to his shattered health. In this he has not been disappointed. Mr. S. finds his health fully restored and the air of the mountains a true elixir of life to him.

The next year he was promoted to collector of internal revenue at the same location, and then, in 1877, he was superintendent of the U.S. Mint in Denver. He did, however, have to make a trip in 1881 to Washington, D.C., in a successful attempt to keep his job because Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado was opposed to his reappointment, even though Senator Nathaniel P. Hill of the same state favored him. In 1883, with the election of Democrat Grover Cleveland, he lost his job at the mint.

He became president and general manager of the Tribune, "for years the most powerful newspaper in Colorado."

California

In 1887, Silver's ill health impelled him to move to California, In 1889 Silver was appointed receiver of the Los Angeles and Pacific Railway,

Silver was president of the Los Angeles City Council in 1896–1900. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 1900, the Herald backing him because he "represents the principle that the city should govern the saloons, instead of the saloons ruling the city" and "He is an avowed advocate of the municipal ownership of the water system." He also was president of the Los Angeles Water Commission.

In 1902 he became president of the City Water Commission. He was reappointed to the board in 1905, and he resigned in 1908.

Silver was in the news in April 1907 when a baby boy, "dressed in rich clothing and carefully cloaked with a costly garment," was discovered on the doorstep of his home at 986 Magnolia Avenue. The parents of the infant were later identified.

Death and legacy

Silver died of a heart attack in his home on August 19, 1913.

He bequeathed most of his estate, valued at $200,000, to his widow, Eliza A. Silver, but also left $2,000 each to his children, Herman and Cora E. Silver. He gave $100 each to the Kaspare Cohn Hospital, the Jewish Orphans Home and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. His widow died in February 1914.

Silver is memorialized in the name of Silver Lake, a neighborhood in Los Angeles and its eponymous reservoir, which was named in his honor.

References and notes