Born: circa 1823 Died: 1903 After the devastating yellow fever epidemics of the late 1870s the city's population was decimated.  The population had shrunken dramatically.  What population remained was largely poor.  While the Irish and other poor Europeans had been wiped out by the epidemic many African Americans had survived.  This is usually attributed to a natural resistance to diseases born in warm, wet climates gradually acquired by African ancestors.  Unfortunately thirteen years after the end of slavery these black citizens were still, on average, very poor. This smaller population would not be able to finance the massive changes to sewage control necessary to prevent a future outbreak of the horrifying and chronic disease.  When this was added to political corruption and over a million dollars in uncollected taxes the situation became untenable.

In January of 1879 the city's Board of Alderman voted to relinquish the city's charter, a move designed to surrender local control while bringing in funds from the state to solve the huge problem of Sanitation.  The State of Tennessee Legislature passed two bills, the first to repeal the city's charter, and the second to create the Taxing District of Shelby County.  The second measure allowed for local governance, taxing and a variety of county services to go forward with local control. 

This new arrangement allowed for a chief executive known as the President of the Taxing District.  The first of these was Dr. D. T. Porter.  The second and certainly the most memorable was David Park “Pappy“ Hadden.  Serving as president from 1882 to 1889 Hadden presided over a successful clean-up of the city.  In his capacity as president he also was the county judge.  A brash and showy Irishman Hadden was known to come into court, bang the gavel and proclaim, “Okay, let's start the show!“  Hadden at times dismissed cases against those who were tenants in his buildings saying, “If he's in jail how is he going to pay my rent?“

Generally though Hadden was considered a stellar administrator often doling out mercy to the under-privileged, yet dealing harshly with anyone who subverted the new rules of sanitation.  Politically Hadden would ultimately be burdened by his own non-conformity.  He was wont to prowl the streets in a buggy drawn by a mule named “Hulda“.  At one point he observed that a large percentage of the murders and assaults coming into his court were caused by complaints of cheating in games of dice.  The average complaints boiled down to either “he was using loaded dice“ or “I didn't get a fair shake“.  Hadden addressed this problem in a manner that was brilliantly practical, but also thought to be undignified by the nouveau riche of the area who were ever conscious of dignified impressions.  Hadden's solution was called the “Hadden Horn“.  The “horn“ was used to shake and throw the dice.  This reduced greatly any impression that the dice were being swapped or not shaken properly.

 
Craps Game Using Hadden Horn

Regardless of the dignity involved the horn worked, fewer people were killed over dice games and thus were able to pay Hadden's rent.  More importantly the city began to be cleaned up.  Although it was still not apparent to anyone that Yellow Fever was born by mosquitos, the general cleanup took away many prime breeding grounds and a strictly enforced quarantine policy also slowed the spread.  One more minor outbreak occured, but the crisis was over.

Hadden's other problem was the repayment of the city's debt.  Although many hoped the debt would go away with the surrender of the charter, it did not.  Bond holders went to court and won a judgement that transferred the debt of the incorportated Memphis to the Taxing District of Shelby County.  Although Hadden was generally perceived to have run a tight ship (much tighter that the former city officials who had profited from the original bond issue) the debt was to outlive both Hadden and the Taxing District.  The name Memphis was eventually restored in 1891, with the right to tax restored two years later.

The re-incorporation of the city brought with it the return to politics as usual, including elections.  While Hadden ran for Mayor and was popular in many quarters, ultimately he was seen as connected to the “old money“ of the town.  In this case old money meant old cotton money, a group of families with views that had become “non-progressive“.  A Memphis ready to enter the Progressive Era was not interested in electing Pappy Hadden.  In truth he did not even earn the nomination of the Democratic party. 

Hadden lived into the twentieth century, but ultimately did not see the outcome of the progressive era.  The reforms he enforced were to ultimately bring Memphis back to the status of a major American city.  Unfortunately the attempt to default on bond issues and the reputation of being a center of disease plagued Memphis until the 1920s.