page_title: John Weaver (mayor)
section_title: Mayor
hierarchical_section_title: John Weaver (mayor) / Mayor
caption_attribution_description: English: Mayor John Weaver of Philadelphia with wife Emily and son John
context_page_description: John Weaver was an American lawyer and politician who served as a Republican mayor of Philadelphia from 1903 to 1907.
context_section_description: Weaver began his term as mayor without controversy, routinely awarding city contracts to members of the political establishment, as his political patrons expected. His first conflict with the machine came in 1905, when the City Councils passed a bill to lease the city's natural gas works to the United Gas Improvement Company for seventy-five years. The company was controlled by members of the Republican establishment, and the no-bid long-term lease was suspected by reformers as a way to keep gas prices high and insure profit for connected industrialists. Weaver got word of the bill when he was fishing in Canada. The proposed sale had by that time caused widespread outrage among the Philadelphians, and Weaver wrote a letter promising to veto the measure when he returned.
  After vetoing the bill, Weaver removed two ring men who had helped facilitate the proposed sale, the Director of Public Works, Peter E. Costello, and the Director of Public Safety, David J. Smyth. This attack on the ring turned them forcefully against Weaver, who was quickly embraced by the reformers. Weaver, term-limited, left office in 1907. He returned to his private law practice, working in that field until his death in 1928. He was buried in Mount Peace Cemetery in Philadelphia.
caption: Weaver with wife Emily and son John
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