William Ketchum

Who was William Ketchum?

William Ketchum was the 14th Mayor of the City of Buffalo, New York, serving 1844 to 1845. He was born on March 2, 1798 in Bloomfield, New York. He moved to Buffalo in 1819, and became a partner at a merchant house that handled furs and hats. He was one of the founders of the original Bank of Buffalo along with Major Andre Andrews and Hiram Pratt. On March 18, 1823 he married Lamira Callendar of Buffalo; she died in 1866 and he remarried on September 7, 1871 to Elizabeth Palmer of Brantford, Ontario.

Ketchum served as a Buffalo Village Trustee prior to the city's incorporation, and later served on the Erie County Board of Supervisors. On March 5, 1844, he ran successfully as the Whig candidate for mayor. He did not run for re-election in 1845. He was later a Republican and a Hindoo, a splinter group of the Republican Party. In 1851 he was appointed collector of the port of Buffalo by President Millard Fillmore. He retired from the fur and hat business in 1857. He died October 1, 1876, and is buried in the Ketchum family plot in Forest Lawn Cemetery.