When Whiting Had Two Mayors…At the Same Time

 John Hmurovic
December 2024

There has never been a more bizarre election in Whiting’s history. There was never one so close. After the voters spoke, in a span of just twenty days Whiting had five changes in who occupied the mayor’s office. And on one of those occasions, two men occupied the office at the same time.

Over those weeks, one candidate was declared the winner, only to have the other candidate take the lead in a recount; a long-time incumbent mayor resigned; one of the candidates died; there were reports that supporters of one candidate may storm city hall; and, yes, there were lawsuits.   

It happened after the election of 1929. But let’s start the story in 1913. Beaumont Parks, a Democrat, was the mayor of Whiting. Parks not only held the top job in Whiting city government, but as superintendent of Standard Oil’s Whiting refinery he also held the top job for the city’s biggest employer. He was elected in 1909, and in 1913 he hoped to get re-elected to a second term.

But in 1913, another of Whiting’s most powerful men ran against him. Walter Schrage owned and operated Whiting’s first and largest bank. Schrage easily won, and he went on to win re-election as a Republican in 1917, 1921, and 1925. He served four terms as mayor, 16 years. In the decades to come, three other men also won four terms, but it wasn’t until Mayor Joe Stahura won the 2019 election that anyone won five terms. For Schrage, 16 years was long enough. He said the demands of his business required him to step down.    

That meant the office of mayor would get a newcomer after the 1929 election. Five men came forward, three Republicans and two Democrats. Former alderman John Duffy looked like a strong contender for the Democrats. But Thomas Boyle surprised some when he won the primary election by a comfortable margin in May.  

On the Republican side, Dr. Michael Rafacz and attorney Thomas Cerajewski ran for the Republican nomination, but no one was surprised when the race was won by Francis D. McNamara. The November election for mayor was set: Tommy Boyle, as he was known by all, was the Democratic nominee; Bab McNamara, as most called him, was the Republican choice.

In some ways, they were two very different men. Boyle would be 61 by election day; McNamara was only 29 until just a few weeks before ballots were cast. McNamara was born and raised in Whiting, while Boyle was born in Pennsylvania. Boyle came to Whiting in 1890, almost a decade before McNamara was born. “Who knows better what improvements the city needs,” said a speaker at a Democratic rally at St. Adalbert’s Hall, “than the man who saw it when it was only a sandhill.”

In his school days, McNamara showed every sign of a promising future. After graduating from Sacred Heart School in 1913, and Whiting High School in 1917, he was awarded a four-year scholarship to St. Cyril’s College in Chicago. St. Cyril’s had a college and a high school. The college did not survive; the high school is now known as Mount Carmel High School. But after just one month at the school McNamara dropped out. His family needed him.

American had just entered World War One, and all three of Bab’s older brothers, Dan, Jim, and Mart enlisted in the military. Just four years earlier they had bought a small grocery store on 119th Street owned by Joe Bernstein. The three brothers put all their effort into it and made it one of Whiting’s top grocery stores. While in high school, Bab helped by taking orders and delivering groceries to the homes of Whiting and Robertsdale residents. But at age 17, as his older brothers went off to war, he was needed to take over the business in their absence. He did well. The business continued to grow, and when his brothers came back to Whiting after the war, they were impressed enough with their little brother to let him continue to run the family business.       

Meanwhile, Boyle was well into a successful career. He was hired by Standard Oil in 1890 to work at their Cleveland headquarters. Three years later he was transferred to the company’s new refinery in Whiting. In Whiting, he rose in the ranks and at the time of the 1929 election was superintendent of the refinery’s wax works.

The campaign was hard fought but considered friendly. McNamara had a booster club with up to 1,500 members, the largest group of backers for any candidate in Whiting’s early history. His rallies were packed with supporters. Boyle’s side matched that enthusiasm.

There was not a big debate over issues. The McNamara side contended that their candidate was in touch with the younger generation of Whiting residents, implying that Boyle was too old to know what younger people wanted. “Utterly absurd,” the Boyle supporters said. They cited his 16 years of accomplishments on the Whiting School Board, a period of great growth for the city’s schools.

Boyle backers tossed back an accusation that McNamara had made numerous promises to various people to win their backing. They said those unnamed people would be first in line for special treatment if McNamara became mayor, and other residents would be left behind. McNamara repeatedly denied that and called the statements nothing more than “rumors.”

