Long Branch Mayor’s History
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There’s been a certain stability to the office of Long Branch mayor over the past 50 years. In that time just four men have held the city’s most important political position with all having been elected at least twice. As to the origins of the leadership post — that’s an altogether different story. Currently, the office is held by Mayor John Pallone, who won a second term in 2022 running unopposed.
Since Long Branch went official — more than 150 years ago — it’s had about 35 “mayors.” All of them men. But city voters have only been selecting their mayor regularly for less than 60 years (and briefly from 1904 to 1912).
For most of its political history (1867-1903, 1912-1966), Long Branch operated under a commission form of government — whose elected members then selected the mayor. Those commissions favored turnover in the chief executive’s seat. Beginning from when Long Branch became a city in 1904 and for some 60 years after only one mayor served more than a single term — Alton Evans (1936-1944). During each decade of the 1900s, 1910s and 1960s, the city had six different leaders.
While Long Branch has had a “mayor” since 1867, it was not until 1904 when C. Asa Francis — he with one of the city’s most sterling resumes — became the first city mayor to be elected by the voters. Later on in May 1966 — after another change in form of government — Paul Nastasio, Jr. became the second mayor to be popularly elected.
All subsequent city mayors have been voter elected. Today’s Long Branch government operates under the Faulkner Act with a Mayor and five-member City Council (Plan A), whose members are elected at-large in nonpartisan elections to serve four-year terms of office on a concurrent basis.
All during the late 19th century glory years of Long Branch — including the presidents, the grand resort hotels, the oceanfront bluff, the rich and famous residents — it was technically part Ocean Township. It was so from February 1849 (upon departing Shrewsbury Twp.) to April 1867 (when it incorporated as an independent borough) — governed by a five-member “Long Branch Commission.” As the first commission “president,” Francis Corlies, was also the first ”mayor.” This commission set-up, with later adjustments, would run things in Long Branch for nearly a century.
Mayors of Long Branch:
• John Pallone — 2018-present
• Adam Schneider — 1990-2018
• Philip D. Huhn — 1982-1990
• Henry R. “Skip” Cioffi — 1970-1982
• Paul Nastasio, Jr. — 1966-1970
• Vincent J. Mazza — 1965-1966
• Milton F. Untermeyer, Jr. — 1963-1965
• Thomas L. McClintock — 1961-1963
• J. Paul Kiernan — 1960-1961
• Daniel J. Maher — 1956-1960
• Alexander Vineberg, DO — 1952-1956
• J. William Jones — 1948-1952
• J. Paul Kiernan — 1944-1948
• Alton V. Evans — 1936-1944
• C. Dorman McFaddin — 1932-1936
• J. William Jones — 1928-1932
• Frank L. Howland — 1924-1928
• Clarence J. Housman — 1920-1924
• John W. Flock, Sr. — 1918-1920
• Marshall Woolley — 1916-1918
• Bryant B. Newcomb — 1912-1916
• Henry Joline — 1912
• Edwin W. Packer — 1911-1912
• Charles O. McFaddin — 1907-1911
• C. Asa Francis — 1904-1906
• Rufus Blodgett — 1903-1904
• Walter S. Reed, MD — 1902-1903
• Benjamin P. Morris — 1900-1901
• Augustus Chandler — 1899-1900
• Rufus Blodgett — 1894-1898
• George W. Brown — 1892-1893
• Thomas R. Woolley — 1891-1892
• George W. Brown — 1889-1890
• Wilbur A. Heisley — 1887-1888
• George W. Brown — 1885-1886
• Richard H. Woodward — 1883-1884
• Thomas R. Woolley — 1880-1883
• Joseph H. Cooper — 1870-1879
• Francis Corlies — 1867-1870
Note: From 1867 to 1904, the “mayor” was in fact “president” of the Long Branch Commission. All were Democrats except Heisley, Chandler, and Reed.
First “Mayor” of Long Branch
His name is neither honored or recorded in city history. But Francis Corlies was the first “mayor” (or rather the first president of the Long Branch Commission). The “record” shows he was appointed in April 1867 and served until 1870.
