John Barbee was the tenth Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

 from 1855 to 1857. He was born in Pewee Valley, Kentucky

Pewee Valley, Kentucky

Pewee Valley is a city in Oldham County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 1,436 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Pewee Valley is located at ....

, and, after his parents died, moved to Louisville at age 14. In 1841 he was elected by the city council as a collector of revenues, and after a brief forray back into the private sector, he was elected to the city council in 1849 and 1851. In 1855, as a member of the anti-Catholic, anti-foreigner Know Nothing

Know Nothing

The Know Nothing was a movement by the nativist American political faction of the 1840s and 1850s. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to Anglo-Saxon Protestant values and controlled by...

 party, he was elected Mayor over James S. Speed

James S. Speed

James Stephens Speed was the ninth Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky. His father, John Speed, moved to Jefferson County in about 1795 and established a farm on Salt River Rd. , about 9 miles south of Louisville...

, who did not run for re-election believing the election was invalid, but his appeal was denied eventually by the Kentucky Supreme Court

Kentucky Supreme Court

The Kentucky Supreme Court was created by a 1975 constitutional amendment and is the state supreme court of the commonwealth of Kentucky. Prior to that the Kentucky Court of Appeals was the only appellate court in Kentucky...

.

The most notable event of his term was "Bloody Monday

Bloody Monday

Bloody Monday was the name given the election riots of August 6, 1855, in Louisville, Kentucky. These riots grew out of the bitter rivalry between the Democrats and supporters of the Know-Nothing Party. Rumors were started that foreigners and Catholics had interfered with the process of voting...

", an uprising against (mostly Catholic) German and Irish immigrants on August 6, 1855. The day was election day, and despite the likelihood of riots, Barbee would not provide any security at voting boths. Know-Nothings prevented naturalized German and Irish from voting, and riots erupted on the streets of the Butchertown

Butchertown

Butchertown is a neighborhood just east of downtown Louisville, Kentucky, USA. The first homes in the area were laid out in the 1820s along the newly completed Louisville to Lexington turnpike, referred to in that stretch as Story Avenue.- History :...

 district of Louisville. Germans were beaten and some were killed as the riots spilled into the Irish-dominated Eighth Ward, burning a large row of houses (Quinn's Row). Barbee finally intervened to prevent rioters from destroying the city's Catholic cathedral. Officially, 22 people were killed in the riots, although some sources place the number of deaths at 100 or more.

After Barbee's term as mayor, he served again on the city council from 1858 to 1861. He became a Democrat after the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. He is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery.