A Rock-Throwing Mayor Bodie and the Socialist
By Van Craddock
As far as G.A. Bodenheim was concerned, Longview was his town.
The feisty mayor, who had his own way of doing things, prided himself in knowing everyone in town and what they were up to. That's why, on the evening of Jan. 7, 1908, Bodenheim was surprised to see a large crowd gathered on Tyler Street in front of the First National Bank.
Bodie, as many residents called the popular two-term mayor, waded through the crowd to the gentleman on the sidewalk addressing the group.
The man turned out to be W.W. Buchanan, a well-known Texas socialist organizer originally from Ohio.
A newspaper story of Jan. 9 reported what happened next:
"Mayor Bodenheim walked up and asked (Buchanan) what he was doing, to which he answered that he was doing what any American had a perfect right to do. The crowd appeared to somewhat agree with the socialist speaker."
Buchanan was promoting his Socialist Party of America and urging his enthusiastic Longview audience to join the labor-union campaign.
At that point, "fearing his authority was being overrun," Bodenheim "ordered the man to leave and stop blocking the sidewalk" or the mayor would make a citizen's arrest and throw Buchanan into the local calaboose.
Bodenheim "emphasized his remark by picking up a rock" and again ordered Buchanan to mosey on out of town. The man kept talking and "gesticulating to the mayor," who then threw his rock "which the socialist dexterously dodged."
An exasperated Bodenheim then left the downtown corner and, after a quick supper at home, headed to a 7:30 p.m. city council meeting at City Hall.
Along the way, Buchanan "was assaulted by some men concealed under a tree near his home. The mayor received one glancing blow from a club. The party ran away at the approach of an officer." The mayor received only minor injuries and was able to preside at the council meeting that night.
Gregg County Sheriff G.W. Little quickly made an arrest, but the man Little arrested was Mayor Bodenheim. While Bodie couldn't identify any of the men who had attacked him, W.W. Buchanan filed charges after the mayor chunked the rock at his noggin.
Bodenheim was incensed by the sheriff's arrest but there wasn't much he could do about it. However, Bodie made sure he was well represented at his trial, hiring "the law firm of Young & Stinchcomb, Howard & Cunningham and Turner & Campbell" to defend him.
The trial was brief and predictable. The jury promptly declared Bodenheim "not guilty."
We don't know if W.W. Buchanan returned to Longview. In May, only four months after the Longview incident, Buchanan was one of nine Texas delegates to the 1908 national convention of the Socialist Party of America in Chicago.
Bodenheim, first elected mayor in 1904, served in the position through 1916. He declined to run that year but then won re-election again in 1918.
A cotton broker and insurance man by profession, Gabriel Augustus Bodenheim was a most colorful character. He also turned Longview into a modern little town.
During his time as mayor, Bodenheim:
-expanded the city limits by annexing Longview Junction, a settlement just east of town, giving Longview a population of 5,000.
-paved almost 10 miles of city streets.
-organized the city's first paid fire department and reportedly bought the first automobile fire engine in the state.
-pushed through a $250,000 waterworks system and filtration plant.
-installed a modern sewer system and initiated sanitation collection throughout the corporate limits.
-built a "Corinthian Standard" street lighting system (which Bodie could have used in 1908 to identify his downtown assailants).
In appreciation of his effort to develop the city, a downtown park was named "Bodie Park" in his honor.
Mayor Bodenheim died in 1957, just shy of his 84th birthday.