Ardolph L . Kline Ardolph Loges Kline ( February 21 , 1858 – October 13 , 1930 ) , was a senior officer of the New York National Guard and a Republican politician who became acting Mayor of New York City on September 10 , 1913 upon the death of Mayor William Jay Gaynor , serving for the rest of the year . He was later a United States Representative from Brooklyn ( 1921 – 1923 ) . Early life . Kline was born near Newton , New Jersey in 1858 and studied at Phillips Academy in Andover , Massachusetts but did not attend college . In 1876 and 1877 , he started working for a men ' s clothing company in New York City and joined the New York National Guard as a private . When the Spanish - American War of 1898 began , he was named a Lieutenant - Colonel , and in 1901 a Brevet ( honorary or acting ) Brigadier - General . Political career . After losing a campaign for Sheriff of Kings County ( Brooklyn ) , Kline was elected as an Alderman for the 51st District in Brooklyn in 1903 and 1905 , but lost re - election in 1907 due to Democratic redrawing of his district . He won back his seat in 1911 and became Vice - Chairman of the Board of Aldermen in 1912 , promising to enforce all rules fairly from the chair ( including those against smoking ) . When John P . Mitchel , the elected President of the Board of Aldermen , resigned in 1912 in order to become Collector of the Port of New York , Kline succeeded Mitchel . And when Mayor Gaynor ( who had never fully recovered from an attempted assassination in 1910 ) died at sea in September 1913 , Board President Kline became Mayor . He served out the remainder of Gaynor ' s term , leaving office on December 31 , 1913 . Despite his stated intention of keeping all the department heads appointed by his predecessor for the rest of his term , Kline , in his very last days of office , dismissed Rhinelander Waldo as Commissioner of Police rather than accept a New Year ' s Eve resignation . Although re - elected as Alderman for his old district for the 1914 - 1915 term , Kline resigned in early January 1914 to begin four years as the City ' s Tax Commissioner for Brooklyn ( reviewing appeals of property tax assessments ) . He later served as a Republican U . S . Representative from New York ( 5th District in Brooklyn ) from 1921 to 1923 , being named to the House Committee on Naval Affairs , but lost re - election in 1922 to Loring M . Black , Jr . ( Democratic , 1923 – 1935 ) . Kline spent all of his post - Congressional life as New York manager of the sea - service bureau of the United States Shipping Board . Ardolph Kline died in October 1930 at the Methodist Episcopal Hospital in Brooklyn , New York , and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery . He is still ( in early 2013 ) the only Mayor of the consolidated ( post - 1897 ) City never to have won a City - wide popular election to any office ( such as those from which Joseph V . McKee and Vincent Impellitteri rose to become Acting Mayor ) . On the other hand , Kline is also the last serving or former Mayor to win election to any other public office . Congressional election returns . Here are the election returns from the Fifth Congressional District in Brooklyn for 1920 - 22 , as reported by William Tyler Page , the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives . The sitting Democratic Representative , John B . Johnston ( 1919 – 21 ) , did not seek re - election in 1920 .