Oscar Marx

Marx was born on July 14, 1866, in Wayne County, Michigan, the son of German immigrants Stephen and Eleanor Busch Marx.[1][2] Marx attended the Detroit public schools and the German-American Seminary,[2] and spent much of his early life farming, but as Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan grew, the encroaching cities swallowed the Marx farm.[1] Marx's father Stephen sold the farm, giving him and his brothers several thousand dollars to start a business.[1] Oscar Marx used this money to buy into a bankrupt optical firm, the Michigan Optical Company,[2] in 1891, and steered the company to become one of the largest in the region.[1]

In addition to being president of the Michigan Optical Company, Marx was a member of the board of directors of the Standard Computing Scale Company and vice-president of the Robert Oakman Land Co.[2]

In 1897, Marx married Lydia Darmstaetter; the couple had two children: Lydia Marx and Oscar B. Marx Jr.[2]

In 1894–95, Marx was the Detroit estimator-at-large.[2] In 1895 he was elected as an alderman, a position he held for eight years.[2] In 1904, Marx ran for City Treasurer, but was beaten.[1] He served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1908 (and was again a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1916).[3] In 1910, he was appointed City Assessor, and two years later saw his first term as Detroit's mayor.[1] Marx served three terms in all as mayor.[1]

Marx was friends with Robert Oakman and John Dodge, and the three men controlled the Republican Party in Southeast Michigan for much of the 1910s.[4]

Marx appointed James J. Couzens, the man who would become the next mayor, to take over the Detroit police force,[4] and in February of his final year in office Marx created a committee to oversee the feasibility of construction the Outer Drive bypass in the city.

Oscar Marx died on November 23, 1923.[1]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Oscar Marx.

• Film of Oscar Marx's funeral from Detroit News Newsreels, courtesy of Wayne State University