A flurry of rallies were held in such locations as the Community Center Social Room, St. Adalbert’s Hall, Slovak Dom, the Croatian Hall on Center Street, South Side School in the Goose Island neighborhood, and under the big tent at the Immaculate Concepcion Church bazaar. Groups gathered to listen to the candidates, including the Slovak-American Citizens Club and the Hungarian societies of Whiting.

Most felt it would be a close race because the traits McNamara and Boyle most had in common were that they were well-liked, well-known, and respected by people in both parties. “Many voters won’t decide who to choose until they make their mark with the little blue pencil,” the newspaper said, “and then will shudder or regret” not voting for the other one.  

Voter turnout had never been higher in Whiting, breaking the record set earlier that year in the primary. The final tally was 1,659 for Boyle, and 1,652 for McNamara. Boyle won by seven votes. “Everybody wanted Tommy Boyle,” the newspaper said, “and everybody wanted Bab.” It was the closest race for mayor in Whiting’s history, and still is. Boyle declared victory and was issued a Certificate of Election by the city’s election board.

But McNamara’s supporters called for a recount. When the votes were re-tabulated, McNamara came out on top by three votes. He was issued a Certificate of Election by the recount board. The Boyle forces screamed foul. The Certificate of Election issued by the election board was the only valid certificate they said, and they were ready to take the matter to court. The McNamara boosters were happy to go to court. The recount was valid, they said, and their Certificate of Election superseded the one issued by the city’s election board. “Whiting now has two mayors-elect,” a newspaper headline read. Lawsuits were filed by both sides. Lake County Circuit Court Judge E. Miles Norton was assigned to hear the court cases.

While the election campaign had been friendly, the mood began to shift after the election. Both sides maneuvered for an advantage, just in case Judge Norton didn’t reach a quick decision. The deadline was January 6, 1930. That was the date the new mayor was to begin his term. As lawyers for the candidates argued in court, the likelihood of a decision by that date looked slim.

What would happen if January 6 arrived and there was no court decision? No one knew, but many believed the sitting mayor would continue serving until a ruling was made. With that belief, the Republicans made the first move.

On December 3, City Controller Robert Denham shocked everyone by resigning. He didn’t say why.  His resignation was submitted at 10:30 A.M. By 1:30 P.M., Mayor Walter Schrage appointed a new controller. His choice was Francis D. “Bab” McNamara, who was immediately sworn in. The Democrats smelled a rat. Was this a plan to somehow move McNamara into the mayor’s office?

If that was the Republican plan, they didn’t act on it right away. The Democrats, however, felt that they had to make a counter move. About a week later, they conducted a swearing-in ceremony for Boyle. He took the oath of office as mayor before Dorothy DuFon, a notary public. He held a valid Certificate of Election, the Democrats said, and had every right to be sworn in. This time it was the Republicans who cried foul. Walter Schrage is still the mayor, they said, and would be until his term ended on January 6, 1930. Boyle, they said, had no legal right to be sworn in for that job. They were right, the swearing-in had no legal authority, but it let the Democrats make their point that Boyle won the election and should be the next mayor.

A week later, on December 16, Mayor Schrage appeared before the Whiting City Council to make the Republicans’ next move. He submitted his resignation as mayor. This was not a political move, he said. He was resigning for the same reason he cited when he announced he would not run for re-election: He needed to devote more time to his banking business. At that meeting, Democratic City Alderman Hugh Brown praised Schrage for numerous accomplishments over his sixteen years as mayor, but he ended his remarks by saying this move was nothing but a political scheme.

City Controller Francis D. McNamara would take over the job of mayor, after spending just two weeks as city controller. On December 17, at noon, Bab was sworn in by City Clerk Harry Powers as Whiting’s fifth mayor. No one knew for sure who the legal mayor would be on January 6, when the term that Schrage had been elected to came to an end. Many people, the newspaper said, believed that whoever was mayor on January 5, should continue on until the court rendered its decision. Bab McNamara was now that person.

The mood among some Democrats turned ugly. Joe Conroy was Tommy Boyle’s lawyer. He said if McNamara planned to stay in office past January 6, he would be a “usurper, and all his acts as mayor would be illegal.” Furthermore, Conroy said, “If McNamara doesn’t go in peace, there may be chaos around City Hall on January 6th.”

