Though you may have never heard of him, John F. Fitzgerald, better known by his nickname “Honey Fitz”, is arguably the main reason why the famed Kennedy family is as powerful as it is
Early Life
John Francis Fitzgerald was born on February 11 1863 in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts as the fourth of 12 children born to Irish immigrant businessman and local politician Thomas Fitzgerald and his wife, Rosana Cox.
Both his parents had immigrated to the US from Ireland due to the Irish Potato Famine. His father came from the town of Bruff in County Limerick, whilst his mother came from County Cavan.
Growing up, John’s life was marked with tragedy, with his two sisters, Mary and Ellen, and his eldest brother, Michael, all dying in infancy and his mother dying from a heart attack when he was 16.
On top of this, John’s younger brother had severe brain damage due to complications with malaria, and was thus unable to function properly.
All of the death and illness that befell the Fitzgerald family was hard on them to say the least, and John’s father wanted him to become a doctor to prevent what had happened to his family happening to John’s, or really, anyone else’s.
Being one of the most prosperous businessmen in Boston, Thomas Fitzgerald was able to send his son to the prestigious Boston Latin School and later Boston College, where he gained the nickname “Fitzie” from his fellow classmates.
In 1884, John enrolled at Harvard Medical School, where he quickly rose to the top of his class. However, the death of his father in 1885 caused John to assume the “man of the house” role in the family, and look after his younger siblings.
A Start in Politics
Though his father’s business was quite profitable, John had spent his entire life preparing to become a doctor, and as such, never learned the ins-and-outs of his father’s business.
Unable to takeover the family business, John had to look elsewhere to get money, to put food on the table for his family. His solution: become a clerk at the Customs House in Boston.
Through being employed at the Customs House in Boston, John came into contact with the Boston faction of the Democratic Party. Realizing the views of the party aligned with his own, John joined the party and soon began to climb the ranks.
Becoming the protégé of the powerful Martin Lomasney, John F. Fitzgerald made his first impression on the political landscape of Boston when he founded the Jefferson Club in South Boston (colloquially known as “Southie”) in 1890.
A political club exclusively for the Irish Catholic voters of the area, John F. Fitzgerald modelled it on the famed Tammany Hall (that controlled New York politics) and Lomasney’s very own Hendricks Club, which served West Boston.
By founding and leading the Jefferson Club, John became a leading member of Boston’s Irish-American community, which, whilst looked down upon by Boston’s Brahmin elite, numbered enough to get him elected to Boston’s Common Council in 1891.
Spending a year on the council, John F. Fitzgerald officially announced his candidacy for the Massachusetts Senate, representing the 3rd Suffolk district, in 1892, which he won with Lomasney’s support.
After two years in the state senate, John decided it was time for a change, and ran for the Democratic Party nomination for Massachusetts’s 9th congressional district.
Despite running against the incumbent, John managed to convince the party to elect him to be their candidate, and he ultimately won not only the nomination, but also the election, serving the 9th district from 1895 until 1901.
Interestingly, for his first two terms, Representative John F. Fitzgerald was the only Democrat serving any district in New England.
Mayor of Boston
Electing not to run again in 1900, John took a five-year break from politics to focus on his family, but remained involved in the political goings-on in Boston during this time. He later returned to politics in 1905 to run for Mayor of Boston.
Election
When incumbent (temporary) Boston Mayor Daniel A. Whelton, a Democrat, who’d only become mayor after the death of the previous one, announced he wouldn’t be running for re-election, the Democratic Party needed to get a candidate. Quickly.
And two people put themselves forward.
The first was former State Senator and Congressman John F. Fitzgerald, and the other was Boston City Clerk Edward J. Donovan, both of whom were political allies of Martin Lomasney, but Donovan was was one of Lomasney’s top lieutenants.
Even after Lomasney tried to convince John to back down and gain his support when he ran for another office, John refused and continued to campaign against Donovan, earning Lomasney’s ire when John eventually won the nomination.
Facing off against Republican Louis Frothingham, Donovan and Lomasney threw their support behind Frothingham, taking away a large chunk of John’s Democratic votes.
Yet, his long-standing relationship with Boston’s Irish Catholics, reputation as a reformer and the vote-splitting that happened among Republican voters due to Judge Henry Dewey running on the Populist ticket, resulted in John F. Fitzgerald winning the election.
He was later inaugurated on January 1 1906 and became Boston’s first American-born Irish Catholic Mayor.
It was also along the campaign trail where John earned his now-famous nickname of “Honey Fitz”, as he quickly gained a reputation for being a savvy politician with a keen sense of humor, known for randomly breaking out into song.
First & Second Terms
Being elected on the promise of a “Bigger, Better, Busier Boston” driven by improving Boston’s infrastructure to bring in more business and getting rid of the cronyism and graft that had run rampant at City Hall for decades, John soon became part of the problem.
Spending two years in City Hall, John’s policies essentially became a jobs-for-votes scheme – and voters saw right through it. Though well liked in many parts of the city (and not so much in others), John ultimately didn’t have enough votes to get him re-elected.
Despite knowing this, John ran anyway and lost to Republican George A. Hibbard, whose main campaign message was to “fix Fitzgerald’s mess”. Perhaps not surprisingly, Hibbard won, and began stripping the Democrats in the city of their power and influence.
Hibbard, however, was only in office for two years before Honey Fitz won it back, even in spite of a bribery scandal from his first term that marred his campaign.
Running once again on his policy of a “Bigger, Better, Busier Boston” John was actually able to do that in his second term, managing to convince Boston’s business elite to invest in new building projects, including Fenway Park – the home of the Boston Red Sox.
He also convinced them to put up $9 million towards improving the Boston Port. Work began not long after he took office, and was completed by 1910, strengthening Boston’s economic ties with Europe in the process.
Although he’d promised not to run for a second consecutive term, Honey Fitz chose to run for a second term in 1914.