My City August 2022

Harold E. Bradshaw 1936-38 Born in 1898 in Davison,MI Bradshaw enlisted and fought with the U.S. Army inWorldWar I, rising to the rank of corporal. Upon returning to his home, he joined General Motors. In Flint, he was very engaged socially as a member of the American Legion, ‚e Forty and Eight, Veterans of ForeignWars, Freemasons, and Elks. Bradshaw was chosen mayor by the city council at perhaps the most tumultuous time in Flint history.‚e city was in an uproar.‚e United AutoWorkers Union (UAW) had entered the city and its attempts to unionize the Flint autoworkers (and others) were being met with stiˆ resistance fromGM, Flint Police and the city council. Bradshaw’s tenure as mayor started oˆ on a high note when Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited the city on his campaign trail meeting with Bradshaw. Next, the summer continued with the “Progress of Transportation” parade down Main Street. In December, however, the confrontation between the city and its workers began to come to the surface. First, the workers of the Flint Trolley Co. went on strike, shutting down transportation in the city and the Sit-Down Strike began soon after. As the strike continued to put pressure on GM, Bradshaw and the council continued to voice their opposition to the strikers with Bradshaw being accused of arming “gangs of vigilantes” to attack strikers. After the “Battle of the Running Bulls” the National Guard was called in and Governor FrankMurphy stepped in to forge a truce between the two warring entities. Subsequently, the city council declared Bradshaw “dictator of Flint” giving him command of all aspects of government including the police. It was at this time that Bradshaw negotiated for the National Guard to remain in Flint until the strike had o—cially ended. Bradshaw was chosen to carry a second term to see the strike through. Once it ended, Bradshaw, with Ed Bacon and Elroy Guckert, addressed the problem of public housing in the city by creating the Flint Housing Commission and appointing its šve-member board. Bradshaw died in 1975 and was buried in DeepdaleMemorial Park in Eaton County.

Harry M. Comins 1938-40

Comins was born in 1882 in Saginaw, MI the son of a lumber scaler who died when Harry was two years old. After his father’s death, the family moved to Buena Vista. Comins graduated from the Saginaw school and then attended the Uni versity of Michigan where he pursued and obtained a literary degree. He then moved to Wisconsin and began teaching high school until 1910, when he took the job of superintendent of schools in Ripon, WI. He next moved to Oshkosh, WI to work for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. When Northwestern opened an oŠce in Flint in 1920, Comins took the job. In 1923, he switched allegiance to the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. While in the city, Comins was a member of the Flint Board of Education and state oŠcer of the Parent-Teacher Association. Socially, he was a member of the Odd Fellows, the Flint Kiwanis Club, and the Chamber of Commerce. He was a ranking member of the National Life Un derwriter’s Association Flint Chapter. As mayor, he neglected to support the prior administration’s Flint Housing Commission, instead siding with local real estate developers. Despite gaining $3.5 million from the federal government in support of the project, Comins and the council refused to allocate the money to the commission.—e newly-elected housing board resigned in protest, oŠcially ending the project before it truly started. Comins died in 1962. While he was mayor, the Mott Children’s Health Center was established at Hurley Hospital. 

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