J. Edward Barry was mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

 from 1911-1914. He graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas College

St. Thomas Aquinas College

St. Thomas Aquinas College is a private four-year liberal arts college in Rockland County, New York that occupies a forty-eight acre campus. Located at 125 Route 340 in Sparkill, New York, the college is named after the medieval philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas...

, and worked in the railroad business before entering politics. He served on the lower body of City Council from 1900–1902, and he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives

Massachusetts House of Representatives

The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from single-member electoral districts across the Commonwealth. Representatives serve two-year terms...

in 1906. He became mayor in 1911, and he was elected president of the Association of Railroad and Steamship Agents in 1912.