John Walker Maury

Walker Maury was Mayor of Washington, D.C. for one two-year term, from 1852 to 1854.

Life

John Walker Maury was born in Caroline County, Virginia

Caroline County, Virginia

Caroline County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2010, the population was 28,545. Its county seat is Bowling Green. Caroline County is also home to The Meadow stables, the birthplace of the renowned racehorse Secretariat, winner of the 1973 Kentucky Derby, Preakness and...

 in 1809 to a prominent Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 family. His great-grandfather, Reverend James Maury

James Maury

The Reverend James Maury was a prominent Virginia educator and minister during the American Colonial period.He was the son of Matthew Maury, a French Huguenot, who was born in Castel Mauron, in Gascony, and his wife, Mary Anne Fontaine, daughter of Rev. James Fontaine and Anne Elizabeth...

, had founded the Maury Classical School for Boys at which Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

 was his student for two years. His grandfather was headmaster of a school in Williamsburg

Williamsburg, Virginia

Williamsburg is an independent city located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, USA. As of the 2010 Census, the city had an estimated population of 14,068. It is bordered by James City County and York County, and is an independent city...

; his great-uncle, "Consul" James Maury, was the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

' first consul to Liverpool, England, appointed by George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

; and his uncle, Matthew Fontaine Maury

Matthew Fontaine Maury

Matthew Fontaine Maury , United States Navy was an American astronomer, historian, oceanographer, meteorologist, cartographer, author, geologist, and educator....

, was a famous and accomplished oceanographer.

He moved at 17 to Washington City (as the capital was then called), where he established a law practice. He married five years later, in 1831, to Isabel Foyes, eventually producing 15 children.

At the age of only 26, the popular John Walker Maury was elected to the Washington Common Council, serving for five years until declining to run again in 1840. However, one year afterward he was elected to the Board of Aldermen. His abilities were so admired that when he was only 37 years old, in 1846, he was selected to replace the late John P. Van Ness as the president of the National Bank of the Metropolis.

As mayor, John Walker Maury had two significant accomplishments. John Walker Maury and the philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran

William Wilson Corcoran

William Wilson Corcoran was an American banker, philanthropist, and art collector.-Early life:Corcoran was born in Georgetown in the District of Columbia, the son of a well-to-do father whom the electors of Georgetown twice chose as mayor. His father, Thomas Corcoran, came to Georgetown in 1788...

 convinced Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

 to appropriate funds for the Government Hospital for the Insane, now known as St. Elizabeths

St. Elizabeths Hospital

St. Elizabeths Hospital is a psychiatric hospital operated by the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health. It was the first large-scale, federally-run psychiatric hospital in the United States. Housing several thousand patients at its peak, St. Elizabeths had a fully functioning...

. He also oversaw the start of construction of Washington's public waterworks. Additionally, he appropriated the money to pay sculptor Clark Mills to complete the statue of Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...

 that stands in Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

.

In 1854, at the peak of the Know-Nothing movement in American politics, John Walker Maury was unseated by Know-Nothing candidate John T. Towers

John T. Towers

John Thomas Towers was Superintendent of printing at the U.S. Capitol and Mayor of Washington City, District of Columbia, from 1854 to 1856....

. He died one year later, shortly before his 46th birthday. His son William Arden Maury would recall that "There was, perhaps, never a greater outpouring of the people from President Pierce

Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States and is the only President from New Hampshire. Pierce was a Democrat and a "doughface" who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general in the Army...

 and the venerable Senator Benton

Thomas Hart Benton (senator)

Thomas Hart Benton , nicknamed "Old Bullion", was a U.S. Senator from Missouri and a staunch advocate of westward expansion of the United States. He served in the Senate from 1821 to 1851, becoming the first member of that body to serve five terms...

 down to the humblest citizen than was seen at his funeral."

He was interred at Congressional Cemetery

Congressional Cemetery

The Congressional Cemetery is a historic cemetery located at 1801 E Street, SE, in Washington, D.C., on the west bank of the Anacostia River. It is the final resting place of thousands of individuals who helped form the nation and the city of Washington in the early 19th century. Many members of...

in Washington.

Maury Elementary School in Washington D.C. was named in honor of John Walker Maury who was the 14th Mayor of the city of Washington.