These details appear in a January 1918 front-page story in the city’s official newspaper, the Long Branch Daily Record (story below). The account is plausible because Francis Corlies played a significant role in the development of the North Jersey Shore. As a state legislator in 1867 he had introduced a “special act fixing the boundaries of Long Branch,” according to a May 1904 Long Branch Daily Record story.
Corlies was deep in the makings of the Long Branch & Seashore Railroad — a than magical mode of transportation that could easily shuttle the rich and famous from NYC to the Jersey Shore via ferry and train. In March 1864, Corlies was part of a committee that negotiated a land deal directly with President Abraham Lincoln to build a railroad starting on government property at Spermaceti Cove on Sandy Hook to Long Branch and on down to Manasquan. To ensure completion of the line from Sandy Hook to Long Branch by July 1865, Corlies was put in charge.
As a three-term NJ state assembly member he was “instrumental in the initial movement for a government in Long Branch,” according to a Long Branch Daily Record story in May 1954. He also helped organize the city’s first bank, the Long Branch Banking Company on Broadway in March 1872 and sat on the first Monmouth Park Racetrack board of directors in 1869. Born in Shrewsbury Twp., he was the son of Benjamin W. Corlies, one of Monmouth County’s top surveyors in his day. Francis died in April 1897 at age 70.
Joseph H. Cooper is the guy most often credited with being the first “Long Branch mayor.” The salute while laudable appears wrong. He did indeed serve as commission president for most of the 1870s (true boom times in the “Summer Capitol”) and owned the popular Metropolitan Hotel (off Cooper Avenue) — but the city’s paper of record shows Corlies was first in 1867. In keeping with city politics of today, both Cooper and Corlies were Democrats.
Long Branch Mayor’s Notes:
• When Long Branch became its own city in 1904, the “mayor” ruled over about 12,200 citizens and its 2,500 residences, according to the Long Branch Daily Record. Today’s city mayor represents nearly 32,000 residents with 15,000 dwellings. And those mayors have administered over ever-growing municipal spending. The first budget in 1904 was just $104,400. Annual city spending nears $70 million this year.
• From 1885 to 1893, George W. Brown was three times appointed the mayor. Born in Long Branch in 1833, he was elected Monmouth County sheriff in 1874 and was Long Branch board of education president at the time of his death in April 1898. According to both his obits in the Red Bank Daily Register and Asbury Park Press, Brown “served as mayor of Long Branch for 12 years.”
• For Long Branch lovers no office is more important then the mayor. But in the world’s best political job category it’s easily, United States Senator. And naturally, Long Branch has a guy who did both — Rufus Blodgett. A prominent Democrat, in addition to his city mayor (1894-1898 and 1903-04) and US senator (1887-1893) duties — was also an elected county freeholder and state legislator. New Hampshire born, he was superintendent of the New York & Long Branch railroad for 35 years until his death in October 1910.
• The first mayor of Long Branch elected by the voters was a Republican — C. Asa Francis (1904). He was also a city commissioner, board of education member, NJ State Assembly and NJ State Senate member, and county sheriff and treasurer before his death in April 1934. The first Democrat city mayor voted in was Edwin W. Packer in 1910 with a 61% majority over George Poland, the Republican.
• The only mayor in Long Branch history to resign the office was Edwin W. Packer. Charged with bribery on city contracts, he didn’t contest it and he left office in April 1912. A 50-year railroad man, he died at his desk in May 1926.
• A father and son both served as mayor of Long Branch — elected a quarter century apart — were Charles O. McFaddin (1907-1911) and then Dorman McFaddin (1932-1936). Charles started the family auto business on Broadway in 1912; he died in March 1920. Dorman, who also served as a Monmouth County Surrogate and Freeholder, died in September 1967.
• Two respected medical men — Walter S. Reed, MD and Alexander Vineberg, DO — served as mayor of Long Branch. Reed (mayor 1902-1903) held both pharmacy (New York College of Pharmacy in 1888) and medical (Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1900) degrees. Vineberg (mayor 1952-1956) was a doctor of optometry. Dr. Reed died in February 1937 and Dr. Vineberg passed away in February 1966.
Where they worked …