George Loughman: The Busiest Man In South Bend
How a railroad executive, banker, and fire fighter managed do all that… and be the mayor
BY AARON HELMAN // POSTED SEPTEMBER 8, 2026
Being South Bend's seventh mayor was another job that George Loughman probably didn't have time for.
He was already a busy man by 1884: freight agent for the largest railroad in South Bend, president of a building and loan association, president of his own life insurance company, and foreman of the city's number one fire crew.
He swore he didn't have time for politics, and probably he was right. But they persuaded him to run anyway, and then he won. Four jobs turned into five jobs, and the city of South Bend was along for the ride.
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Loughman came to South Bend as a teenager, after sneaking underage into the Ohio infantry during the Civil War, where he marched with William Tecumseh Sherman to the sea.
He found a job as a railroad clerk in 1865 and worked his way up to freight agent at the South Bend depot, which meant he was on call all day and every day. Every derailment, every delayed shipment, and every drunk who wandered under a moving train was his to sort out. Those things happened more often than you'd think.
It was a busy job, which is why he kept turning down the political entreaties that came his way. By 1884, he'd already been twice elected to the City Council, and as far as he was concerned, that was two terms too many. He even wrote a letter that was printed in the papers announcing that he “positively refused to be a candidate for councilman.”
It was understandable. Besides the railroad, he had two other paid gigs and a volunteer engagement that meant more to him than anything that gave him a paycheck. Loughman was the foreman of Station One of the South Bend Fire Department.
He was resolute when he said he would not enter politics, but then the city cut funding for firefighters under mayor Levi Ham.
George Loughman was incensed by the move, and he was ready to throw his hat into the ring.
It was the closest race in the history of South Bend, but Loughman came out victorious, defeating Judge Timothy Howard by fewer than 100 votes. It was official. He had five jobs now.
He did the jobin the way you'd probably expect, with half of his attention and half of his time. He issued proclamations closing the city on Memorial Day and Independence Day. He helped open the new opera house and presided over the city court when he was required to do so. He suspended a policeman for drinking on the job.
At no point during his mayoral tenure did Loughman step away from his work as a fireman, and his first act after taking office was to inform the men of Hose Company No. 1 that he wanted to be fined if he ever failed to turn out to a fire, at any time, for any reason.
During his first term, he put out at least a dozen literal fires. He legislated almost nothing.
Apparently, the people of South Bend were content with the arrangement, because in 1886, they elected him to a second term, and this time he got to work building something that would last. Loughman's lasting legacy is that he was the mayor who transformed the police and fire departments into real, professional, non-partisan forces — one of many early steps that legitimized South Bend as a city.
When Loughman was replaced by Will Longley in the mayor's office in 1888, he was ready to be done with job, and maybe he had been since the beginning.
George Loughman died in 1909, and the newspapers remembered a businessman first, a banker second, and an ex-mayor third. Given the choice, he probably would have led with firefighter.
