First he came to have influence in his councilman's ward, then in his legislative district, then in the city councils of his party--Whig, of course--and then he was supposed to have an organization.
Mysterious forces worked for him in council.

He was awarded significant contracts, and he always bid.

The garbage business was now a thing of the past.

His eldest boy, Owen, was a member of the State legislature and a partner in his business affairs.

His second son, Callum, was a clerk in the city water department and an assistant to his father also.
Aileen, his eldest daughter, fifteen years of age, was still in St.
Agatha's, a convent school in Germantown.