List of mayors of Oakland, California

This is the list of mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

s of the city of Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

, which was founded in 1852. It was incorporated as a city in 1854.

Until the early twentieth century, all Oakland mayors served terms of only one or two years each.

Terms

Office terms:
- 1 year 1854 - mayor elected by fellow city council members
- 2 years 1893 - mayor elected by fellow city council members
- 4 years 1953 - mayor elected by popular vote

List of mayors

Number	Term start	Name	Notes
1st	April 17, 1854	Horace W. Carpentier	Horace Walpole Carpentier was born in July, 1824, in Galway (village), New York Galway (village), New York Galway is a village in the town of Galway in Saratoga County, New York, USA. The population was 214 at the 2000 census. The village is north of Schenectady. Galway Lake, a vacation area, is west of the village.- History :... , one of eight children born to James and Henrietta Carpenter (at some later date Horace and his three brothers all agreed to change their surname to Carpentier). He graduated from Columbia College [now University] in New York City in 1848, after having "worked his way through college with great difficulty, accepting any kind of work that [was] offered" in his words. He and his brother Edward, also a law graduate from Columbia, arrived in San Francisco in 1849 and they practiced law for two years there before beginning their vast land acquisitions in the East Bay. On May 17, 1852, thirteen days after Oakland was incorporated, the board of trustees who governed the city during its first two years, granted Carpentier rights to the entire waterfront for a period of 37 years (soon amended to "in fee simple forever"), in exchange for $5 and the building of three wharves and one school house. Besides ownership of the waterfront, Carpentier also built up a ferry monopoly and a toll bridge across present day Lake Merritt, so that "he and his associates were collecting a fee on virtually every passenger, animal, or item of cargo that entered or left Oakland." Vehement efforts to overthrow Carpentier's monopoly of the waterfront began almost immediately and were later centered on the Central, or Southern Pacific Railroad, which had title to most of the estuary transferred from Carpentier in 1868. In 1852 he was elected to the State Assembly in what was generally viewed as a highly fraudulent victory, but in the legislature he pushed for the creation of Alameda County and/or Oakland's incorporation as a city, not a town, in 1854. He was then elected Oakland's first mayor on April 17, 1854, defeating S.J. Clark, 192-92, in another election whose legitimacy has often been questioned. Only 29 years old, Oakland's first mayor was also the youngest ever elected. He lived at a "sumptuous estate" at Third and Alice Streets (the latter was named after his only sister): Although reviled as the man who tied up Oakland's waterfront for personal gain for the entire nineteenth-century, Carpentier was also fully committed to the development of the new city, and he delivered a far-sighted inaugural address calling for, among other goals, Oakland becoming the western terminus of the transcontinental railroad (fifteen years before this goal was accomplished), and for strict preservation of the city's native oaks. An unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for State Attorney General ended his political career, and for the next ten years he was president of the California State Telegraph Company, which built the state's first telegraph system, and president of the Overland Telegraph Company, which linked California to the East, as well as a founder of the Bank of California. He returned to New York in 1880 and died at his home at 108 East Thirty-Seventh Street in New York City on January 31, 1918, at the age of 93. He is buried at Galway, New York Galway, New York Galway, New York may refer to:Galway , New YorkGalway , New York... . Carpentier had been elected to the boards of trustees of both Columbia University Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the... and Barnard College Barnard College Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough... in 1906, at the age of 81, and served on the boards until his death. He was described as the "most progressive, enlightened, financially generous trustee" of his era, who endowed the first chair in Chinese studies at any U.S. university (which he had named after his Chinese valet, Dean Lung); pressed for alumni representation on the board, and for the recruitment of Catholic and Jewish trustees; championed the place of Barnard women within the university (out of respect for his mother, whom he described as a remarkable woman who had been denied an education); and continually pressed the president of the university, Nicholas Murray Butler, to make the university not only "great" but also "democratic." Carpentier, who lived alone with his collie dog for many years before his death, was also a trustee and benefactor to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. A lifelong bachelor without descendants, he left an estate of $3.5 million, and gave over $2 million of that to Columbia University and Barnard College (in addition to the $2 million he had left those institutions previously), $100,000 to the University of California and $100,000 to the Pacific Theological Seminary in Berkeley. He left nothing to Oakland institutions. Carpentier has been described as "obviously a man of immense energy, who in his unorthodox and often ruthless tactics had become a land baron of great significance...he was held in both contempt and esteem at the time of his death... in 1877 the Oakland Daily Transcript wrote, "If the early settlers had taken Horace Carpentier to a convenient tree and hung him, as they frequently threatened to do, the act would have been inestimably beneficial to immediate posterity." A Columbia University librarian concluded, "He was a real man of mystery - even the trustees who served on the Columbia board with him knew nothing about him or his past." When the Society of California Pioneers once asked him for an outline of his life and achievements, he wrote: "Of no unworthy parentage - puritan of the Puritans - I was born, much as others are born, a diminutive savage, in 1824. Without education or culture I have lived a rather long and busy life doing many things in a common way and perhaps a few things well; a life, as I see it, of mixed good and ill, and with little or nothing in it of special interest to others or even to myself, or that can be worth a remembrance in the annals of your society. There may be others, masters of fiction and rhetoric, who could invent for me a larger and more rounded history, but this seems to be about the best that I can do."
2nd	March 5, 1855	Charles Campbell	Very little is known about the city's second mayor, except for one brief description of him as a candidate of the "Anti-Squatters," elected on a pledge to break Carpentier's hold on Oakland, who spent most of his term relentlessly fighting the "waterfront scheme." He was born c. 1838 and died in Oakland on October 9, 1890, according to the records of Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California), where he is interred.
3rd	March 3, 1856	Samuel H. Robinson	Oakland's third mayor is also little more than a historical cipher. The very valuable 1939 WPA history of Oakland states that Charles Campbell tried to have Robinson's victory in 1856 declared void, claiming that Carpentier had engineered his defeat with illegal votes. Otherwise we have an intriguing note from the Oakland Enquirer, dated May 24, 1899, noting that Robinson, "who afterwards became the mayor of Oakland, and also the mayor of Gold Hill, Nevada, and whose widow now resides in west Oakland" had been a passenger aboard the bark Fanny, which had arrived in San Francisco fifty years before, at the height of the Gold Rush. It further noted that Robinson had been a "worshipful master of Live Oak Lodge, No. 61, F. & A.M. of Oakland" and he "now sleeps beneath the aromatic wild artemisia known as the sage brush on the slope of Mt Davidson, where the Washoe zephyrs thrum the Aeolian harp of the telegraph and sweep the slopes of that rugged mountain."
4th	March 2, 1857	Andrew Williams	Williams was born in Cherry Valley (village), New York Cherry Valley (village), New York Cherry Valley is a village in Otsego County, New York, United States. The population was 592 at the 2000 census.The Village of Cherry Valley is in the Town of Cherry Valley... c. 1800 and graduated from Union College Union College Union College is a private, non-denominational liberal arts college located in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. In the 19th century, it became the "Mother of Fraternities", as... in Schenectady, New York Schenectady, New York Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135... in 1819. He came to California in 1850 aboard the steamer New World and settled in Oakland in 1856, when he built "one of the most elegant mansions which the young city could boast" at Fifth and Clay. He has been called the father of the Oakland Public Library Oakland Public Library The Oakland Public Library is the public library in Oakland, California. Opened in 1878, the Oakland Public Library currently serves the city of Oakland, along with some neighboring smaller cities including Emeryville and Piedmont. The Oakland Public Library has the largest collection of any... because of a speech he gave calling for the organization of a free circulating library before the Philomathean Association, one of the first literary societies in Oakland, in February, 1857. Williams was one of the original communicants of the first Episcopal church in Oakland, St. John's, which was organized under an oak tree in 1854. He was a poet, who, like Carpentier and the other early city fathers, foresaw Oakland soon becoming an important railroad terminus, and he prophesied: Hark to that shrill whistle from the plains! Hark what new sound floats on the eastern gale! Hark, hear thy peal, still lingering over the vale! Again, and nearer still it thunders round, And Oakland leaps in triumph at the sound! Owing to a defective land title he lost his Oakland home and moved back to San Francisco, afterwards going East to live. He came out again to visit a son who lived in Oakland and died here on January 19, 1876. He is buried at Mountain View. Although he has been described as "one of the most cultivated men who ever filled the office of chief magistrate of this city," Williams will probably always be best remembered as the stepfather of the writer Bret Harte Bret Harte Francis Bret Harte was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.- Life and career :... . Henry Harte, Bret s father who died when his son was nine years old, had attended Union College at the same time as Williams. They became close friends and years later Williams courted the young widow, Elizabeth Ostrander Harte, in New York, though they were actually married in San Francisco in 1853. The following year Bret and his sister came out to be reunited with their mother and to stay, for about a year, at her new household in Oakland. Williams has been described as a "good-natured, rather windy and pompous gentleman...just smart enough to prosper in business and politics," and biographers of Harte generally agree that Williams served as a model for Harte's rather bombastic character, Colonel Starbottles.