“Boyle Determined to Take Whiting Office at All Hazard,” the headline read in the next day’s Whiting Evening Times.” Republicans took Conroy’s statement as a threat, and the newspapers agreed. Would Democrats storm City Hall? Would there be an insurrection on January 6th? But it was still about three weeks away, and maybe a decision by the court would be issued by that time.

Bab McNamara, meanwhile, received the congratulations of the Republicans after becoming mayor at noon on December 17. Most likely, he was busy getting organized for his new job the next day, December 18. But that evening, going into the morning of December 19, Bab McNamara could not sleep. He felt severe pain. In the morning, he went to see Dr. Jeremiah McCarthy, his brother-in-law, and an immediate operation was ordered. He was rushed to St. Catherine’s Hospital in East Chicago.

An appendix had burst. After the operation the doctors said they didn’t know what his prognosis was, and for the next three days there were no signs of recovery. Then at 9:10 A.M. on December 23, Francis D. McNamara died. He was thirty years old. Bab McNamara officially served as Whiting’s mayor for six days, but only spent a day-and-a-half in the mayor’s office before being taken to the hospital.

The city mourned, but now what? A special session of the city council was held the night of McNamara’s death. Republican Alderman William O. Walker was appointed acting mayor, to serve until another special meeting of the council on January 3, 1930, just three days before the scheduled inauguration of a new mayor.

There was little precedent of a candidate dying before inauguration day, and no guidance at all about how to handle it when the result of the election was still in dispute. This had never happened before in Indiana. So as January 6 approached, no one really knew what to do. Before McNamara’s death, many felt that whoever was in the mayor’s office before inauguration day, should continue to serve as mayor until the court made a decision. But now, who would that be?

The Republicans controlled the city council. They wanted to appoint a Republican as mayor at their January 3 meeting, and certainly not Democrat Tommy Boyle. In the days before the meeting, the local newspapers said the only clear choice for the job would be to bring back Walter Schrage as mayor. He was still the head of the Lake County Republican Party, so for the party’s sake, if nothing else, he agreed to it.

In the eleven days between McNamara’s death and the January 3 meeting, Boyle and the Democrats met with Schrage and the Republicans. The Democrats argued that neither Schrage, nor any other Republican, had a legal right to serve as mayor after noon on January 6. The Republicans responded by saying Boyle also did not have that right, because the recount showed him losing to McNamara by three votes. The final meeting between the two sides was at 3:30 P.M. on January 3, just a few hours before that night’s city council meeting.  

That night, Whiting residents flocked to city hall. It was a real-life drama, and many wanted to see what would happen in the next chapter. A vote was held, and the four Republicans on the city council selected Schrage to fill the job, while the two Democrats said Acting Mayor William O. Walker should continue.    

But at that meeting a statement was read. It was drafted at the afternoon meeting and was signed by both Walter Schrage and Tommy Boyle. “All the parties to the controversy agree that in the interest of good government and a continuance of neighborly friendships the dispute should be determined according to the law and in a peaceable and orderly way.” They wanted the court to decide, but since that would not happen by January 6, the two sides came up with a temporary solution.

“Happily,” the statement read, “Mr. Boyle and Mr. Schrage have come to an understanding with reference to any official duties.” They decided that they would both serve as mayor until Judge Norton handed down his decision. Neither one would appoint anyone to a city job, while both would sign any legal document, preside over the city council, and perform other duties of the mayor’s office.

In just twenty days there had now been five changes in who occupied the mayor’s office: First, there was Walter Schrage, serving the remainder of the term he was elected to in 1925; Second, was Bab McNamara, taking over when Schrage resigned; Third, was William O. Walker, serving as interim mayor after the death of McNamara; Fourth, was Schrage, chosen by the city council on the night of January 3; and finally, there was Boyle and Schrage sharing the office of mayor.

Schrage had been sworn in on January 3 to fill the final three days of what was actually the term he was elected to serve in the 1925 election, and now on January 6 he had to be sworn in again to serve the new term of the mayor. As they had agreed, Boyle was also sworn in as mayor at noon that same day. Schrage and Boyle were set up with adjoining desks in city hall. After the swearing-in ceremony, they shook hands and called city officers to their office to tell them that there would be no appointments or changes made in personnel until the court made its decision.

