Bailey Gatzert

{{short description|American politician}}

{{More citations needed|date=July 2007}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2011}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Bailey Gatzert

| image = Bailey-Gatzert-Portrait.jpg

| nationality = {{flag|United States|name=American}}

| birth_date = {{birth date|1829|12|29}}{{cite web|url=http://www.jgsws.org/schwabacher2.php|title=Jewish Genealogical Society of Washington State|work=jgsws.org}}

| birth_place = Darmstadt, Hesse, German Confederation

| death_date = {{death date and age|1893|4|19|1829|12|29}}

| death_place = Seattle, Washington, U.S.

| order = 7th

| office =Mayor of Seattle

|term_start =August 2, 1875

|term_end=July 31, 1876

|successor=Gideon A. Weed

|predecessor=Henry Yesler

| spouse =

| children =

}}

Bailey Gatzert (December 29, 1829 – April 19, 1893) was an American politician and the eighth mayor of Seattle, Washington, serving from 1875 to 1876. He was the first Jewish mayor of Seattle, narrowly missing being the first Jewish mayor of a major American city{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}} (Moses Bloom became mayor of Iowa City, Iowa, in 1873). {{As of|2022}}, he has been the only Jewish mayor of Seattle.{{Cite web |title=Bailey Gatzert is elected mayor of Seattle on August 2, 1875. |url=https://www.historylink.org/File/95 |access-date=2022-11-14 |website=www.historylink.org}}

Gatzert was born in 1829 in Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse, and emigrated to Natchez, Mississippi, in 1849, coming west four years later.{{Cite web |title=Gatzert, Bailey (1829-1893) |url=https://www.historylink.org/File/86 |access-date=2022-11-14 |website=www.historylink.org}} In 1869 he opened a Seattle branch of Schwabacher Brothers and Company, a hardware and general store{{Cite web |title=Washington State Jewish Historical Society (WSJHS) |url=https://www.historylink.org/File/20781 |access-date=2022-11-14 |website=www.historylink.org}} he managed as partners with his brothers-in-law Abraham, Louis, and Sigmund Schwabacher.

In addition to being mayor, Gatzert was charter member of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, served on the Seattle City Council 1872–1873 and 1877–1878[http://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/Facts/councilchron.htm Seattle City Council Members, 1869 – present Chronological Listing], Seattle City Archives. Accessed online July 19, 2008. and was president of Puget Sound National Bank and Peoples Savings Bank. He co-founded Washington's second synagogue (Seattle's first), Ohaveth Shalom, which opened in 1892. Washington's first synagogue was built in Spokane.

The famous sternwheeler Bailey Gatzert is named for him, as is an elementary school in Seattle.Ouchi, William G.; Segal, Lydia G. (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=FHmQMQ2jYWgC&pg=PA205 Making schools work: a revolutionary plan to get your children the education they need]. New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 205, {{ISBN|978-0-7432-4630-9}}.