5th	March 7, 1859	Francis K. Shattuck Francis K. Shattuck Francis Kittredge Shattuck was the most prominent civic leader in the early history of Berkeley, California, and played an important role in the creation and government of Alameda County as well. He also served as the fifth mayor of the city of Oakland in 1859, and represented the 4th District in...	Shattuck was born in Crown Point, New York Crown Point, New York Crown Point is a town in Essex County, New York, USA. The population was 2,119 at the 2000 census. The name of the town is a direct translation of the original French name, "Point au Chevalure."... , on the shores of Lake Champlain Lake Champlain Lake Champlain is a natural, freshwater lake in North America, located mainly within the borders of the United States but partially situated across the Canada—United States border in the Canadian province of Quebec.The New York portion of the Champlain Valley includes the eastern portions of... , on March 6, 1825 and spent his early years in New York and Vermont, teaching and clerking. He came to California in 1850 aboard the steamer Oregon with his brother-in-law George M. Blake (see below). Both worked the gold mines for a year or two - Shattuck as a teamster, Blake as a miner. When Shattuck left the gold fields to become a landowner in the East Bay, he encountered and aided an ill and out-of-luck William Hillegas along the trail, thus beginning a long partnership between the two men in many ventures, including a prominent livery stable and Shattuck and Hillegas Hall, both on Broadway, and the Mt. Diablo Coal Mines. Shattuck also invested in water, gas, and local railroads. He was president of Oakland's First National Bank and Berkeley's first bank, the Commercial. One of the original landowners in Berkeley, with 640 acres (2.6 km²), he played a huge role in the development of that community and its university. A Republican, described as "Union to the core," he served as clerk to the initial Oakland Board of Trustees in 1853, was elected city council member in 1856 and served as council president in 1858. He was elected to the county Board of Supervisors in 1857 (serving until 1869, including seven years as chairman) and to the state Legislature in 1859. While serving simultaneously as Oakland mayor and state assemblyman(!), he used these positions to promote, unsuccessfully, Oakland as the state capital. He had built the first city office building, at Eighth and Broadway, in 1867, which housed the city government until the first city hall was built in 1871. He died on September 9, 1898 in Berkeley and is buried at Mountain View.
6th	March 7, 1860	J. P. M. Davis	Davis is another historical enigma. We only know that he was a Democrat, elected in 1860 and 1861, in the first partisan elections for mayor, and that he died in 1864 and is buried at Mountain View. (N.B. - the photo of Davis used for the group portrait is now in the library of the Oakland Tribune, and it is labeled Dr. J.P.M. Davis - worth investigating, check out the history of the Alameda County Medical Association).
7th	March 5, 1862	George M. Blake	Blake was born in Elizabethtown, New York Elizabethtown, New York Elizabethtown is a town in Essex County, New York, United States. The population was 1,315 at the 2000 census. The county seat of Essex County is a hamlet also called Elizabethtown. The name is derived from Elizabeth Gilliland, the wife of an early settler.... and educated at Middlebury College Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,... in Vermont. He arrived in California in 1850 with his brother-in-law Francis Shattuck, and while mining they met their future partners in East Bay real estate - James Leonard, an Irishman from Boston and William Hillegas from Pennsylvania. These four men were to become the first Americans to claim local property under the Possessory Right Law established by the state Legislature in 1852, when they bought four adjacent 160 acre (0.6474976 km²) tracts of land covering all of central Berkeley. Years later Blake's gift of ten of his Berkeley acres reportedly settled the question as to the new University of California relocating from downtown Oakland to Berkeley. Blake was elected to Oakland's very first city council in 1854, and once again in 1861, before his election as mayor in 1862. Blake settled in Oakland as a lawyer, and his wife, M Kittredge Blake, who was Francis Shattuck's sister, was the proprietress of Oakland's first girls' school, the Blake Seminary (also known at the Oakland Seminary), located on Washington between Eleventh and Twelfth Streets in one of the finest buildings in Oakland at that time. Blake died on October 16, 1875, and is buried at Mountain View.
8th	March 1863	W. H. Bovee	Bovee was born in New York City New York City New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and... in 1823 and came to California in 1849 aboard the Xylon for the Gold Rush. He mined in the Sutter's Creek area briefly before opening a general merchandise store in Sacramento. In 1856 he returned to San Francisco, where he opened the Pioneer Coffee and Spice Mill - a line of business he had successfully pursued as a young man in New York. He served on the Vigilance Committee of 1856 in San Francisco (as did Enoch Pardee and Samuel Merritt, two other future Oakland mayors), as well as an alderman and education board member in San Francisco, before moving to Oakland. He prospered in real estate and opened a San Francisco firm, Bovee, Toy, and Co., with his son-in-Iaw George Toy. Bovee died on May 14, 1894, at the Berkshire Hotel in San Francisco and is buried at Mountain View.
9th	March 14, 1864	Edward Gibbons	Gibbons was one of three prominent physician brothers - Henry, William, and Edward - born to a Quaker physician in Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley... . Edward was born in 1816 and graduated from the University of New York [now New York University New York University New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan... ] in 1841 and studied law in Memphis, Tennessee Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers.... for four years. He returned to Delaware in 1848 and was elected clerk of the House of Representatives of that state. In 1850 he came to California with one of his brothers on the maiden voyage of the steamer Republic; they mined gold briefly before returning to San Francisco, where Edward, "prepared to fill any position in law, medicine, or legislation," was appointed physician to the cholera hospital. He arrived in Oakland in 1851 and, according to a history of the Alameda County Medical Association, "Dr. Edward Gibbons lived on the corner of Ninth and Washington Streets... was on the city council in 1856 and city clerk from 1857 to 1861, then mayor of Oakland...he practiced little, if any, medicine." He served three terms as president of the council before becoming mayor and two terms as council president afterwards. The system of farming out the indigent sick that prevailed here for many years was very repugnant to him, and he induced the Board of County Supervisors to establish a hospital, or infirmary, the plan for the building of which he drew out, and when established, he gratuitously gave the county the benefit of his services for one year, as physician," according to Halley's 1876 history of Alameda County. He returned to the East in 1868 and did come back to California until 1873, the year he was nominated for the State Senate by the Independent Convention and elected by a "handsome majority." He died on May 30, 1886 in Calistoga and is buried in Mountain View.
10th	March 6, 1865	B. F. Ferris	Ferris remains one of the truly mysterious figures among all Oakland mayors. He was listed in 1869 and 1870 Oakland city directories as "banker, Wilcox Block," as a "capitalist" in the 1871 and 1872-3 directories, and as president of the First National Gold Bank of Oakland in 1875 and 1876. Following his service as mayor, he was elected to the city council in 1872 and 1873. He drowned, in an apparent suicide, in the Sacramento River, on May 20, 1876, according to the records of Mountain View cemetery, where he is buried. According to the Oakland Tribune of May 22, 1876: "Nothing further has been elicited regarding the suicide of Judge Ferris, than was published in the Sacramento Bee of Saturday. That paper states a gentleman supposed to be B.F Ferris, but answering to the name of H.A. Johnson, was seen and spoken to by a runner on board the steamer Amador early Saturday morning. He was then setting on the guards of the upper deck with his feet tied together. The runner left him but soon returned only to find him missing. He is supposed to have jumped overboard and drowned. In his stateroom was found a note addressed to 'his Dear Wife and Daughter', stating that he was about to take poison and then drown himself, which was signed 'H.A Johnson, alias B.F.F.' He also wrote a letter addressed to Mrs. B.F. Ferris, Oakland and gave it to the clerk on the boat to forward."
11th	March 5, 1866	John W. Dwinelle	Dwinelle was born in Cazenovia (village), New York Cazenovia (village), New York Cazenovia is a village located in the Town of Cazenovia in Madison County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the village had a population of 2,614. The village lies on the southeast shore of Cazenovia Lake, which is approximately long and .5 miles across... on September 7, 1816, of French Huguenot descent and excellent pedigree - his father had graduated from Williams College Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this... and Yale Law School Yale Law School Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers... and served in both the New York Assembly and the U.S. Congress. His son John graduated from Hamilton College in 1834 at the age of 17, studied law under his father, and became an editorialist, typesetter and co-owner of a number of upstate New York newspapers. He practiced law in Rochester for ten years and served as city attorney there in 1844-45. Dwinelle arrived in San Francisco in 1849 aboard the Empire City, and served as city attorney there from 1850 to 1853. He returned to Rochester twice for several years before settling permanently in California in 1861. He built up a lucrative law practice in San Francisco settling land claims, based on his mastery of the Spanish language, acquaintance with Spanish land titles, and history of Mexican colonial times. In 1867, immediately after serving as Oakland mayor, he was elected, on the Union Party ticket, to the State Assembly, where he authored the bill to create the University of California University of California The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University... , an institution he served as regent from 1868 to 1874. Like Shattuck, he was opposed to the annexation of Berkeley by Oakland and an advocate for the charter for an independent Berkeley, which was granted in 1878. A Mason, Odd Fellow, and Sire of the Bohemian Club Bohemian Club The Bohemian Club is a private men's club in San Francisco, California, United States.Its clubhouse is located at 624 Taylor Street in San Francisco... in San Francisco, as well as an omnivorous reader and noted bibliophile, he also traveled widely and contributed regularly to the daily press and periodicals, with detailed observations on such topics as agriculture and irrigation in western Europe or the conditions of the working classes there. In the words on one encomium, "his papers read before the Berkeley Club exhibit the wide extent of his culture and learning, sometimes marked by interesting and curious investigations, such as "Phallic Worship." He resided at Fifth and Clay in Oakland before moving to Berkeley and then San Francisco. On January 28, 1881, he was traveling to Benicia, California Benicia, California Benicia is a waterside city in Solano County, California, United States. It was the first city in California to be founded by Anglo-Americans, and served as the state capital for nearly thirteen months from 1853 to 1854. The population was 26,997 at the 2010 census. The city is located in the San... when he reached Port Costa, California Port Costa, California Port Costa is a census-designated place in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 190 at the 2010 census.-Geography:... on a stormy evening and attempted to board the steam ferry Solano, but the boat was pulling away and he slipped to his death in the churning waters of the Carquinez Strait Carquinez Strait The Carquinez Strait is a narrow tidal strait in northern California. It is part of the tidal estuary of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers as they drain into the San Francisco Bay... . His body was recovered some three weeks later, and the funeral held at the Episcopal Church of the Advent in San Francisco, with the burial at the old Masonic Cemetery. He was re-interred at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park Cypress Lawn Memorial Park Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, established by Hamden Holmes Noble in 1892, is a cemetery located in Colma, California, a place known as the "City of the Silent". It is the final resting site for several members of the celebrated Hearst family plus other prominent citizens from the greater San... in 1912. In 1952, Dwinelle Hall on the University of California, Berkeley University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA... campus was named after John W. Dwinelle to honor his responsibility for the "Organic Act Organic Act An Organic Act, in United States law, is an Act of the United States Congress that establishes a territory of the United States or an agency to manage certain federal lands. The first such act was the Northwest Ordinance, enacted by the Congress of the Confederation in 1787 in order to create the... ," which established the University of California University of California The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University... in 1868, as well as the fact that he was a member of the University's first Board of Regents Board of Regents In the United States, a board often governs public institutions of higher education, which include both state universities and community colleges. In each US state, such boards may govern either the state university system, individual colleges and universities, or both. In general they operate as... .
