Albert Alonzo "Doc" Ames (January 18, 1842 – November 16, 1911) held three consecutive terms as mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...

. Dr. Ames was known for his service to his country and assistance of the poor, sometimes giving medical treatment to those who could not afford it. However, he became exceedingly more famous by creating the most corrupt government in the city's history. The story became known across the United States

United States

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

 when muckraking journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 Lincoln Steffens

Lincoln Steffens

-Biography:Steffens was born April 6, 1866, in San Francisco. He grew up in a wealthy family and attended a military academy. He studied in France and Germany after graduating from the University of California....

 wrote an article in 1903 about the corruption and the efforts of a local grand jury

Grand jury

A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...

 to stop it. The article was later included in a collection of similar exposes in the book The Shame of the Cities

The Shame of the Cities

The Shame of the Cities was a work published in 1904 by Lincoln Steffens that sought to expose public corruption in many major cities throughout the United States. The work consists of articles written for the magazine McClure's in one collection. His goal was to provoke public outcry and thus...

, published in 1906.

Early life

Ames was born in Garden Prairie

Garden Prairie, Illinois

Garden Prairie is an unincorporated former village located in Boone County, Illinois, United States. It is part of the Rockford, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, a city residing in Boone County, Illinois on January 18, 1842. Ames was the forth child to a family, soon to be, of seven. At the young age of ten, Ames relocated with his father, Dr. Alfred Elisha Ames, and mother, Martha A. Ames, to Fort Snelling located in the Minnesota Territory

Minnesota Territory

The Territory of Minnesota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 3, 1849, until May 11, 1858, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Minnesota.-History:...

. At this time during the spring of 1852, Minnesota was still young—the locality was nameless and resided in a portion of the Fort Snelling reservation. Ames attended local public schools, which were partially run by the federal government. His particular public school was at the time a department of the Washington school, located on the block now occupied by the city hall and court house.

Starting in 1857, while still in high school, Ames became employed as a "printer's devil" and a newspaper carrier for the Northwestern Democrat. The Northwestern Democrat, published by W.A. Hotchkiss, was the first paper issued in Minneapolis that served the west side of the river; the original publishing building still stands on the southeast corner of Third Street and Fifth Avenue South. It was through his efforts as a "printer's devil" that Ames attained his first dollar. After graduating from high school at the age of sixteen, Ames jumped on the opportunity to become immersed in the medical field along side his father. Though he received much of his experience and training by observing and working with his father, Ames attended Rush Medical College

Rush Medical College

Rush Medical College is the medical school of Rush University, a private university in Chicago, Illinois. Rush Medical College was one of the first medical colleges in the state of Illinois and was chartered in 1837, two days before the city of Chicago was chartered, and opened with 22 students on...

 in Chicago and received his M.D.

Doctor of Medicine

Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

 on February 5, 1862 at the age of 20. Soon after, April 21, 1962 to be exact, the established Dr. Ames married Sarah Strout, the daughter of Captain Richard Strout of Minneapolis.

Military career

In August 1862, after graduating with his M.D, Dr. Albert Alonzo Ames returned to Minneapolis to start practicing medicine. However, this aim was cut short due to rising Indian troubles on the frontier. The new doctor was not able to settle down for long with his degree. In August 1862, Ames, along with a few others, raised Company B of 9th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry and became involved in the Dakota War of 1862

Dakota War of 1862

The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of the eastern Sioux. It began on August 17, 1862, along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota...

. This small war erupted between the white settlers of Minnesota and the local Dakota

Sioux

The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...

 population. Dr. Ames was appointed orderly sergeant and was ordered to gather up the men for active duty. During this spur of enlistments, the men of the 9th regiment were allowed fifteen days of leave in order to gather their things and settle their affairs before each was rushed to the front lines where the Indian's were rapidly advancing on Minneapolis.

