William George: South Bend's First Mayor

George never set out to become a politician, but his young city needed him.

BY AARON HELMAN // POSTED OCTOBER 15, 2025

When the people of South Bend voted to incorporate their town in May 1865, the country was still raw from the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln had been dead barely five weeks, Union troops were still marching home, and the nation's future seemed uncertain. Yet amid that chaos, a small community on the southern bend of the St. Joseph River decided it was time to grow up.

The man they turned to for leadership was William Greenawalt George — a 32-year-old lawyer, Civil War veteran, and accidental politician who became the city's first mayor. His story is that of a young nation in miniature: idealistic, improvisational, and ambitious enough to build something lasting from the ruins of war.

William G. George was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania on July 4, 1832, a fitting birthday for a man whose life would revolve around civic duty. Trained in law, he came to South Bend in the 1850s, joining a frontier town still defined by its river and mills.

At that time, South Bend was not yet a city but a modest trade center whose early founders were fading from public life. George built a law practice, married, and quietly established himself as part of the town's professional class.

Then came the Civil War.

When the war broke out, George joined the Union cause. He rose to captain and eventually served as chief of staff to General Robert H. Milroy, a colorful but controversial officer known for both his zeal and his disasters.

George was with Milroy at the Second Battle of Winchester in June 1863, a calamity that saw thousands of Union soldiers captured. Milroy's command was dissolved afterward; George was reassigned to South Bend as commander of local volunteers, a desk-bound but consequential posting that kept him visible in civic affairs while many of his contemporaries were still in the field.

By the time the war ended in the spring of 1865, George had something rare among young professionals: military experience, community standing, and the sheer good fortune of being home when opportunity came calling.

That May, South Bend's citizens voted to incorporate as a city. The town's population had swelled, its industries were diversifying, and its leaders recognized the need for formal government. The task of drafting the city's Articles of Incorporation fell naturally to William George, one of the few lawyers on hand with both legal expertise and public credibility.

When the measure passed — 286 votes in favor, 194 against — George was the logical choice to serve as the new city's first mayor. His election was less a campaign than a consensus: the man who wrote the charter should be the one to carry it out.

He was sworn in that June, inheriting a city that was barely a quarter square mile in size but bursting with ambition.

South Bend in 1865 had all the problems of a growing town and few of the resources to fix them. Streets were unpaved, sidewalks nonexistent, and public institutions primitive. George tackled what he could.

He ordered sidewalks built along property lines, a well-intentioned experiment that left the city with mismatched planks and unpaid bills. He organized a rudimentary system of public lighting and took on the role of municipal judge, hearing minor cases himself because the city couldn't yet afford a court staff.

George served two terms as mayor, but he was a one-man team, the newspaper criticism was unceasing, and the pay was virtually nonexistent.

By 1868, worn down by the job, George announced he would not seek a third term. In a letter to local party leaders, he wrote:

“Believing that there should be some rotation in office… I much prefer the honored station of a private citizen.”

The City Council formally thanked George for his “able and impartial manner” of service, and the South Bend Cornet Band serenaded him at home with Home Sweet Home. The gesture was more than ceremonial. South Bend had survived its infancy because George had kept it pointed forward.

George returned to his law practice and turned down a congressional nomination. He remained active in civic life, helping found South Bend's public library system, a cause that outlived him by generations.

William George died suddenly in 1890, at age 57. He is buried in the South Bend City Cemetery.