George Wilkins Guthrie (September 5, 1848 – March 8, 1917) served as Mayor of Pittsburgh from 1906 to 1909 and then was United States Ambassador to Japan from 1913 to 1917.
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Early life
George Wilkins Guthrie was born in Pittsburgh on September 5, 1848, to John B. Guthrie and Catherine Murray Guthrie. Guthrie attended public school in Pittsburgh, then went to the University of Pittsburgh (then known as the Western University of Pennsylvania), where he graduated in 1866. Next, he studied law at the Columbian College for three years, at which point he was admitted to the bar (in Washington, DC and in Allegheny County on November 5, 1869). He became an attorney and started an involvement in reform issues during an era of increasing government corruption and largess. On December 2, 1886, he married Florence Julia Howe Guthrie, daughter of General Thomas Marshall Howe of Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh politics
Guthrie, a Democrat, ran for mayor of Pittsburgh in 1896 and was defeated narrowly by Henry P. Ford. Guthrie was elected mayor in 1906 and immediately started instituting city policies to stem local corruption, and while working locally he also pushed for statewide reforms. Guthrie is best remembered for two accomplishments. First, for the success of the legislation he and D.T. Watson, the famous corporate lawyer, created which led to the merger between Pittsburgh and Allegheny City in 1906. This consolidation, legally controversial and unpopular among Allegheny residents withstood challenges in the Pennsylvania and United States Supreme Courts, and made the new Greater Pittsburgh the sixth largest city in the United States. Second, the implementation of a water filtration system during Guthrie's term significantly reduced the incidence of typhoid in Pittsburgh.