12th	March 7, 1867	William Watrus Crane, Jr.	Crane was born in New York City New York City New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and... on September 14, 1831, and educated in New York schools, including Columbia College. He studied law in New York City law offices and was admitted to the bar in 1852. He emigrated to California in 1854 and practiced law first in San Leandro and then, for twenty-six years, in San Francisco. Crane was elected district attorney of Alameda County in 1859 and elected to the State Senate in 1862. He resigned as mayor of Oakland on November 2, 1867, only eight months after taking office, and Samuel Merritt was chosen to succeed him. According to one source, "he was offered the nomination for the governorship of the state on several different occasions, but because of physical indisposition declined the offer." He was a bank director and president of the Oakland Gas and Light Company, as well as a poet, essayist, and financial supporter of the prestigious journal The Overland Monthly. In 1875 he moved from 946 Myrtle to his new home at Tenth and Market, where he died on July 31, 1883. He rests at Mountain View.
13th	November 1867	Samuel Merritt Samuel Merritt Dr. Samuel Merritt was a successful San Francisco physician and also the 13th mayor of Oakland, California from 1867–69.Merritt was originally from Maine and moved to California...	Merritt was born in Harpswell, Maine Harpswell, Maine Harpswell is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, which is geographically within Casco Bay in the Gulf of Maine. The population was 5,239 at the 2000 census. Harpswell is composed of land contiguous with the rest of Cumberland County, called Harpswell Neck, as well as several large and small... on March 30, 1822, the son of a farmer of "independent circumstances" who had served in the Maine legislature. He graduated from nearby Bowdoin College Bowdoin College Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is... with a medical degree in 1844. He further studied medicine in New York for about a year, followed by a very successful and lucrative three-year practice in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Merritt arrived in San Francisco in May, 1850, in a brig and cargo which he had purchased with the help of his brother, a prosperous sea merchant. He immediately sold all the cargo and chartered the brig at $800 a month, thus beginning the process of accumulating a huge personal fortune, based on real estate, insurance, banking, and shipbuilding, in California. Merritt was a practicing physician and surgeon in San Francisco, often tending to ill seamen by rowing from boat to boat, but he apparently practiced medicine little if any after moving to Oakland. In San Francisco, following his participation in the Vigilance Committee of 1856, he was elected a supervisor on the People's Party ticket and in 1858 he decline that party's nomination for mayor. Not long after he moved to Oakland, where he already owned significant land holdings around the lake which today bears his name. Serving one-and-a-half terms as mayor, Merritt succeeded, with the assistance of city counsel and future mayor, John B. Felton John B. Felton John Brooks Felton .... , and Horace Carpentier, in bringing about the "great waterfront compromise." After Merritt personally hosted about half the members of the State Assembly and Senate to dinner in Sacramento, legislation was passed which allowed Oakland to concede to Carpentier continuing control over half the waterfront, while conveying the other half to the Central Pacific Railroad for use as the western terminus of the transcontinental railroad. Merritt also initiated construction of the first municipally-owned city hall, introduced the city's first public health department, and brought Oakland's boom to sensational proportions. He contributed liberally from his private fortune to the construction of the Twelfth Street Dam which created Lake Merritt Lake Merritt Lake Merritt is a large tidal lagoon that lies just east of downtown Oakland, California. It is surrounded by parkland and city neighborhoods. A popular 3.1 mile walking and jogging path runs along its perimeter... , and pushed to have the lake declared a wildlife refuge by the state legislature in 1870, the first official such refuge in the United States. As one of the original eight regents of the University of California, he was active in effecting the "highly advantageous" exchange of the Oakland property of the College of California for additional lands in Berkeley, and, as chairman of the regents' building committee, for much of the original planning of the Berkeley campus. He had constructed more than one hundred buildings in Oakland, "mostly from his own designs, and all erected with his capital" including the legendary Grand Central Hotel on Twelfth Street, which burned to the ground in 1880. His mill provided lumber for many structures of the time, including the Pardee Home Pardee Home The Pardee Home is a house in Oakland, California that was home to three generations of the Pardee family. It is now a non-profit museum, showing over 100 years of the life of a prominent California family... . Six feet, three inches (190 cm) tall and weighing 340 pounds, Merritt was truly a larger than life figure. He lived for years in a grand estate located between present-day Fourteenth and Fifteen, and Jackson and Madison Streets. A lifelong bachelor, he returned often to Maine to tend to his family there, and he died on August 17, 1890, at his Oakland home in the company of his sister and Chinese valet. Funeral services were held at his estate, with Congregational and Unitarian ministers presiding. His estate of approximately $2 million went to the building of Merritt Hospital (now part of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center Alta Bates Summit Medical Center Alta Bates Summit Medical Center is a hospital located in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its three campuses are located in Berkeley and Oakland... ) and to Bowdoin College Bowdoin College Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is... . He is buried beneath one of the grandest monuments at one of the highest points in Mountain View Cemetery, which he had served as the first president of the cemetery association.
14th	March 1, 1869	John B. Felton John B. Felton John Brooks Felton ....	Felton was born in Saugus, Massachusetts Saugus, Massachusetts Saugus is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. The population was 26,628 at the 2010 census.-History:Saugus was first settled in 1629. Saugus is an Indian name believed to mean "great" or "extended"... in 1827, son of an almshouse superintendent in Cambridge and brother of Cornelius Conway Felton Cornelius Conway Felton Cornelius Conway Felton was an American educator. He was regent of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as professor of Greek literature and president of Harvard University.... , a renowned classics scholar at Harvard and Samuel Morse Felton, Sr. Samuel Morse Felton, Sr. Samuel Morse Felton, Sr. was a civil engineer and railroad executive. He was the Superintendent and engineer of the Fitchburg Railroad 1843-1851 and president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad from 1851-1865. Felton left BWBRR to become President of the Pennsylvania Steel... , a railroad executive. He graduated from Harvard in 1847 and briefly served as a Greek tutor before pursuing the law. He studied the Civil Code in Paris for one year and became fluent in both French and Spanish, but he had agreed with a Harvard classmate, E.J. Pringle, that they should become law partners in San Francisco. Pringle arrived here in December, 1853 and Felton a few months afterwards. He represented many wealthy property owners and achieved great professional prominence and wealth himself in the process. He campaigned unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1874. He was a regent of the University of California University of California The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University... from its inception until his death. Felton resided on Adeline Street, between Ninth and Tenth Streets (probably at 930 Adeline?), as mayor and until his death on May 2, 1877, at the age of 49. He is buried at Mountain View.
15th	March 6, 1871	Nathaniel W. Spaulding	Born in North Anson, Maine North Anson, Maine North Anson is a village in the town of Anson in Somerset County, Maine, United States.-History:According to an 1886 History of Anson, Maine, "In 1845 [Anson] was divided, and North Anson incorporated out of it; but a re-union of the parts took place in 1855. North Anson has in the "Union Advocate"... on September 24, 1829, Spaulding learned the trade of carpentry from his father and uncle and worked as a carpenter in Portland and Boston. In 1851 he sailed from New York for the gold fields of California, where he pioneered in the building of mills and flumes on the Mokelumne River in Calaveras County. He also built and managed the first hotel in Campo Seco, where he was married in 1854. In 1859 he began business in Sacramento as a manufacturer of inserted-tooth saws, and he soon produced and patented a new type of saw, called the Spaulding saw or chisel-bit saw, which "thoroughly revolutionized the circular saw business, not only in the U.S., but also throughout Europe," according to one source. He moved to San Francisco in 1862 and established the Pacific Saw Manufacturing Co. there and the N.W. Spaulding and Bros. Co. in Chicago with two of his bothers. "In religious matters he has inherited the Unitarian principles professed by his parents, and he has been an earnest member of the Independent Church of Oakland, where he has been a director and president of the society during many years." Spaulding moved to Oakland in 1866 to "take possession of a home which forms one of the most elegant architectural features of that city." A Republican, he was elected to the city council in 1869 and 1870, where, as chairman of the streets committee, he played a major role in securing Oakland's status as "being one of the most conveniently and beneficially laid out, best lighted and best macademized cities in the Union." He was elected twice as mayor, in 1871 and 1872, without opposition. Spaulding initiated the move to bring the county seat from San Leandro to Oakland, which was finally approved by the state legislature in 1874, with the county accepting Franklin and Washington Squares as sites for a new Courthouse and Hall of Records. He served two more terms on the council (1873 and 1874) after being mayor, and also served for four years as Assistant U.S. Treasurer following his appointment by President James A. Garfield. A high-ranking Mason, as founder and first master of the Oakland Lodge No. 188 and grand high priest of the California royal arch masons, he died on October 8, 1903, in New Britain, Connecticut New Britain, Connecticut New Britain is a city in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is located approximately 9 miles southwest of Hartford. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 71,254.... , but he remains today at Mountain View.