For the most part, the unusual arrangement worked without a problem. Some liked the idea. The Hammond Times printed an editorial titled “Two Heads Are Better Than One.” Maybe, the editorial read, other Indiana cities ought to allow two mayors to serve together. “The outgoing mayor should be allowed to stay on for a period of, maybe, six months,” and serve in an advisory capacity to the new mayor. It was working in Whiting, according to the newspaper, but maybe, they admitted, that was because no issue had yet come up that Schrage and Boyle disagreed on.

The one hitch happened on January 21, at the first meeting of the city council since the two-mayor agreement took place. Tommy Boyle was there, but Walter Schrage didn’t attend. Boyle was ready to preside, but all six aldermen were Republicans, and they refused to take their seats for the meeting if he was at the helm. Instead, they went to a conference room, talked it over, and decided to go home, rather than let Boyle lead the meeting.

There was, as well, still plenty of confusion in town about what would happen next. Even the Boy Scouts were confused. Every year during Boy Scout Week, in a program designed to show the Scouts how government operated, boys were allowed to take over city hall. One would be given the chance to serve as mayor, others as council members, and still others in a variety of other city posts. Because of the unusual situation in Whiting, for this Boy Scout Week two boys were chosen to serve as mayor. Scout Andrew Meturko would take the place of Schrage, and Charles McCoy would fill Boyle’s position. And, if Lake Circuit Court Judge E. Miles Norton reached a decision on the mayoral race before February 7, the losing Scout mayor would relinquish his office to the winning Scout mayor.

Everything was in the hands of the court. Just a few weeks earlier, Judge Norton had been given the task of deciding on the validity of the recount that showed Bab McNamara ahead by three votes. But with McNamara’s death, the situation changed. On the day Schrage and Boyle were both inaugurated, shook hands, and the newspapers declared “All is Peace and Everybody’s Happy,” their attorneys were in Judge Norton’s court filing new lawsuits against one another.

Schrage’s lawyer said his client was chosen to be mayor by the city council on January 3, and by virtue of holding that office he should be allowed to continue serving. The attorney for Boyle argued that on election night, the city election commission issued Boyle a certificate declaring him as the winner, and that only one person had a right to contest that: Bab McNamara, who was deceased.

For over a month, Schrage and Boyle served as co-mayors. It was the only time this is believed to have happened in any city in Indiana’s history. It came to an end on February 8, 1930, when Judge Norton announced his decision. Thomas S. Boyle would be mayor. Judge Norton agreed with Boyle’s lawyers that their client had a legitimate certificate of election. Furthermore, the right to contest that “lay with Francis ‘Bab’ McNamara alone, who held a certificate from a board of recount commissioners, and when he died his recount certificate went to the grave with him.” Judge Norton said that Schrage was “a total stranger to this case,” that he had no legal standing to challenge Boyle’s certificate of election. Schrage stepped down after the court ruling, and Boyle became the sole mayor of Whiting.

In the election of 1929, Tommy Boyle was the only Democrat elected mayor in any city in solidly Republican Lake Couty. By no means was there clear sailing ahead for him as he gained complete control of the mayor’s office in February 1930. He had battles to fight in court as Republicans continued to file lawsuits to have him ousted from office, still claiming he lost by three votes. The city council, now consisting of six Republicans and zero Democrats, was also not inclined to make it easy for him.

Politics in Lake County were changing in the early 1930s, reflecting changes nationally. The Depression hit Whiting just as it did every other community in the United States. The Republicans under President Herbert Hoover were blamed by many for the economic suffering that people experienced. In 1932, the Democrats, led by Franklin Roosevelt, were given the chance to fix the problems. Many traditionally Republican areas, like Lake County, began to shift party allegiances. Lake County has been mostly Democratic since then.

But it was a gradual change on the city level, as Democrat Tommy Boyle discovered when he ran for re-election in 1933. Voters decided that he would only serve one term. The vote was not nearly as close as it was in 1929. In the 1933 election, Boyle received 47-percent of the votes cast, while his opponent received 53-percent. The Republicans avenged the 1929 election by electing James T. McNamara as mayor, the brother of Francis D. “Bab” McNamara. Finally, after four years of controversy, the unusual election of 1929 and the fierce debate that resulted from it, could be laid to rest. Boyle did not attempt a comeback, and James McNamara went on to serve four terms as mayor, serving until 1948.