Growing up in the solidly Democratic Fourth Ward of Amsterdam, I have memories of election days in the 1950s in which school age bullies gave their usual targets a free pass and instead went on the prowl for suspected Republicans.
Historian Hugh Donlon has reported that political passions reached a peak in Amsterdam long before my youth--during the administration of Mayor Theron Akin.
Born in Johnstown in 1855, Akin went to school in Amsterdam and became a dentist and farmer. He lived in what is now Fort Johnson. His father Ethan was a farmer and landowner who lived in the Old Fort itself. In 1905, the Montgomery County Historical Society bought the fort from the Akin family for $5,900.
In 1909, according to Donlon, Theron Akin led the campaign to incorporate the area around the Old Fort as the village of Akin and became its first president.
Akin was elected as a Progressive Republican in Congress in 1911, telling the New York Times, “I got close to the people and told them the truth.” Donlon said Akin used the campaign slogan, “The Full Dinner Pail.” His posters showed a dinner pail empty except for a lemon.
Former Amsterdam city attorney Bob Going wrote that while Akin was serving in Congress, his colleagues thought so little of him that they voted to rename the village of Akin as Fort Johnson, over his objections.
Akin was defeated in his reelection bid in 1912 and failed again in a run for Congress in 1914.
According to Donlon, Akin then began a long campaign to be elected as Amsterdam mayor, much to the chagrin of the city establishment. Akin’s request to speak at the Amsterdam Theatre in 1917 was refused. He did speak on women’s suffrage at the Amsterdam Lyceum in 1918. The Common Council even got the State Legislature to pass a charter change requiring a year’s residency for mayoral candidates but Governor Al Smith vetoed the measure.
Akin was elected Amsterdam mayor in 1919. The Recorder reported he won endorsement of all parties in spirited primary contests that year.
Shortly after taking office, Akin suspended the police chief and appointed new members to the city health board. In 1921, he began an investigation of gambling in Amsterdam. According to the Akin family Web site, he once disguised himself as a hoodlum and was arrested to probe conditions in the city jail.
In 1921 he defeated Leon Hall for a second term by 3,274 votes, once again with the backing of both Democrats and Republicans. Two days after the election, Akin fired the city public works commissioner.
Going wrote, “(Akin) was arguably the worst mayor in the history of the city, reportedly quite wacky and from what I've read in the old Common Council minutes he didn't seem to get along with anybody. There were continuous efforts to have him removed from office.”
In 1922, Akin married Jenny Bornt, the last of four wives according to the family Web site. In 1923, he vetoed pay raises for police and firemen.
Donlon wrote of the Akin years, “It was a time of hatreds, barrages of unparalleled personal attacks, and with pamphleteering innuendos so gross and vicious that some of the campaign literature was later prized as collectors’ items.”
Republican Carl S. Salmon was elected mayor in 1923 and served for three terms of relative calm, according to Donlon.
Shortly after Salmon’s election, Akin delivered a farewell address in the manner of George Washington, according to the Recorder. In 1925, the former mayor declined an offer from the Democrats to run for State Senate. In 1927, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor once again.
According to the family Web site, when Akin died in 1933 he was “friendless and penniless.” He was buried at Pine Grove Cemetery in Tribes Hill.