16th	March 4, 1873	Rev. Henry Durant Henry Durant Henry Durant was the founding president of the University of California.-Biography:Graduate of Yale College...	Born in Acton, Massachusetts Acton, Massachusetts Acton is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States about twenty-one miles west-northwest of Boston along Route 2 west of Concord and about ten miles southwest of Lowell. The population was 21,924 at the 2010 census... on June 18, 1802, Durant graduated from Phillips Academy Phillips Academy Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year... in Andover and Yale University Yale University Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States... , class of 1827. He also studied at Yale Theological Seminary and was ordained a Congregational minister in 1883, serving as a minister for sixteen years before resigning to become headmaster of Dummer Academy in Byfield, Massachusetts (1849–1852). After California was admitted to the Union in 1850, he became absorbed with ideas for developing higher education in the new state. He arrived in San Francisco on May 1, 1853, and on June 6 he opened Contra Costa Academy, a private boy's school, in Oakland, which was chartered as the College of California (later to become the University of California University of California The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University... system) in 1855. Besides serving as headmaster, Durant also taught Greek and Latin. The college ceded its land and property to the new University of California, created by the Organic Act of March, 1868. After some delay, he became the first president of the university, in August, 1870, but he resigned as his seventieth birthday approached in summer, 1872. A resident of 1113 Franklin Street, he became involved in real estate and served as president of the city council for one term in 1870, before being elected mayor twice, in 1873 and 1874. Durant died in office, on January 22, 1875, and was buried in Mountain View.
17th	February 1875	Mack Weber	Webber is another research conundrum, but we do know that he was born in Ohio, c. 1834, and that he worked as a druggist and apothecary at Eleventh and Broadway. He served as president of the city council for two terms (1873–1874) before he was named to succeed Durant on February 1, 1875, and he was elected to a full term on March 1, 1875. He was a resident of the Grand Central Hotel while mayor, but he disappeared entirely from city directories after being mayor. He died in San Francisco on January 8, 1901 and is buried at Mountain View.
18th	March 13, 1876	Enoch H. Pardee Enoch H. Pardee Enoch Homer Pardee was an American medical doctor and politician. Pardee served as the 18th Mayor of Oakland, California from 1876 to 1878.-Biography:...	Pardee was born on April 1, 1829 in Rochester, New York Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City... , but was raised in the states of Michigan and Ohio. He was a renowned ventriloquist and magician as a young man in the Midwest! Cured of the rare eye disease Egyptian opthamalia as a teenager by a leading doctor in Detroit, he determined to become an "oculist" and was studying medicine in Ann Arbor when he decided to come west for the Gold Rush. He made a good deal of money mining gold for about a year and then much more money as one of the leading eye doctors in San Francisco. He returned to the Midwest, to Rush Medical College Rush Medical College Rush Medical College is the medical school of Rush University, a private university in Chicago, Illinois. Rush Medical College was one of the first medical colleges in the state of Illinois and was chartered in 1837, two days before the city of Chicago was chartered, and opened with 22 students on... in Chicago, to study for three years and earn his M.D., ten years after beginning his San Francisco practice and shortly before building his stately Oakland Italianate villa at 672 Eleventh Street (Pardee Home Pardee Home The Pardee Home is a house in Oakland, California that was home to three generations of the Pardee family. It is now a non-profit museum, showing over 100 years of the life of a prominent California family... , http://www.pardeehome.org/). A staunch Republican and strict Unionist, he achieved great political prominence in the East Bay shortly after moving here - he was elected to four terms on the city council (1869–1872), including one as president (1871), as well as to the State Assembly (1871–72) and State Senate (1879–82), as well as winning two terms as Oakland mayor (1876 and 1877). Pardee was elected mayor against the backdrop of a nationwide economic depression, with growing labor unrest and agitation against "the Chinese" here in Oakland. He was confronted with mass demonstrations demanding an end to all immigration and issuing threats to burn down Oakland's Chinatown, then consisting of seventeen buildings located between Grove and Jefferson Streets, beside the railroad on Seventh Street. Pardee fought off a revolt within the Republican party and won re¬election in 1877, but his second term was characterized by such turmoil as the suspicious fire which destroyed City Hall on August 25, 1877; the declaration of martial law by Mayor Pardee; the creation of a deputized committee of safety, or Posse comitatus (common law) Posse comitatus (common law) Posse comitatus or sheriff's posse is the common-law or statute law authority of a county sheriff or other law officer to conscript any able-bodied males to assist him in keeping the peace or to pursue and arrest a felon, similar to the concept of the "hue and cry"... , of almost 1,000 men; and the formation of two dissident political parties - the Workingmen's and the Citizens'. When not engaged in civic affairs, Pardee was also a nationally renowned marksman, an ardent Mason, and a co-founder of both the First Unitarian Church of Oakland First Unitarian Church of Oakland The First Unitarian Church of Oakland, in Oakland, California, was designed in 1889 by Walter J. Mathews. This solid masonry Romanesque church departed radically from California's traditional Gothic wood frame construction... and the Athenian Club, which he served as its first president. He died on September 21, 1896, and is buried at Mountain View, beside his son, George, the twenty-ninth mayor of Oakland.
19th	March 25, 1878	Washburne R. Andrus	Andrus was born on September 23, 1841, in Farmington, Connecticut Farmington, Connecticut Farmington is a town located in Hartford County in the Farmington Valley area of central Connecticut in the United States. The population was 25,340 at the 2010 census. It is home to the world headquarters of several large corporations including Carrier Corporation, Otis Elevator Company, and Carvel... , where he trained and worked as a carpenter, except for seven years of service on the Hartford, Connecticut Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making... police force, including a time as Captain of Police. He moved to California in 1873, first to San Francisco and then to Oakland, where he continued working as a carpenter - he reportedly" worked quietly at the bench up to the day before his inauguration." Formerly a Republican, the labor unrest of the seventies led him to join the Workingmen's Party, which nominated him for mayor on February 19, 1878 at Oakland's Germania Hall. He was elected the next month by a margin of 210 votes, exactly the same margin by which he won re-election one year later. Although further study of the two year reign by Oakland's "carpenter mayor" would be highly recommended, it does appear that initial fears that the new mayor was a working-class radical never were justified, and that his tenure was relatively quiet. He served for three years as secretary to the State Board of Railroad Commissioners after being mayor and later for the city of Oakland as the "tender of locks" at the Twelfth Street Dam. A resident of 1408(1410?) Tenth Street in west Oakland when he was mayor and up until his death on June 6, 1895 at the age of 55, Andrus was buried at Mountain View cemetery following a Masonic funeral.
20th	March 8, 1880	James E. Blethen	Blethen was born on June 25, 1828 in Maine, and was educated and trained as a carpenter in the town of Dover. In 1849 he worked his way to California as the ship carpenter aboard the Golconda. He became partner in a San Francisco mill until 1858, a rancher from 1861 to 1868, and then a partner and finally sole proprietor of Pioneer Planing Mills at the foot of Broadway, from 1868 to 1882. He was elected mayor in 1880 as a Republican. He worked as a carpenter as East Oakland Planing Mills after being mayor. Blethen was a resident of 568 E. 14th Street while mayor and for many years afterwards. He died on June 23, 1909, after working as a contractor for 43 years in Oakland according to his Enquirer obituary, and was buried in Mountain View Cemetery following a Masonic funeral.
21st	March 13, 1882	Charles K. Robinson	Robinson was born in Livingston County, New York Livingston County, New York As of the census of 2000, there were 64,328 people, 22,150 households, and 15,349 families residing in the county. The population density was 102 people per square mile . There were 24,023 housing units at an average density of 38 per square mile... , on January 16, 1835, but moved at the age of three to Genesee County, Michigan Genesee County, Michigan -Interstates:* I-69* I-75* I-475-Michigan State Trunklines:* M-13* M-15* M-21* M-54* M-57-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 436,141 people, 169,825 households, and 115,990 families residing in the county. The population density was 682 people per square mile . There were 183,630... , where his family was pioneering farmers. He studied at Oberlin College Oberlin College Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating... and Antioch College Antioch College Antioch College is a private, independent liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was the founder and the flagship institution of the six-campus Antioch University system. Founded in 1852 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1853 with politician and... in Ohio, and graduated from Antioch in 1857. He received his law degree from the Ann Arbor Law School in 1860 and practiced law in East Saginaw, Michigan East Saginaw, Michigan East Saginaw is a defunct city in Saginaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan.East Saginaw was founded in 1850, and was incorporated as a village in 1855 and as a city in 1857... for fifteen years, as well as becoming a prominent banker there. In January, 1875, he moved from Michigan to Oakland, where he devoted himself chiefly to literary pursuits, according to one source, although city directories listed him as both a solicitor and book canvasser. Robinson was a Republican who defeated his Democratic opponent, Israel Lawton, by a margin of 2,444 to 2,061, running on a platform of restricting Chinese immigration, though this issue was settled by the US. Congress immediately after his election. A resident of 1706 Seward as mayor, he died November 22, 1887, in Oakland and is buried at Mountain View.
