Robert T. Conrad

Robert Taylor Conrad (June 10, 1810 – June 27, 1858)[1] was an American politician, lawyer and writer from Pennsylvania who served as mayor of Philadelphia from 1854 to 1856. He was the first mayor of Philadelphia after the Consolidation Act of 1854.[2]

Robert T. Conrad
Mayor of Philadelphia
In office 1854–1856
Preceded by	Charles Gilpin
Succeeded by	Richard Vaux
Personal details
Born	June 10, 1810 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died	July 27, 1858 (aged 48) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Resting place	Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Signature

Life and politics

He was the son of a publisher of Philadelphia, was educated for the bar, and attained a high reputation as a political speaker, and as an editor and poet. Before he was 21, he wrote a tragedy, Conradin, and in 1832 published the Daily Commercial Intelligencer, which was merged into the Philadelphia Gazette. Abandoning this occupation from failing health in 1834, he returned to the law, became recorder, and in 1838 judge of the criminal sessions for the city and county of Philadelphia. When the latter court was dissolved, he resumed the pen, edited Graham's Magazine, and became associate editor of the North American Review.[3]

Conrad was recorder (part-time judge) for the suburban township of Northern Liberties, which became part of the city under the Consolidation Act of 1854. In the 1854 Philadelphia mayoral election, Conrad was the nominee of both the Whigs and Know Nothings (later known as the American Party). He won in a landslide, riding a wave of nativist sentiment that swept the United States in the mid-1850s.[4] In 1856 he was appointed to the bench of the quarter sessions, serving in that capacity until 1857.

In literature he is best known by the tragedy of Aylmere, purchased by Edwin Forrest, in which that actor played the part of Jack Cade.[3] The play was said to be "one of the few American tragedies to hold the stage."[4] In 1852 Judge Conrad published a volume entitled Aylmere, or the Bondman of Kent, and other Poems, the principal poems being "The Sons of the Wilderness," a meditative poem on the wrongs and misfortunes of the North American Indians, and a series of sonnets on the Lord's Prayer. Another tragedy that he wrote, The Heretic, was never acted, nor published.[3]

Conrad lived in West Philadelphia (at the corner of Lancaster Road and Market Street) at a time when that part of the city was largely uninhabited.[5] Conrad was the son-in-law of U.S. Representative Thomas Kittera.[6]

He died on June 17, 1858 and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.[7]

Legacy

The Robert T. Conrad public school in Philadelphia was named in his honor.[8]

Notes

1. Ridpath, J.C. (1898). The Ridpath Library of Universal Literature ...: A Biographical and Bibliographical Summary of the World's Most Eminent Authors, Including the Choicest Extracts and Masterpieces from Their Writings, Comprising the Best Features of Many Celebrated Compilations, Notably the Guernsey Collection, the De Puy Collection, the Ridpath Collection, All Carefully Rev. and Arranged by a Corps of the Most Capable Scholars. 6. Globe Publishing Company. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
2. Simpson, Henry (1859). The Lives of Eminent Philadelphians, Now Deceased: Collected from Original and Authentic Sources. Oxford University. p. 247. Google Book Search, accessed 29 March 2009.
3. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Conrad, Robert Taylor" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
4. "Obituary. Death of two distinguished Philadelphians". New York Times, June 30, 1858. p. 2.
5. Rosenthal, Leon S. A History of Philadelphia's University City (1963)
6. Lawrence Kestenbaum. "The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Kirksey to Kitto". politicalgraveyard.com. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
7. "Robert Taylor Conrad". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
8. Custis, John Trevor (1897). The Public Schools of Philadelphia: Historical, Biographical, Statistical. Philadelphia: Burk & McFetridge Co. p. 303. Retrieved 6 December 2020.

External links

• Works by Robert T. Conrad at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Robert T. Conrad at Internet Archive
• Robert T. Conrad. First Mayor of the Consolidated City of Philadelphia (an 1854 engraving of Conrad by John Sartain)
• Oration delivered by the Hon. Robert T. Conrad, at the celebration of the anniversary of American independence by the Philadelphia Repeal Association, at the Arch Street Theatre, July 5, 1841.
• Robert T. Conrad at Find a Grave