Once Brandon Sakbun became the Democratic Party’s nominee in the race for mayor last May, there was lots of speculation and presumption that, if elected, the 27-year-old would be Terre Haute’s youngest mayor ever.
But no such cumulative record — documenting the ages of the every Terre Haute mayor upon first taking office — existed.
So, in July, I began digging through Vigo County Public Library Special Collections, Cunningham Memorial Library and Tribune-Star online and microfilm archives; entries posted on the online resource FindAGrave.com; and portraits (with birth and death dates) of some Terre Haute mayors in the Indiana State Historical Society’s Digital Collection. Once I’d rounded up the birth dates (or at least birth years) of all 42 mayors in the city’s history, I calculated their ages upon taking office, based on historical records of their years of service.
(I’m still affected by my statistics geekiness from my sports writing background.)
In a few cases, the mayors’ ages are approximate, with a one-year margin of error, given that some began their terms, for various reasons, on dates other than Jan. 1. At least the first mayoral election in 1838 — when Terre Haute was considered a village or town — took place in May, rather than November, according to historian Mike McCormick’s 2003 Tribune-Star column. Elijah Tillotson won that election, taking office in springtime.
Chambers Y. Patterson was Terre Haute’s youngest mayor upon first taking office at age 31. He served from 1856 to 1860.
A silversmith by trade, Tillotson died in 1857, and his tombstone in Woodlawn Cemetery reads “First Mayor of Terre Haute,” according to ISU Special Collections.
All of that summertime research assembled a fascinating picture from Terre Haute’s political puzzle.
It also confirmed that, indeed, Sakbun will become the city’s youngest mayor to take the oath of office in late December, just before assuming the duties on Jan. 1, 2024. I wrote about that potential in my Aug. 10 column. Now it’s happened. Sakbun, a Democrat, received 59.82% of the vote (5,666 votes total) in Tuesday’s municipal election, defeating four-term Republican incumbent Duke Bennett, who drew 3,806 votes.
Sakbun is nearly four years younger than the previous record holder — Chambers Y. Patterson, who took office at age 31 years and five months in 1856. Fittingly, Patterson’s middle name was “Young.”
Patterson, a Democrat who later became a judge, served as mayor until 1860 when America was on the brink of the Civil War.
Two others became mayor at age 32, a bit older than Patterson — William K. Edwards, who served from 1853-55, and Ralph Tucker, who served five terms from 1948-68.
If Bennett had won a fifth term, he not only would’ve tied Tucker for the most terms in office, but also would’ve become the second-oldest serving mayor at age 63, 10 months and two weeks, slightly younger than the late Pete Chalos, a Democrat who started his fourth term as mayor at age 64 in 1991.
The total of 42 Terre Haute mayors includes the first three, who handled the duties during the era when Terre Haute was a town, as dictated by a state statute, according to McCormick’s account. (Terre Haute formally incorporated as a city in 1853.) Based on their ages when taking the oath of office for the first time, nine mayors were in their 30s. Nineteen were in their 40s. Eight were in their 50s. And six were in their 60s.
Terre Haute’s new Mayor-elect Brandon Sakbun will become the youngest person in city history to hold that office when he begins his term on Jan. 1, 2024.
Tillotson was 47 years old when he became the first mayor of Terre Haute, the town, in 1838. Tillotson was a silversmith by trade.
The first mayor of Terre Haute, the city, was Edwards, a member of the Whig Party. Edwards also won his mayor’s seat in a May election in 1853. His salary was $100 a year, according to another McCormick column. Edwards later became speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives.
The oldest person to take the Terre Haute mayor’s oath for the first time was James M. Allen, who did so in 1891 at 63 years, two months and three days old. He was a former lawyer and superior court judge. Ominously, Allen died one year later — on Jan. 1, 1892 — prompting the City Council to elect one of their own members, Henry Griswold, to replace the departed mayor, according to McCormick’s columns.
Sakbun’s status as Terre Haute’s soon-to-be youngest mayor drew statewide and national attention after his victory Tuesday, as did his family heritage as the son of Camodian and Jamaican immigrants and his service as a U.S. Army Ranger. His background, which contains distinctions unlike those previous 42 mayors, has captured broad interest, including a congratulatory phone call from Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I think people see the potential in a young man wanting to change his hometown,” Sakbun said Thursday morning.
