{{Short description|American physician (1836–1895)}} {{Other people|John Wall}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = John P. Wall | image = John Perry Wall.png | alt = | caption = | birth_name = John Perry Wall | birth_date = September 1836 | birth_place = Hamilton County, Florida | death_date = {{Death date and age|1895|04|19|1836|09|}} | death_place = Gainesville, Florida | resting_place = Oaklawn Cemetery | occupation = Physician, politician | employer = | spouse = {{Plainlist| * {{Marriage|Pressie Eubanks|1862|1871|end=d.}} * {{Marriage|Matilda McKay|1872}} }} | children = Charlie Wall | relatives = | awards = | education = College of Charleston | party = Democratic | signature = Signature of John Perry Wall.png | office = 16th Mayor of Tampa, Florida | term_start = August 14, 1878 | term_end = August 14, 1880 | successor = Henry C. Ferris | predecessor = Thomas Jackson }}
'''John Perry Wall''' (September 1836 – April 19, 1895) was an American physician, and mayor of Tampa, Florida from 1878 to 1880.<ref>[http://www.tampagov.net/dept_city_clerk/information_resources/previous_mayors/wall_john_p.asp John P. Wall] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130602184007/http://www.tampagov.net/dept_City_Clerk/Information_resources/previous_mayors/wall_john_p.asp |date=June 2, 2013}} City of Tampa</ref>
==Biography== [[File:John p wall.jpg|thumb|right|150px|John P. Wall gravesite at Oaklawn Cemetery in downtown Tampa]]
John P. Wall was born in Hamilton County, Florida in September 1836.<ref name=Cyclopaedia>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QsdKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA94 |title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography |volume=IV |publisher=James T. White & Company |pages=94–95 |year=1893 |access-date=2020-12-03 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
He was educated by private tutors, began the study of medicine in 1855, and graduated from the College of Charleston in 1858.<ref name=Cyclopaedia/>
In 1859 he was a surgeon at Chimborazo Hospital in Virginia, serving Confederate soldiers from Florida during the American Civil War. On a visit to Brooksville, Florida in 1862, he married Pressie Eubanks, the nineteen-year-old daughter of a wealthy planter.<ref name=Cyclopaedia/>
In 1869 he moved to Tampa. In 1871, he contracted yellow fever aboard the steamer ''H. M. Cool'' from Cedar Key while treating a cabin boy. He carried the disease to his wife and two-year-old daughter who died within a few days. He devoted his medical career to studying yellow fever and communicable diseases. He also became more of an alcoholic. After agreeing to give up alcohol he was allowed to marry Matilda McKay, daughter of Captain James McKay, in 1872.<ref name=usf/> Tampa crime boss and power broker Charlie Wall was their son.<ref name=Cyclopaedia/>
Dr. Wall lived on the site of the Tampa Federal Savings and Loan Bank building. As mayor from 1878 to 1880, he worked to increase maritime trade. He founded the Tampa Board of Trade and the Tampa Chamber of Commerce, serving as its first president. He helped lead construction of the railroad from northeastern Florida to Tampa, the settlement of Vicente Martinez Ybor and a large colony of Cuban and Spanish cigar makers in what is now part of Ybor City, and helped establish the phosphate industry.<ref name=usf>[http://www.tampapix.com/tampa1940s7.htm USF digital collections]. ''The Sunland Tribune''. Vol. 2, no. 1, October 1975, Tampa Historical Society</ref> He was a delegate at the Florida Constitutional Convention of 1885.
John Perry Wall died from heart failure in Gainesville on April 18, 1895.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64510106/dr-john-p-wall/ |title=Dr. John P. Wall |newspaper=Indianapolis Journal |location=Gainesville, Florida |page=2 |date=1895-04-19 |access-date=2020-12-03 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> He is buried at the Oaklawn Cemetery in downtown Tampa.
==See also== * List of mayors of Tampa, Florida
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wall, John Perry}} Category:1836 births Category:1895 deaths Category:College of Charleston alumni Category:Mayors of Tampa, Florida Category:Yellow fever in the United States
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