22nd	March 12, 1883	J. West Martin	He was born to the gentry in Hagerstown, Maryland Hagerstown, Maryland Hagerstown is a city in northwestern Maryland, United States. It is the county seat of Washington County, and, by many definitions, the largest city in a region known as Western Maryland. The population of Hagerstown city proper at the 2010 census was 39,662, and the population of the... on February 6, 1822. He abandoned his early training for the ministry to pursue various commercial enterprises in the South before moving to California in 1853, when he and his brother purchased Rancho Santa Rita Rancho Santa Rita (Pacheco) Rancho Santa Rita was a Mexican land grant in present day Alameda County, California given in 1839 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Jose Dolores Pacheco... in Alameda County. They sold his ranch in 1865, and he moved to Oakland, where he became president of the Union Savings Bank from 1875 until his death, president of the Oakland Gas Light Co. (1881–82), and a regent of the University of California. Martin was a Democrat, who defeated the Republican candidate, E.M. Gibson, 2,514 to 2,206 votes, by advocating economy in city spending, and as mayor practiced economy to such an extent (fired employees, slashed salaries, and turned off half the city's gas lights) that he was not reelected. A resident of 720 Fourteenth Street as mayor and up to his death on August 18, 1899, he was buried at Mountain View.
23rd	March 10, 1884	Ashmun C. Henry	He was born on December 6, 1828 in Millersburg, Ohio Millersburg, Ohio Millersburg is a village in Holmes County, Ohio, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 3,326. It is the county seat of Holmes County.-Geography:Millersburg is located at , along Killbuck Creek... , the son of a merchant and State Representative. He sailed to San Francisco on the steamer North American in 1851 and established himself in business, first in Georgetown and then in Placerville, until the discovery of silver in Nevada, when he organized a company which built a wagon road from El Dorado to Placerville and then to the Washoe silver mines - "one of the finest mountain highways ever constructed in the state," according to one source. He was also one of the founders of the Placerville and Sacramento Valley Railroad. After a return visit to his old home in Ohio, he established his residence in Oakland, where he organized the first banking house in Alameda County, the Oakland Bank of Savings, which he served as president until 1869. He subsequently became president of both the Union Savings Bank and the Union National Gold Bank. A Republican who defeated the Democratic incumbent, J. West Martin, 2,531 to 2,216, in the 1884 mayoral race, he was also elected city clerk and treasurer (1887–88) after serving as mayor. Henry was a resident of 1221 Harrison Street from before his election until his death on January 15, 1907. He now resides at Mountain View.
24th	March 9, 1885	Eli W. Playter	Playter was born on October 6, 1819, in Toronto, Canada, but his family moved to rural Niagara County, New York Niagara County, New York Niagara County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 216,469. The county seat is Lockport. The county name is from the Iroquois word Onguiaahra; meaning the strait or thunder of waters. It is the location of Niagara Falls and Fort Niagara, and... as farmers when he was a youth. In 1852 he began the study of law in Buffalo, but the same year he was offered a ticket to California, and he came, via Panama, and mined gold for a period before settling in San Francisco, where he became a prosperous hardware merchant (Dunham, Carrigan, and Co). He relocated his residence to Oakland around 1865. A Republican and "devout Methodist," he defeated the Democratic candidate, John S. Drum, for the mayor's office in 1885, and the following year was re-elected by defeating the Democrat, Captain John Hackett, by a vote of 2,818 to 2,691. He later served as a commissioner on the Board of Public Works (1889–90) and president, Board of Police and Fire Commissioners (1892). Playter resided at 1167 Castro while mayor and for some years beforehand and afterwards. He died January 9, 1893, and was buried in Mountain View.
25th	March 14, 1887	William R. Davis	Born in Washington County, Iowa, on February 26, 1850, Davis came to California at the age of five, and was educated in the public schools of Sonoma County and at Oakland's Brayton School before graduating from the University of California University of California The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University... in 1874. He became the editor of the Santa Rosa Times and then principal of Washington College in Irvington (present-day Fremont. He studied law under Henry Vrooman, an influential Oakland lawyer, was admitted to the bar in 1877, and became a partner in Vrooman and Davis. A Republican, Davis was elected mayor in 1887 with 2,761 votes to the Democrat's Henry Hayes' 2,009, with former mayor J.W. Martin receiving 1,357 votes as the American Party candidate. As mayor he advocated for the beautification of the eight city parks, the building of a new west end park, and construction of a three-mile (5 km) boulevard around Lake Merritt. He also played a key role in the shaping and passage of the new 1889 city charter. He resided at 514 Eighteenth Street (demolished) in 1880s and early 1890s, then moved to 322 22nd Street (demolished) and finally to 474 Prospect Ave (later listed as 474 29th Street, then 404 29th Street) (demolished). He died there on March 17, 1915, and was buried at Mountain View.
26th	March 12, 1888	Charles D. Pierce	According to Mountain View records, Pierce was born in 1859 in Pennsylvania, but we know nothing else of his early life, until he appeared in Oakland in the late seventies. By the 1880s he was a resident of 1416 Grove Street and a partner in Pierce and Co. (W.F. and C.D. Pierce), wholesale and retail dealers in hardware, guns, etc., at 971 Broadway. Pierce was a Democrat who defeated the Republican candidate, Dr. S.H. Melvin, by 67 votes, 2376 to 2309, in the last election held under the old charter; the new charter, effective in 1889, increased the city council to eleven, with the addition of four at-large seats and increased all terms, including the mayoral term, to two years. Pierce apparently moved his business to San Francisco during the 1890s and moved himself across the Bay c. 1900. He died on October 17, 1909, in Stockton, and is buried in Mountain View.
27th	March 11, 1889	John R. Glascock	Glascock was born in Mississippi in 1845 and raised there, as well as in North Carolina and Virginia. His family moved to San Francisco in 1856 and to Oakland in 1858. He attended Henry Durant's Academy and graduated from the College of California College of California The College of California was the predecessor of the University of California system of public universities. The private college was founded in 1855 by noted educator Dr. Samuel H. Willey... as valedictorian in 1865. He studied law in his father's office in Oakland and at the University of Virginia before becoming his father's law partner. A Democrat, he was elected district attorney of Alameda County in 1875. In 1882 he was convinced to accept the Democratic nomination for the "State-at-Large" seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and, after campaigning throughout the state, was elected by a 13,000 majority. Thus Glascock became the only Oakland mayor to ever serve in Congress, though he was defeated in his race for a second term. In 1889 Glascock received the largest vote for mayor up to that time, as a "scathing" public rebuke of boss rule, elected after a "furious" election centering on the new city charter. Glascock headed a "fusion" ticket (Democratic, Independent Republican, and American Parties) and he defeated the Regular Republican candidate, Judge J.P. Ames, 5148 to 2131. Glascock practiced law in Oakland for over forty years, and he resided at 829 Jackson from c.1876 to 1901, including his term as mayor, then moved to San Francisco c. 1902, then to Berkeley in 1907. He died on October 10, 1913 in Woodside and was buried in Mountain View.
28th	March 9, 1891	Melvin C. Chapman	Chapman was born in Westfield, Illinois Westfield, Illinois Westfield is a town in Clark County, Illinois, United States. The population was 678 at the 2000 census. Reflecting the city's economic decline, much of the downtown area consists of boarded-up and abandoned buildings.-Geography:... on December 5, 1852, but his family moved to Chicago when he was only five. He was educated in the public schools there, as well as the Grand Prairie Seminary in Onarga, Illinois Onarga, Illinois Onarga is a village in Onarga Township, Iroquois County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,438 at the 2000 census, and 1,350 in 2009.-Geography:... . He moved to California in 1869, when he was 17, and studied law under Henry Vrooman (as did Mayor Davis) and at Hastings College of Law before opening what became one of the largest and most lucrative law practices in Oakland in 1884. Chapman was a Republican, elected to the State Assembly from the Fifty-third district in 1888 and elected mayor in 1891, on a platform of pledging street, sewer, plaza, and park improvements, reclamation of the West Oakland marsh, dredging of Lake Merritt and construction of a boulevard around the lake. Voters were fed up with the Glascock administration's failure to implement the public works provisions of the new charter, so Chapman won easily, with 4,240 votes to Democrat Charles D. Yale's 2,141. He resided at 587 Hobart as mayor; moved to 532 Simpson Ave. (23rd St.) in 1896; to 57 Santa Clara Ave., c. 1911; and to 131 Waldo Ave. in Piedmont shortly before his death on March 4, 1936. His current address is Mountain View Cemetery.
