George Chahoon

George Chahoon (2 February 1840-29 July 1934) was mayor of Richmond, Virginia, from 1868 until 1870.

Chahoon was born in Sherburne, New York, but his family moved to Virginia not long after he was born. He grew up in Botetourt County and at the time the Civil War began was working in Washington, D.C., as a clerk in the Treasury Department.

During Reconstruction, John M. Schofield, Virginia's military commander, appointed Chahoon mayor of Richmond. After he took office on 6 May 1868, Chahoon began purging city government of former Confederates. In another controversial move, he fired a number of white police officers and created a special black police force.

After Reconstruction ended in Virginia, the new members of the Richmond city council chose Henry Keeling Ellyson as interim mayor on 16 March 1870. Chahoon and some of his Republican allies refused to leave office. For a short time Ellyson's supporters besieged Chahoon and his allies, who had barricaded themselves in the police station. Chahoon left it to the courts to decide which was the legitimate administration. When the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals met in the Virginia State Capitol on 27 April 1870 to render its opinion, the overcrowded gallery collapsed. Approximately sixty people died, and Chahoon was among those badly injured. The appeals court ultimately ruled against him.

After his controversial term as mayor, Chahoon returned to New York, where he served in the state senate from 1895 until 1900. He died in Au Sable Forks, New York, on 29 July 1934.

References

* John T. Kneebone et al., eds., "Dictionary of Virginia Biography" (Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1998- ), 3:137-138. ISBN 0-88490-206-4.