Nathaniel Shurtleff is elected mayor of Boston.

Shurtleff (D), with 8,383 votes, defeats Otis Norcross (R), with 7,867, and others to win the first of three consecutive terms as mayor. He lives at 2 Beacon Street. Although sometimes described as the first “lifelong Democrat” be elected mayor of Boston, Shurtleff had run as a Know-Nothing candidate in 1855. He is inaugurated on January 6, 1868. According to Joseph Fahey, “he was not a good judge of human nature, knew little of the proper method of government, and therefore was not much of a success as mayor.”