Peter F. Wanser
(1849-1918) American politician

Peter Farmer Wanser (January 24, 1849 – January 3, 1918) was the 25th Mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey from May 2, 1892 to May 2, 1897.
Biography
Wanser was born on January 24, 1849, near New Brunswick, New Jersey.
In 1882, Wanser was elected to the New Jersey State Assembly and again in 1883. In 1885, he was appointed a police judge in Jersey City.
In 1892, Wanser was elected mayor of Jersey City when he defeated Democrat Allan L. McDermott. He was part of a Republican sweep of elections in New Jersey that went along with John W. Griggs' election as governor. He was the fourth ever Republican elected mayor of Jersey City. He was the first mayor to work in the "new" city hall which was completed in January 1896. Wanser served one five-year term (In 1885, the state legislature changed the term of mayor from two years to five years). Elected as a reform mayor, he had many in the Jersey City Democratic Party worried.
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This entry incorporates text from “Peter F. Wanser” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.