Philip Tomppert was the fifteenth and seventeenth 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...

 in 1865 and 1867 to 1868. He was born in Württemberg

Württemberg

Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and immigrated to Wheeling, West Virginia

Wheeling, West Virginia

Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...

 in 1831, and moved to Louisville in 1837.

He was elected to the Kentucky General Assembly

Kentucky General Assembly

The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kentucky.The General Assembly meets annually in the state capitol building in Frankfort, Kentucky, convening on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January...

 in 1849 and the Louisville City Council in 1861, serving until 1864. He was elected mayor April 1, 1865 over Unionist

National Union Party (United States)

The National Union Party was the name used by the Republican Party for the national ticket in the 1864 presidential election, held during the Civil War. State Republican parties did not usually change their name....

 K.P. Thixton. Tomppert was a Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 who advocated an end to 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...

 and return to the pre-war Union, with slavery intact.

A controversy erupted just after Tomppert was sworn in, as it was revealed that a council member had accepted a $5,000 bribe to approve a street railway along Market Street. Though the council approved it, Tomppert refused to sign the law because of the bribe. As a result, the council impeached him for "neglect of duty" and voted him out by a 10-2 margin on December 28, 1865.

The post was filled by James S. Lithgow

James S. Lithgow

James Smith Lithgow was the sixteenth Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky from January 2, 1866 to February 14, 1867. He was born in Pittsburgh and apprenticed as a coppersmith there....

 until the State Court of Appeals reinstated Tomppert on February 14, 1867 to fill the remainder of the term. Tomppert was subsequently reelected.

Tomppert was a Freemason, holding the position of master. He died of typhoid fever

Typhoid fever

Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...

 and is buried in Eastern Cemetery.