29th	March 13, 1893	George C. Pardee George Pardee George Cooper Pardee was an American doctor of medicine and politician. The 21st Governor of California, holding office from January 7, 1903, to January 9, 1907, Pardee was the second native-born Californian to assume the governorship, after Romualdo Pacheco, and the first governor born in...	George Pardee, son of Enoch H. Pardee Enoch H. Pardee Enoch Homer Pardee was an American medical doctor and politician. Pardee served as the 18th Mayor of Oakland, California from 1876 to 1878.-Biography:... , who was born on July 25, 1857 in San Francisco, was destined to become the first native son of California to serve as Oakland mayor, as well as the first California governor born in the state. He was raised during his earliest years in the then fashionable Rincon Hill Rincon Hill Rincon Hill is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is one of San Francisco's 44 hills, and one of its original "Seven Hills."-Location:... neighborhood of San Francisco. When he was eight years of age, his father, a loyal Republican and abolitionist, took him from Chicago to Washington, D.C., so that they could call upon President Lincoln at the White House, and he would always recall his moments sitting in Lincoln's lap as a formative political experience. He attended the prestigious McClure's Academy on Telegraph Avenue before graduating from Oakland High School (California) Oakland High School (California) Oakland Senior High School is a public high school in California. Established in 1869, it is the oldest high school in Oakland, California and the sixth oldest high school in the state.-Background:... and the University of California University of California The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University... , class of 1879. He studied medicine at Cooper Medical College (now part of Stanford University School of Medicine) in San Francisco, followed by three years of study at the University of Leipzig University of Leipzig The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany... in Germany, where he received his M.D. in 1885. During his time in Leipzig he wrote a monthly column to the San Francisco Chronicle San Francisco Chronicle thumb\|right\|upright\|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake\|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,... under the nom de plume Amos Koag about daily life in Germany (he hated it!). Like his father, he was trained as an eye, ear, and nose specialist, and he practiced medicine with his father in San Francisco for some years following his return home from Germany. He served on the city council for one term, representing East Oakland's Seventh Ward, before being elected mayor. Pardee ran for mayor, not as a Republican, but as the nominee of the Citizen's Municipal League, formed in 1893 to take immediate action toward recovery of the waterfront from the Southern Pacific, to end the alleged graft and incompetence of the Chapman administration, to achieve strict enforcement of liquor laws, to dredge Lake Merritt Lake Merritt Lake Merritt is a large tidal lagoon that lies just east of downtown Oakland, California. It is surrounded by parkland and city neighborhoods. A popular 3.1 mile walking and jogging path runs along its perimeter... , and to insist that the proposed lake boulevard should be paid for by neighboring property owners. The new Populist Party nominated John L. Davie (see below), who surprised everyone by coming in second to Pardee - 2,776 votes for Pardee; 2,328 for Davie; 2,191 for Democrat R.M. Fitzgerald; and 946 for Republican Timothy Barker. One other candidate, Dr. E.H. Woolsey, an Independent, received only 47 votes, but citizens flocked to his Magic lantern Magic lantern The magic lantern or Laterna Magica is an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century.-Operation:The magic lantern has a concave mirror in front of a light source that gathers light and projects it through a slide with an image scanned onto it. The light rays cross an aperture , and... slide shows, depicting the shortcomings of his opponents, during the campaign. Like his father, the Pardee fils Fils Fils or FILS can meanFils , a river in GermanyFils , a subdivision of currency used in many Arab countriesfils, the French word for "son"Firestone Indy Lights Series... faced major labor unrest, including striking railroad workers seizing trains, marines being called in from Mare Island Mare Island Mare Island is a peninsula in the United States alongside the city of Vallejo, California, about northeast of San Francisco. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait juncture with the east side of San Pablo Bay. Mare Island is considered a peninsula because no full... to quell riots, and hundred of "Coxey's Army" adherents being herded into box cars and shipped to Sacramento, an incident which earned the mayor the epithet of "pick-handle Pardee" for his alleged use of such an instrument against the strikers - an allegation which he always angrily denied. Pardee went on to be elected governor of California in 1902, defeating his Democratic opponent, Franklin Lane, a fellow alumnus of Oakland High, by only the narrowest of margins. As governor he presided over the aftermath of the greatest natural disaster in California history, the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906 1906 San Francisco earthquake The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other... , coordinating emergency relief to San Francisco from the old City Hall in Oakland. Following his years in Sacramento, he went on to become a leading voice in the early conservation and progressive movements, a founding commissioner for the Port of Oakland, and, most importantly, the "father" of East Bay MUD (East Bay Municipal Utility District East Bay Municipal Utility District East Bay Municipal Utility District , colloquially referred to as "East Bay Mud", provides water and sewage treatment for customers in portions of Alameda County and Contra Costa County in California, on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay, including the cities of Richmond, El Cerrito, Hercules,... ) and the eponym Eponym An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named... for the Pardee Dam Pardee Dam Pardee Dam is a -high structure across the Mokelumne River which marks the boundary between Amador and Calaveras Counties, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada approximately about northeast of Stockton.... , which has provided the East Bay with one of the highest quality water supplies in the world since 1929. Pardee died on September 1, 1941, at his Oakland home, and was buried in the Mountain View Cemetery Mountain View Cemetery The Mountain View Cemetery is a large cemetery in Oakland, California. It was established in 1863 by a group of East Bay pioneers under the California Rural Cemetery Act of 1859. The association they formed still operates the cemetery today... , next to his father, Oakland's eighteenth mayor, following a grand funeral at the Masonic Scottish Rite Temple overlooking Lake Merritt Lake Merritt Lake Merritt is a large tidal lagoon that lies just east of downtown Oakland, California. It is surrounded by parkland and city neighborhoods. A popular 3.1 mile walking and jogging path runs along its perimeter... .
30th	March 11, 1895	John L. Davie	Davie was born on June 24, 1850, in Saratoga County, New York Saratoga County, New York Saratoga County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 219,607. It is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county seat is Ballston Spa... , where he grew up near the Carpentier family which had produced Oakland's first mayor. As a teenager he worked on the nearby Erie Canal Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of... as a mule driver, and was studying the law in Chicago when the Great Chicago Fire Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S... there uprooted him and caused him to travel west, stopping over in Nevada to work as a ranch hand, before landing in San Francisco in 1876. Among the many callings heeded by the exuberant Davie during his varied life was that of opera singer in San Francisco, as well as actor, inventor, and butcher. In the late 1880s, he moved to Oakland, where he and his family settled on a "small ranch at what is now 33rd and West Streets - ten acres, good house, barn, and outhouses." Here he opened a hay, coal, and feed business on Washington Street, as well as a bookstore next door, where he enjoyed the company of the city's literati. He conducted a "David and Goliath" struggle with the Southern Pacific Railroad Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad.... over their throttle hold on the Oakland waterfront, first when he constructed a wharf to serve his business and then when he introduced ferry service which was the only competition to the railroad's, and, after earning a law degree and arguing his case all the way to the Supreme Court, he was able to claim at least partial victories over the reviled Southern Pacific. In 1895 Davie ran for the mayor's office as a Populist, as he had two year earlier in his defeat to Pardee, but this time he drew 4,543 votes to 3,861 for J. Nelson, the "fusion" nominee of the Citizens' Municipal League, the Democrats, and the Republicans. This was to be his first, of two, terms as Mayor of Oakland. His pledge not to allow any tax rate above $1 was the downfall of his administration, as all city services suffered, and finally Davie was expelled from the Populist party. He ran for re-election as an Independent and champion of the small taxpayers, and narrowly lost to W.R. Thomas.
31st	March 9, 1897	W. R. Thomas	Thomas was born in Cook County, Illinois Cook County, Illinois Cook County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, with its county seat in Chicago. It is the second most populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County. The county has 5,194,675 residents, which is 40.5 percent of all Illinois residents. Cook County's population is larger than... on February 12, 1830, orphaned at the age of six, and educated in the Chicago public schools until the age of thirteen. He was a Civil War veteran, entering as a nineteen-year old private and leaving as a captain, after sustaining two injuries during the war. He settled in DeKalb County, Illinois DeKalb County, Illinois DeKalb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 105,160, which is an increase of 18.2% from 88,969 in 2000. Its county seat is Sycamore. DeKalb County is part of the Chicago metropolitan statistical area.-History:DeKalb County... after the war, but moved to California in 1870. He lived in Redwood City and served as deputy county clerk and recorder of San Mateo County before relocating to Oakland in 1876. Here he became deputy county clerk of Alameda County (c. 1883-85) before becoming the police chief of Oakland from 1885 to1888, when he introduced the first police patrol wagons and proved a vociferous opponent of gambling. In the 1897 mayoral race, Thomas was the nominee of the Republican and Citizens' Municipal League Parties, who, in an era of tight, multi-party races, defeated the incumbent mayor John L. Davie, 3,071 votes to 2,962, with 2,260 votes for the Democrat Seth Mann, 802 votes for the Populist S. Goodenough, 419 votes for former mayor A.C. Henry, running as an Independent, and 39 for Prohibitionist Dr. P. McCarger. He was a partner in Benham and Thomas (real estate, insurance, and investors) from c. 1889 to early 1900s. Thomas was a member of the First Congregational Church and head of the local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic for seventeen years. A resident of 816 11th Street as mayor (from c. 1887 to c. 1905), he died in his home at 1728 Pleasant Valley Road on April 12, 1930.
32nd	March 13, 1899	Roland W. Snow	Snow was born on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, in 1850 and adopted by shipbuilder Joshua Snow at the age of four. He moved to Chicago when he was eighteen and to Oakland seven years later, in 1875. He was elected as the first city auditor and assessor under the new charter of 1889 and served in these offices until becoming mayor. In 1899 Snow was the nominee of the Citizens' Municipal League (also endorsed by the Republicans) and ran on a platform of municipal ownership of utilities, particularly the water supply, consolidation of city and county governments, and an end to private control of the waterfront; he garnered 5,716 votes to 3,913 for John L. Davie (Democrat and Independent), 249 for Populist Alexander Hoenisch; 243 for Socialist Labor Party candidate J.H. Eustice, and 86 for Prohibitionist Dr. W.O. Buckland. Snow had been a wholesale hardware and plumbing merchant in San Francisco before becoming mayor, and he resided at 672 14th St. (demolished) from 1880 to 1896, but resided at 914 8th St. (demolished) as mayor. He was not related to Henry Snow, the eponym of Snow Park or the old Snow Museum. Snow's life came to an extremely bizarre ending on the night of March 27, 1912, when he and Adolph Goldman, a San Francisco clothing merchant, murdered each other in the sanctuary of the First Congregational Church at Clay and Thirteenth Streets. This duel, which occurred just as the Wednesday evening prayer meeting was about to commence, was the "closing chapter of a strange history watched by and involving many prominent men, a history which for strangeness and grotesque tragedy outrivals the weird studies of erotics made by Havelock Ellis," as the Tribune exclaimed on its front page the following day. For some two weeks before the tragedy, the former mayor had been living under an assumed name at the Merritt Hotel at Ninth and Franklin Streets, and had been exchanging letters threatening murder with Goldman. Snow had asked for protection from the district attorney and had had his mail routed through the chief of police, while Goldman had hired a San Francisco private detective to help him physically locate Snow. When the detective learned that Snow regularly attended the Congregational Church, which he had once served as president of its trustees, it was just a matter of time before the fatal attack occurred. Snow and Goldman had first met in 1900, when the former was mayor and the latter, a native of Constantinople and a new arrival in Oakland from New York, owned a clothing store on Washington St. between Eighth and Ninth Streets. Goldman had reportedly approached the mayor for a letter of introduction so that he could visit some wealthy relatives in China, and his extraordinary infatuation with Snow resulted from their very first meeting. In 1904 Goldman shot at and badly injured Snow in the Clarendon Hotel in San Francisco after accusing his daughter of trying to end their friendship; he was eventually found guilty of assault with intent to commit murder and sentenced to five years in San Quentin, but he was released in March 1906 after less than a year of incarceration. Six more years of personal tumult between the two men followed before the fatal duel. Snow was cremated and his ashes interred next to those of his deceased wife in Ventura County; the remains of the 38-year-old Goldman were buried in Salem Cemetery in San Mateo County.
