Want to know more about the first GOP mayor of Raleigh?

Here's a snippet from "Historical Raleigh," a 1913 history by Moses Neal Amis on Joseph W. Holden, who beat Tom Fetzer to the punch by more than a century:

(Gov. William W. Holden's) eldest son was Joseph W. Holden, who was Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1868, 1869 and 1870, and enjoyed the reputation of being the most capable officer who had ever occupied that position in this State. He was afterwards elected Mayor of the City of Raleigh. He died at an early age and was undoubtedly one of the most talented men that the State has ever produced. His poem of "Hatteras" was written before he entered politics and this piece of composition will last until the everlasting rocks of Cape Hatteras and time are no more. He died in 1875, aged thirty-one years.

Amis was evidently a fan.

Was Tom Fetzer the first Republican mayor of Raleigh?

As it turns out, no. But you'd have to go a long ways back to find his predecessor.

The candidate for the head of the state Republican Party has been touting his credentials in interviews and e-mails to supporters.

"In 1993, I was elected the first Republican Mayor in the history of Raleigh — a Democrat stronghold — in an election hailed by the Wall Street Journal as 'the most impressive reform victory in the country' that year," Fetzer wrote in a recent e-mail.

An alert Dome reader, however, points to Joseph W. Holden, a Republican who served as mayor from 1874 to 1875. (Incidentally, he was also a former speaker of the state House and son of impeached Gov. William Woods Holden.)

Dome, for one, is not going to be a stickler on this.

Fetzer can rightly claim credit for upsetting the city's 118-year reign of Democratic mayors, which we think is his point. And the N&O itself has described him as the city's "first Republican mayor" at least a half-dozen times in recent years.

And, well, Holden isn't exactly running for party chair.

Of course, there is one other little detail: The city's mayorship is nonpartisan.