Owen McAleer

Owen McAleer (February 3, 1858 – March 7, 1944) was a Los Angeles, California, businessman who was mayor of the city between 1904 and 1906. His brother Jimmy McAleer played in Major League Baseball.

Personal

McAleer was born on February 3, 1858, in Leskard, then in Canada West, the son of Owen McAleer of Ireland and Mary Miller of England. In 1863 the family moved to Youngstown, Ohio, where the elder McAleer died in 1865, leaving a wife and eight children, the youngest just 6 months old.

In 1888 he moved to Los Angeles, and on January 8, 1891, he and Rebecca B. Wanchope of Ireland were married. She died on August 4, 1893, at the age of 29. He married again, on April 5, 1898, to Gertrude E. Mullaly of Covington, Kentucky, when he was 40 and she was 28. and in 1897 he was on the board of directors of the 150-member East Side Cycling Club, with its clubhouse at 163 South Avenue 21 in today's Lincoln Heights.

He owned and trained driving horses (in 1905 he had five of them) and rode them "on a sort of private speedway of his own, near Eastlake Park." He pushed the sport for others, too, and as mayor he set aside a stretch of West Washington Street for a mile west of Western Avenue for use by "drivers who delight in vying with each other off the racetrack," and, according to the Los Angeles Times, "policemen have been given to understand that some latitude be allowed horsemen there."

An automobile driven by Mayor McAleer struck and injured Charles Hughes, a delivery boy on a bicycle, on Central Avenue at Ninth Street the afternoon of July 17, 1906. Three witnesses said that in their opinion the vehicle was exceeding the speed limit and that "in approaching the corner no warning was given by tooting the horn, and that the occupants made no effort to assist the little fellow in any way." Called to the location by the boy's employer, "a stormy scene ensued," but McAleer "finally agreed to consider a bill for the repair of the bicycle."

In 1935 the McAleers were living at 3817 South Main Street in today's Historic South Central.

After leaving the mayor's office, he returned to private business, retiring in 1914 when Republic Iron & Steel was dissolved. McAleer was elected mayor on the Republican ticket on December 5, 1904, ousting Meredith P. Snyder, a Democrat.

Among his accomplishments was the purchase of Sycamore Grove Park by the city.