33rd	March 11, 1901	Anson Barstow	Barstow was born in Haverhill, New Hampshire Haverhill, New Hampshire Haverhill is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,697 at the 2010 census. Haverhill includes the villages of Woodsville, Pike, and North Haverhill, the historic town center at Haverhill Corner, and the district of Mountain Lakes... on November 29, 1831, and educated in that state and Massachusetts. In 1850 he followed his two brothers to California, where he mined gold briefly, and engaged in business in San Francisco until 1853. He returned East, married, and did not return to San Francisco until 1867, after receiving an appointment as inspector of customs, a position he held until 1873. In 1870 "he removed to Oakland and erected a commodious residence at Eighteenth and Linden" and in 1873 he entered business in Oakland, first as a partner in Sarpy and Barstow (flour, hay, grain, and feed) at 423 & 425 11th St during the 1870s, then as a partner in Barstow and Garber (flour, hay, grain, wood, and coal) and Barstow and Babbit at Thirteenth and Franklin from c. 1880 until his tenure as mayor. A Republican, he was elected to the city council in 1893 from the Fifth Ward; six years later he was elected councilman-at-large and council president. Barstow was elected mayor and ex-officio commissioner of public works, under a new charter, in 1901 in a close five-man race - he polled 2,944 votes to Citizens' Municipal League nominee Walter G. Manuel's 2,808; Independent Davie was a close third at 2,471, Democrat Warren English was fourth with 982, Socialist Jack London (yes, that Jack London Jack London John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone... ) fifth with 247, and Prohibitionist Allen Shorkley was sixth with 60 votes. It was his privilege in May 1901 to welcome President William McKinley William McKinley William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s... to Oakland while mayor, shortly before the president's assassination in September at Buffalo, New York. He lived at 1356 Franklin from c. 1889 until his death on February 5, 1906, buried at Mountain View Cemetery.
34th	March 9, 1903	Warren Olney Warren Olney Warren Olney was an American lawyer, environmentalist, and politician. He was a founding member of the Sierra Club, and served as 34th Mayor of Oakland, California from 1903 to 1905.-Early life:...	Olney was born in Davis County, Iowa Davis County, Iowa -2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 8,753 in the county, with a population density of . There were 3,600 housing units, of which 3,201 were occupied.-2000 census:... on March 11, 1841, and educated at the Baptist College at Pella, Iowa Pella, Iowa Pella is a city in Marion County, Iowa, United States. The population was 9,832 at the 2000 census. Pella is the home of Central College as well as several manufacturing companies, including Pella Corporation and Vermeer Manufacturing Company.- History :... . He entered the Union Army as a private in 1861 and was discharged as a captain in 1865. He graduated from the University of Michigan Law School University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School is the law school of the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. Founded in 1859, the school has an enrollment of about 1,200 students, most of whom are seeking Juris Doctor or Master of Laws degrees, although the school also offers a Doctor of Juridical... before coming to California in 1869, where he eventually became a senior partner in the law firm of Olney, Chickering, and Thomas of 101 Sansome Street in San Francisco and president of the California Bar Association. A "fusion" candidate endorsed by the Republican, Democratic, and Municipal League parties, he beat his Union Labor Party candidate E.L. Blair by 5,609 to 4,947 votes. He was a "staunch advocate of municipal ownership of the water system and so far-seeing he predicted the bringing of Sierra water to Oakland, far in advance of its accomplishment." Olney was also an avid hiker and fisherman, who was familiar with the Sierra and Coastal mountains even before he met John Muir John Muir John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions... in 1889 through their mutual friend, William Keith William Keith William Keith may refer to:William Keith of Galston , Scottish soldier during the Wars of Scottish Independence.William Keith, 4th Earl MarischalWilliam Keith, 6th Earl Marischal , Scottish peer and naval officer... , the eminent landscape painter. The three would meet first in Keith's downtown San Francisco studio and later in Olney's nearby law office to "talk about the mountains."; The articles of incorporation of the Sierra Club Sierra Club The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president... were drawn up by Olney and signed in his office on June 4, 1892, with Muir as president and Olney first vice-president; Olney's office served as headquarters during the first year of the Sierra Club's existence. He became close personal friends with Muir on many family and club outings, but broke with Muir and resigned from the Sierra Club over the issue of the fate of the Hetch Hetchy Valley Hetch Hetchy Valley Hetch Hetchy Valley is a glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in California. It is currently completely flooded by O'Shaughnessy Dam, forming the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The Tuolumne River fills the reservoir. Upstream from the valley lies the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. The reservoir... , which he believed had to be sacrificed to assure municipal control of San Francisco's water supply. Olney resigned from the organization, in 1910, after seventeen years of personal leadership, when its membership voted 589 to 161 in opposition to the Hetch Hetchy project. He lived at 481 Prospect Avenue (29th Street)(demolished), where John Muir John Muir John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions... , William Keith William Keith William Keith may refer to:William Keith of Galston , Scottish soldier during the Wars of Scottish Independence.William Keith, 4th Earl MarischalWilliam Keith, 6th Earl Marischal , Scottish peer and naval officer... , and David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan, Ph.D., LL.D. was a leading eugenicist, ichthyologist, educator and peace activist. He was president of Indiana University and Stanford University.-Early life and education:... were frequent visitors. He was a long-time trustee and benefactor of Mills College Mills College Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded... , where the oldest dormitory on campus is named after him, as well as a close friend of Cyrus and Susan Mills. A member of the Berkeley Club, the University Club of San Francisco, and president of the Unitarian Club, he died on June 2, 1921 in Oakland, and was buried at Mountain View.
35th	March 1905	Frank K. Mott	Mott was born in San Francisco on January 21, 1866, but his family moved to west Oakland (Twelfth Street, between Wood and Willow), when he was two years old. His father, who worked for the Central Pacific Railroad Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental... (later Southern Pacific Railroad Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad.... ), died when he was 11, and Mott, who had attended Prescott School, went to work as a messenger boy for Western Union Western Union The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. Its North American headquarters is in Englewood, Colorado. Up until 2006, Western Union was the best-known U.S... and then as a telephone operator, the first ever in Oakland, according to his obituary in the Tribune. He entered the hardware business as a clerk at the age of 16, eventually becoming the sole proprietor of Frank K. Mott Co. located, from 1900, at 908-910 Broadway. He also entered the real estate business in 1907. A veteran of two terms on the city council (1895-7 and 1899–1901) from the First Ward, Mott was another "fusion" candidate, backed by the Democratic, Republican, and Municipal League parties (like Olney), who defeated the perpetual candidate John Davie 5,459 to 3,199, with Union Labor candidate George Randolph third with 1,800 votes, and Socialist Jack London with 981. Mott, considered to be "The Mayor Who Built Oakland", presided over the greatest disaster relief operation in Oakland history when an estimated 150,000 people sought refuge in the city from the great '06 earthquake in San Francisco - a mobilization of resources so successful than perhaps 65,000 refugees eventually settled in Oakland. He was re-elected in 1907 by a six-to-one margin, defeating Socialist O.H. Phillbrick, 7,317 to 1,226, and re-elected in 1909 by defeating Citizens' Party candidate Dr. F.F. Jackson 8,352 to 6,045. Following the adoption of a new city charter establishing a commission form of government city commission government City commission government City commission government is a form of municipal government which once was common in the United States, but many cities which were formerly governed by commission have since switched to the council-manager form of government... in 1910, Mott won the 1911 election by defeating Socialist opponent Thomas Booth 11,722 to 9,837. In a fascinating but little-known chapter of Oakland history, Mott survived the city's first recall election, initiated by the radical Industrial Workers of the World Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict... , on August 5, 1912, with 17,139 voting in favor of keeping Mott in office, and 10,846 against. He achieved, in 1909, final resolution of the waterfront issue which had preoccupied the leaders of Oakland since the city's founding, with a negotiated agreement with Southern Pacific to give up its rights to the waterfront in exchange for a fifty-year franchise on the property it then held. In 1911, Mayor Mott welcomed President William H. Taft to Oakland. The Chief Executive laid the cornerstone for the present City Hall. The massive harbor improvements which immediately followed were just part of an unprecedented era of public works projects, including the dredging of Lake Merritt, the building of the current City Hall and the Civic Auditorium (now known as the Kaiser Convention Center Kaiser Convention Center The Kaiser Convention Center is a 5,492-seat multi-purpose arena in Oakland, California that opened in 1914. In the 1950's and 1960's the Roller Derby played there hundreds of times. It was home to the Oakland Skates roller hockey team. Originally known as the Oakland Auditorium, it was renamed in... ), establishment of the pioneering Oakland Public Museum in the Josiah Stanford (now Camron-Stanford) House, and vast expansion and improvements to sewers, streets, lighting, electricity, fire and police protection, etc. He retired in 1915. Mott and his family lived at three different addresses as mayor - 1066 Jackson (1905–08), 1509 Webster (1909–1911), and 276 Lee Street in Adams Point (1912–1939) - all demolished. He served as the city's right-of-way agent from 1927 until his death on December 16, 1958, at the age of 92, at the Athens Athletic Club. An Episcopalian, Mott was cremated following his funeral at the Chapel of the Oaks under the auspices of Masonic Lodge 61.