In the fall of 1863, Dr. Ames accompanied his regiment south to Fort Rigdely, a hot spot for Indian invasion. Luckily, during his participation with Company B, Ames gained experience in surgery which helped advance his talent and studies. A few days later, Ames was commissioned assistant surgeon to the Seventh Minnesota Regiment Infantry Volunteers. After witnessing combat at the Battle of Acton in 1863, Ames was shipped south to provide medical services during the American 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...

. He served with this regiment for three years, eventually being promoted to the rank of Surgeon Major in July 1864. He returned to Minneapolis when combat ceased on August 18, 1865.

Following the war, Albert Alonzo Ames briefly returned to Minnesota to engage in the medical field with his father. Though his intentions in Minnesota might have not been those of a political endeavor, his popularity with the soldiers was such that he received recognition and appointment to the state legislature. In November 1866, Dr. Ames was elected to serve in the state legislature, on a soldiers' ticket, as a representative from Hennepin County; however, two years later, he took a leap and traveled west to California. Here he joined the newspaper business, becoming managing editor of the Alta California

Alta California

Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...

—the leading newspaper on the pacific coast. Albert Alonzo Ames maintained his residence out west from 1868 until 1874, the year his father became terminally ill. After his father's death, he was persuaded by relatives to take over his father's medical practice. For the next 25 years, "Doc" Ames continued to live in Minneapolis.

The Godfather of Minneapolis

Albert Alonzo Ames maintained an interest in politics, conforming with the beliefs of the "war democrats". In 1876, Ames was elected centennial mayor of Minneapolis; however, if he wanted to be reelected, Ames must re-run each year. The following year, in 1882, he ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor. Therefore, in 1882 he was reelected to the same office, the position of centennial mayor of Minneapolis; again, in 1886, he was reappointed for a third time. For each of Ames's mayoral terms, he served as a Democrat.

Though Ames showed success during his service as mayor, he was not as successfully with his national endeavors. In 1886, Albert Alonzo Ames accepted the nomination for Governor. With this, he asked the Democratic convention to pledge party support for a bill establishing a Soldier's Home in Minnesota. The resolution was recognized by members of the party and received support from the left and the right. A.R McGill, his republican opponent, was named governor elect by a very small margin. This sparked controversy over who was the actual winner, and was contested until Ames decided the effort was not worth the time. Though he did not win the election, the Republicans accepted his suggestions about a Soldiers Home and appointed a retreat for the aged and indigent veterans to be placed where the Minnehaha river and Mississippi river converge. He then ran as the Democratic nominee for congress and lieutenant governor; these attempts failed, largely due to the fact that Democrats were the majority in Minnesota. Thoughtfully, in the late 1890s, Ames directed a more independent stance regarding politics—following Jeffersonianism and allowing his viewpoints to be directed chiefly by his sympathy for the masses. In 1900, he was elected as a Republican, taking office in 1901.

The wages of sin

Planning for the new administration began soon after election results were known from the 1900 election. Doc Ames organized his advisers and announced he would install his brother Fred W. Ames as the city's chief of police. Once in office, the Ames brothers flushed out the police force, replacing experienced officers with known crooks. New openings were even offered up to the highest bidder. The new police force became a supporter and purveyor of organized crime

Organized crime

Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...

, extorting money from illegal businesses of various kinds. They also released many criminals from the city's jail, and promoted Minneapolis to robbers across the country. Ames had been suspected of scandalous behavior in his preceding terms as mayor; but due to his actions in 1901 and 1902 as part of a "reform" administration, Ames's behavior would prove he was corrupt himself.

Through his final term as governor, illegal businesses multiplied. There were more saloons, opium

Opium

Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...

 joints, gambling

Gambling

Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...

 parlors, and houses of prostitution

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

 blossoming throughout the city of Minneapolic. It was even speculated that women were setting up candy

Candy

Candy, specifically sugar candy, is a confection made from a concentrated solution of sugar in water, to which flavorings and colorants are added...

 stores to run a legitimate business to children and workers out front, but provide sexual services to any man who would pay in the back. The head of a major gambling syndicate in the city became a detective

Detective

A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

 in the Minneapolis Police Department

Minneapolis Police Department

The Minneapolis Police Department is the police department for the city of Minneapolis in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Formed in 1867, it is the second oldest police department in the state of Minnesota, after the Saint Paul Police Department . A short-lived Board of Police Commissioners existed...

