Harold Hitz Burton (1888-1964) was born in Jamaica Plains, Massachusetts. His father, Alfred E. Burton, was a scientist and dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Burton entered Bowdoin College in 1905 and established an excellent record as a student and athlete. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1909 and enrolled in Harvard Law School, receiving his degree there in 1912.
Burton first came to Cleveland, Ohio in 1911 while still a student at Harvard, taking a summer job as an electrical lineman. After graduation in 1912, he returned to Cleveland and joined the law firm of Gage, Wilbur and Wachner. Two years later he accompanied Rollin Wilbur, a partner in the firm, to Utah where Wilbur had been retained as attorney to the Utah Light and Traction Company. Burton subsequently received appointments as attorney for the Idaho Power Company and the Boise Traction Company.
With the outbreak of World War I, Burton interrupted his legal career and enlisted in the army. He served with distinction in the 361st Regiment of the 91st Division, seeing action in the Argonne Campaign. After the armistice he retained an interest in the military and played an active part in the American Legion, serving as the chairman of its Cuyahoga County Council in 1926 and 1927.
Burton returned to Cleveland after the war and resumed legal practice with the firm of Day, Day, and Wilkin. During the 1920s he became increasingly active in community affairs. Besides his work with the American Legion, he served as president of the First Unitarian Church, a member of the East Cleveland Board of Education, and a member of the Citizens Committee on Regional Government. He also served as an instructor in corporation law at the Law School of Western Reserve University from 1923 to 1925. In 1925 he formed his own law firm, Cull, Burton and Laughlin.
By the late 1920s, Burton had begun to be active in political affairs. His excellent reputation as a lawyer and concerned citizen placed him in good stead when seeking office. In 1928 he was elected to the Ohio state house of representatives with backing of the Committee on Regional Government. The following year, he was appointed law director of the city of Cleveland, and in 1932 he served a short term as Acting City Manager.
When the city manager form of government was discarded in late 1932, Burton served as Acting Mayor of Cleveland for three months prior to a new election. He did not run in the election, and subsequently returned to private law practice with the firm of Andrews, Hadden and Burton.
Burton again entered political life in 1935, running for mayor of Cleveland as an independent Republican. In addition to the economic problems engendered by the Great Depression, Cleveland suffered from a variety of urban ills in the 1930s, including police graft, the spoils system, and racketeering. Despite the overwhelming power of the Democratic Party on both the local and national level, Burton's promises of reform and his personal integrity brought about his election to office in a three-way race.
Throughout his tenure as mayor, 1935-1940, Burton worked to free the city from its problems. His appointment of Eliot Ness as Safety Director led to the complete reorganization of the police department and the demise of organized crime in the city. Despite his party affiliation, he worked well with the Democratic federal government in administering New Deal reforms in the city and thus helped to relieve some of the economic problems of the city. Similarly, he advocated projects such as lake front development, river improvements, and the Great Lakes Exposition which not only employed people, but helped to beautify and modernize the city. His successful re-election campaigns in 1937 and 1939 testified to the broad support his administration received.
In 1940, Burton entered national politics, seeking election as a senator from Ohio. Despite his lack of support from the state Republican organization, he was successful in this attempt. He served as senator from 1940 to 1945 and was active on the Military Affairs Committee and the War Investigating Committee.
His service on the latter committee greatly impressed its chairman, Harry Truman. As president, Truman remembered Burton and appointed him an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court in September 1945. Burton served on the court until his retirement in 1958. He died in Washington, D. C. in October 1964.
When Burton was elected to the United States Senate in 1940, he had to choose a successor to fill his term as mayor of Cleveland. Under the city charter, the law director assumed the mayor's duties upon the mayor's death or resignation. However, the law director was Henry S. Brainard, a Democrat who had been appointed only after Burton had promised the local Republican party that Brainard would not succeed to the post of mayor. As a consequence, Burton chose Edward Blythin (1884-1958), the chief assistant law director, as his successor.
Edward Blythin was the first immigrant to hold the office of mayor of Cleveland, having been born in Newmarket, North Wales. After attending secondary school in Wales and working as a bookkeeper for an English coal company from 1904-1906, he immigrated to the United States. From 1906-1916, he worked for a Cleveland real estate firm while studying law at night. Blythin was naturalized in 1911 and married Jane Rankin in 1913. Upon receiving his degree from Cleveland Law School in 1916, he went into the practice of law. Blythin served as assistant law director for the City of Cleveland from 1935-1940. On December 30, 1940, Henry S. Brainard resigned his position as law director and Mayor Burton appointed Blythin to the post. The next day, Burton resigned as mayor and Blythin succeeded him. At the same time, Acting Law Director Joseph H. Crowley swore Brainard in as law director.
Blythin served eleven months as mayor. Five candidates ran for mayor in 1941. Blythin and Democrat Frank J. Lausche, a former Common Pleas Court judge, survived the primary. Despite several campaign appearances by Burton, Blythin was unable to mount a colorful campaign and rested mainly on his record of administrative experience. Lausche made an issue out of irregularities in the Utility Department and was able to marshal a strong ethnic vote doe to his Slovenian background. Lausche won the election with fifty-nine percent of the votes cast.
Blythin went on to be elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas, a post he held until his death on February 14, 1958.
The Harold H. Burton-Edward Blythin Papers, 1933-1941, consist of office files of the mayor of Cleveland containing correspondence, reports, speeches, proclamations, and newspaper clippings, relating to routine administrative matters and topics of special interest. The major portion of the collection originates with Harold H. Burton and includes material from before his election as mayor, his first two terms as mayor, and from that portion of his final term that he served. A much smaller portion of the collection was created during the remaining eleven months of Burton's third term when Blythin served as mayor. During this period, Blythin continued to use the existing files rather than create a separate system. As a consequence, his papers and the Burton papers form a single series for this period, and no attempt has been made to separate them.
This collection will be useful to researchers studying the history of Cleveland, Ohio, and the mayoral administrations of Harold H. Burton and Edward Blythin in the 1930s and early 1940s. Burton's papers provide insights into local government and politics, social and economic problems of the 1930s during the Great Depression, and the expanding needs of the City of Cleveland. A number of files concern labor disputes in Cleveland, including the 1937 Steel Strike. Cleveland's response to the Great Depression occupies an entire series with files on the application of federally funded work relief through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the difficulties encountered in the distribution of locally funded direct relief. Files from later in the decade foreshadow World War II with files on Burton's appearances before or dealings with the American League Against War and Fascism and the German-American Bund. A series on the Utility Department contains material on the Municipal Electric Light Plant and sewage disposal plants. Of special interest are materials relating to African Americans in Cleveland, including material on the Phillis Wheatley Association, Blythin's plea for increased employment of African Americans in the defense industry, and a file on Olympic champion Jessie Owens' welcome when he returned to Cleveland.
The collection has been retained in original order and is arranged in six series. Each series is arranged alphabetically by subject and then chronologically.
The researcher should also consult MS 3584 Harold H. Burton Papers; MS 4276 Cleveland Mayoral Papers; and PG 114 Harold H. Burton Photographs.
Processed by Lawrence J. Baldanza in 1980.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 3828 Harold H. Burton-Edward Blythin Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Transferred by the City of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1976.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.