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DAVID A. SECOMBE
At the time of Mayor Alvaren Allen's resignation, the City Charter of St. Anthony required that the City Council should promptly order a special election to replace him. On Aug. 23, 1856, after accepting Mr. Allen's resignation, Alderman Secombe proposed the following motion:
Resolved: that it is not expedient at the present time to call a special election for Mayor.
The motion was adopted. Next, an ordinance repealing Section 3 of the Election Ordinance was introduced and read. This ordinance passed. Whereupon Alderman Secombe proposed another motion:
Whereas the office of Mayor has become vacant by resignation, Resolved, that the board of aldermen immediately proceed to elect one of their number President who shall be Mayor pro tem.
Adopted. Gentlemen were then nominated and the balloting proceeded thus:
| D.A. Secombe | 3 votes |
| John Orth | 1 vote |
| A.D. Foster | 1 vote |
Secombe was sworn in straightway, and served as President until April 1857.
David Adam Secombe was born March 25, 1827, in Milford, New Hampshire. He attended Dartmouth College, and moved to Minnesota Territory in 1851. He practiced law in St. Anthony. Secombe lost a close race for 3rd Ward Alderman in 1855, then won a seat the next year. In 1860, he served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President. Secombe died in Minneapolis on March 18, 1892. At the time of his death, he was the oldest member of the Minnesota bar in continuous practice.
— Neal Baxter