. The police would go and collect "fines" from these businesses in a way that would more closely resemble the intake of Mafia

Mafia

The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...

 protection money today. Prostitutes were said to have made monthly trips to the city court's clerk to pay $100 and to have been strong armed into buying tickets to the police baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 games. Vast amounts of money were taken in at all levels. However, the rampant criminal activity soon began to swirl out of control as the cops and politicians began to swindle each other.

Ames faces the system

In April 1902, a new grand jury came together. The jury handled many normal activities, but under the leadership of foreman Hovey C. Clarke, an investigation began into the Minneapolis city government and its officials. Through the summer, the grand jurors paid private detectives, both locally known men and others from out of town, with their own personal money to document everything suspicious that was found. By the end of the summer, these investigators submitted numerous indictment

Indictment

An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...

s; and when the county prosecutor proved unwilling to do his duty, Clarke excused him and took over the role. The grand jurors even succeeded in tracking down a few crooks and witnesses who had fled the state. In one trial, a man thought to have been a thousand miles away in Idaho

Idaho

Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....

 or Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, suddenly appeared, leading the defendant to jump to his feet in the courtroom and then, later in the evening, flee the city.

Ames was finally located and cornered; therefore, he fired his brother as chief of police before resigning and then left for the remote town of West Baden, Indiana. He was arrested in Hancock, New Hampshire

Hancock, New Hampshire

Hancock is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,654 at the 2010 census. Hancock is home to the Welch Family Farm Forest....

, in February 1903, and was returned to Minnesota a few months later. He ended up standing trial and was convicted of receiving a bribe. Ames then was sentenced to six years in State prison on these charges. Haphazardly, the sentence was overturned on appeal and, after two mistrials, all legal action against him was ceased. Through all this, Albert Alonzo Ames served no time in jail. His brother Fred was sentenced to several years in the state prison, and many others were also put behind bars. City council member D. Percy Jones took over as acting mayor until the term was complete. Jones succeeded in cleaning up much of the mess in about four months of work and non-corrupt actions. The next elected mayor, J. C. Haynes, continued the cleanup process.

Subsequent life

After the end of the final trial, no further charges were filed and Dr. Ames returned to Minneapolis to practice medicine. He died quite suddenly during the night on November 16, 1911. After a service inside his home by the Unitarian Church

American Unitarian Association

The American Unitarian Association was a religious denomination in the United States and Canada, formed by associated Unitarian congregations in 1825. In 1961, it merged with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.According to Mortimer Rowe, the Secretary...

, his body was cremated in Minneapolis's Lakewood Cemetery

Lakewood Cemetery

Lakewood Cemetery is a large private, non-sectarian cemetery located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is located at 3600 Hennepin Avenue at the southern end of the Uptown area...

. Albert Alonzo Ames left his widow a sum of $1,410.94 and a sum of $1 million dollars to each of his surviving children.

Quote

• "The trouble with you people is that you are trying to improve on the plan of the Creator and the Christianity of Christ. If you had been running things when our first parents were setting up housekeeping, you would not have removed Adam and Eve

  Adam and Eve

  Adam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...

  
   from the garden - you would have uprooted the Tree of Knowledge and let Adam and his wife live along without temptation."

  Addressing an assembly of Ministers and Laymen who demanded that he enforce the Sunday closing law for saloons.

Resources

• Dixie Hansen. Hubbard/Holmen Families - Person Page 4 (Collected biographies). Accessed December 8, 2004.
• Lincoln Steffens (January 1903). The Shame of Minneapolis. McClure's Magazine. Accessed December 8, 2004.
• (1881). Albert Alonzo Ames. History of Hennepin County and The City of Minneapolis. North Star Publishing. Archived at the Hennepin County Biographies Project. Accessed December 8, 2004.