Thomas Saxton Ireland (1895-1969) was a politician, World War II veteran, lawyer and writer from Cleveland, Ohio. He received a baccalaureate from Princeton University (1918) and law degrees from Boston University (1923) and Harvard Law School (1927). As an heir to the Grasselli Chemical Company fortune, he was independently wealthy and spent his life running (albeit unsuccessfully) for political office, writing books which espoused conservative Republican philosophy, and publishing articles in various newspapers. During his life he ran for six political offices in Ohio, including United States Senator (1946), United States Congressman (1958), and mayor of Cleveland (1959). He lost his bid for every office except an unexpired six-week term as Cleveland Municipal Court Judge (1937). He also was a correspondent for the Plain Dealer, The Daily Sentinel-Tribune (of Bowling Green, Ohio) and the Columbus Dispatch. Ireland was a vociferous supporter of the construction of the Saint Lawrence Seaway and wrote a book enumerating the potential benefits of the Seaway to the United States and the Great Lakes region. In Ireland's 1959 mayoral campaign against incumbent Anthony Celebrezze, he stressed expanded public transportation. He also supported the county home rule issue and favored the hiring of more police officers to improve safety on the city's streets. A lifelong Republican, Ireland supported Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. In 1951 he wrote a manuscript entitled "Atomic Offense" (unpublished), which advocated a preemptive nuclear strike against the Soviet Union before it could develop a sufficient nuclear arsenal. An avid swimmer, Ireland drowned off Hawaii's Waikiki Beach in 1969 at age 73.
The Thomas Saxton Ireland Papers, 1879-1969 and undated (1930-1969), consist of materials relating to his many political campaigns, manuscripts of published and unpublished books, correspondence, drafts of his newspaper articles, drafts of speeches, opinion pieces, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, genealogical material, various certificates, and personal miscellaneous items.
The collection is useful for understanding the history of Cleveland, Ohio, politics, Ireland's advocacy of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, his mayoral campaign and political activities, and his beliefs as a conservative Republican in the 1950s and 1960s. Some materials reflect the rampant anti-communist sentiment of that period.
The collection is arranged in six series.
The researcher should also consult PG 418 Thomas Saxton Ireland Photographs.
Processed by Richard Hite and Daniel Linke in 1988.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4312 Thomas Saxton Ireland Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Mrs. Thomas Ireland, 1975.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.