Kinjiro Matsudaira
American politician
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Kinjiro Matsudaira (松平 欽次郎, Matsudaira Kinjirō; September 13, 1885 – October 1963) was an American inventor and politician who served as the mayor of Edmonston, Maryland in 1927 and 1943.
Carrie Sampson
Kinjiro Matsudaira | |
|---|---|
Matsudaira c. 1928 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 13, 1885 |
| Died | October 1, 1963 (aged 78) |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent(s) | Matsudaira Tadaatsu Carrie Sampson |
Biography
Matsudaira was born in Pennsylvania on September 13, 1885, as the son of a Japanese father, Tadaatsu,[1] and an American mother, Carrie Sampson. He was a descendant of the Fujii-Matsudaira clan.[2] After his father's death, he lived with his maternal grandparents in Virginia. On May 1, 1912, Matsudaira filed for U.S. Patent 1,111,912 concerning the functions of a thermometric fire-detector.[3] The patent was granted to him on September 29, 1914.[4]
In 1925, Matsudaira sent a letter to the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C., asking whether he was related to Tsuneo Matsudaira, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States at the time.[5]
Matsudaira was elected as the mayor of Edmonston, Maryland, in the summer of 1927.[6] The election reportedly made him the first Asian American mayor in the United States.[7][8][9][10] He was re-elected as mayor of Edmonston in 1943.[11][12]