1877 Dr. Eli M. Wight
(Lived May 4, 1841 – January 6, 1885)
Elected to a second term as Mayor in 1876, Wight’s inaugural address to Chattanooga consisted of a list of reforms he hoped for the city to make. Most important to Wight was to set Chattanooga on a course of more fiscal responsibility. Wight advocated collecting taxes in cash so that the city could immediately use the money.
Wight also suggested an extension of the term for the mayor and alderman, so that the city could function continuously for more than one year. Following his second term, Mayor Wight ran an unsuccessful campaign for Governor of Tennessee in 1878, and so returned to his medicine practice. Dr. Wight is one of the doctors of Chattanooga that risked their lives in working with the yellow fever victims in Chattanooga through the late summer and fall of 1878.