36th	July 1, 1915	John L. Davie	Davie returned to the Mayor's office, ultimately becoming the longest serving mayor, when he won the May, 1915 election with 24, 949 votes to Frank W. Bilger's 17,861. He easily defeated a recall vote in December, 1917, with 23,081 votes cast in his favor and 9,164 against. He won the April, 1919 election with similar ease, gaining over 50% of the vote cast in a seven-man race, and likewise won the 1923 election with just over 50% of the votes in a four-man race. Finally, he won the 1927 election by a much narrower margin, with 29,318 votes to Frank Colbourn's 23,386. Davie presided over an unorthodox commissioner form of municipal government, in which fifteen commissioners, including the mayor, each headed different city agencies and also acted as the legislative body, and charges that this system fed large-scale "cronyism" were a counterpoint to his popularity with the voters. However, there were many civic accomplishments during the Davie years, including the creation of EBMUD and the Port of Oakland Port of Oakland The Port of Oakland was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships. It is now the fifth busiest container port in the United States, behind Long Beach, Los Angeles, Newark, and Savannah... , the opening of natural history and fine arts museums, the building of Skyline Boulevard by city prisoners, construction of the Posey Tube, construction in 1927 of the Oakland International Airport Oakland International Airport Oakland International Airport , also known as Metropolitan Oakland International Airport, is a public airport located south of the central business district of Oakland, a city in Alameda County, California, United States... , major improvements to the harbor and Lake Merritt Lake Merritt Lake Merritt is a large tidal lagoon that lies just east of downtown Oakland, California. It is surrounded by parkland and city neighborhoods. A popular 3.1 mile walking and jogging path runs along its perimeter... , and more. He lived at the Bauer Hotel Apartments, at 1770 Broadway, as mayor, but retired to the Hotel Oakland, where he would still "hold court" in the lobby with his trademark red carnation and dapper clothes and walk to his frequent rowing trips on Lake Merritt. Davie, who retired in 1931 at the age of 80 and died on February 2, 1934, authored the only autobiography ever written by an Oakland mayor, His Honor, the Buckaroo, which was first serialized by the Oakland Post-Enquirer and later reprinted in book form. As the title suggests, it is filled with hokum.
37th	July 1, 1931	Fred N. Morcom	Morcom was born March 3, 1874 in Grass Valley, California Grass Valley, California -2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Grass Valley had a population of 12,860. The population density was 2,711.3 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Grass Valley was 11,493 White, 46 African American, 208 Native American, 188 Asian, 9 Pacific Islander, 419 from other... , but little is known of his upbringing. He had established himself as proprietor of Morcom's picture frame and art store at 1724 Broadway by 1920. In 1931, he was the first Oakland mayor ever to be selected by his fellow council members and not by popular vote, under a charter reform meant to reform the excesses of the Davie era. However, Morcom quit as mayor after only one term, stating that a businessman could not afford to serve as mayor, with a monthly stipend of $100 a month plus $15 per council meeting, and that he did believe in the new council-manager form of municipal government (council-manager government Council-manager government The council–manager government form is one of two predominant forms of municipal government in the United States; the other common form of local government is the mayor-council government form, which characteristically occurs in large cities... ), but that the mayor should be popularly elected and properly paid. Morcom returned to the city council, as councilman-at-large, from 1941 to 1953. In 1933 he planted the first rose in the municipal rose garden, which was renamed the Morcom Amphitheater of Roses Morcom Rose Garden The Morcom Rose Garden is located in a residential neighborhood in Oakland, California, near the Piedmont border. The exact address is 700 Jean St., Oakland, CA 94610.... in 1953. He lived at 4231 Lakeshore Avenue as mayor and up to his death on October 4, 1955.
38th	July 1, 1933	William J. McCracken	William James McCracken, who was born in Oakland on January 31, 1878, graduated from Oakland High, the University of California University of California The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University... and the UC Dental School. He was a long-time dentist in Oakland, who represented District 4 on the city council for sixteen years, including his eight as mayor, before being soundly defeated for re-election to the city counsel in 1949 (and by a woman!). He claimed credit, as mayor, for the acquisition of Tilden Park, the building of Woodminster Theatre, the creation of the Naval Supply Base, and the inauguration of the Pride Clubs which planted over 20,000 trees and shrubs in the city. He died on December 3, 1949, at his long-time home at 744 Arimo Avenue in Trestle Glen, and was cremated following services at the Chapel of the Chimes, presided over by Dr. Clarence Reidenbach, pastor of the First Congregational Church, and officers of Brooklyn Masonic Lodge No. 225.
39th	July 1, 1941	John F. Slavich	John Francis Slavich, Jr. was born March 27, 1881 in Portland, Oregon Portland, Oregon Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States... . The son of John F. Slavich, Sr. and Abbie (née Krieger) Slavich (1862–1945) a native of New York. The family came to Oakland, when John was a boy and grew up at 582 24th Street, as the son of John Slavich, Sr., longtime proprietor of the Louisville Restaurant on Broadway. He graduated from St. Francis de Sales Elementary, Oakland High, the University of California at Berkeley, and from the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine (UCSF) in 1904. A veteran of World War I. He practiced medicine in downtown Oakland for over forty years. A member of the city council from 1931 to 1947, he first joined the council by soundly defeating the venerable Frank Mott, 28,230 to 7,591, for an at-large seat in 1931. Slavich was mayor during World War II, a time when the city was being virtually transformed by the major role it played in the Allied efforts in the Pacific. He and his wife, his former nurse, resided at 412 Bellevue Avenue while he was mayor. His sisters were, Margaret E. Slavich (1880–1956) a proofreader at the Oakland Tribune and Adrienne M. Slavich Somerville (1893–1955). John F. Slavich died on October 2, 1950, with services held at the Chapel of the Oaks. He was buried at Saint Mary Cemetery Saint Mary Cemetery (Oakland, California) Saint Mary Cemetery is a Catholic cemetery in Oakland, California, adjacent to Mountain View Cemetery.-People interred:*Juan Bautista Alvarado Mexican governor of California... in Oakland.
40th	July 1, 1945	Herbert L. Beach	Beach was a farmer's son, born on April 14, 1876 in Stafford County, Virginia Stafford County, Virginia Stafford County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a U.S. state, and just across the Rappahannock River from the City of Fredericksburg. As of the 2000 census, the population was 92,446, increasing to 128,961 in 2010.. Its county seat is Stafford. In 2006, and again in 2009,... . He moved to Oakland in 1905 and opened Berkeley's first motion-picture theater and several of Oakland's first independent neighborhood movie theaters before retiring from that business in 1935. He had been instrumental in the adoption of the council-manager form of municipal government in 1931, and was a member of the city council, representing District 1, from that year until 1947, when he was defeated in what was described as "the biggest upset in Oakland's political history." He died on August 30, 1959 at his home at 5311 Golden Gate Avenue in Rockridge, where he had lived as mayor. He was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.
41st	July 1, 1947	Joseph E. Smith	Joseph Edward Smith was an Oakland native, son of a mail carrier, born in 1914 "in Watt's Tract, on 34th St near Hanna," in his own words, who "attended Clawson, Grant, and St. Francis de Sales before going to St. Mary's High School." Smith was a 1935 graduate of UC-Berkeley and 1938 graduate of Boalt Law School before serving as a Navy ensign during World War II When he was elected mayor in July, 1947, by a 7-1 vote of his fellow council members, the thirty-three-year-old Smith became the youngest man to serve as mayor since Horace Carpentier. His election was considered a major upset, since Dr. McCracken had been considered a certainty to return to the mayor's office. However, following Smith's election, McCracken was still considered the deciding vote between the four returning incumbents, loyalists to the "Joseph R. Knowland Machine - The Power in the Oakland Tribune Tower," as their opponents perceived them, and the four new councilmen, including Smith, elected by "joint labor action and disgruntled citizens." Smith and the other new council members had run with the active support of local CIO unions and other progressive organizations, and they were extensively "red-baited" during the campaign. He narrowly defeated a recall attempt as a city council member after serving as mayor, on February 28, 1950, but was defeated soundly in a run for a councilman-at-large seat the following year, ending his political career. Smith was a resident of 2535 55th Ave. in East Oakland at the time of his election, but the mayor and his family moved to 782 Rosemount Road in Trestle Glen while he was in office. For many years after his tenure as mayor, Smith resided at 136 Dudley Avenue in Piedmont while practicing law in the Financial Center Building. According to the records of the California State Bar association, Joseph E. Smith is deceased.
42nd	July 1, 1949	Clifford E. Rishell	Rishell was born in Glenwood, Iowa Glenwood, Iowa Glenwood is a city in and the county seat of Mills County, Iowa, United States. The population was 5,269 in the 2010 census, a decline from 5,358 in the 2000 census. -History:... , on October 10, 1890. He left school at the age of 16 to lay railroad track, and also worked as a "printer's devil" at the Glenwood Opinion and as a sign painter in Council Bluffs before following his brother to Oakland in 1912. He worked here as a sign painter for Standard Oil before establishing his own painting firm. A Republican, he was elected to the city council from District 6 in 1949, and in 1953 he became the first Oakland mayor elected by popular vote since John Davie in 1927 - a change due in large part to his own efforts -winning over 50% of the vote in a six-man race. He was also the first mayor to serve under a charter amendment restructuring the city government as a city manager system (mayor-council government Mayor-council government The mayor–council government system, sometimes called the mayor–commission government system, is one of the two most common forms of local government for municipalities... ). In 1957 he easily defeated his sole opponent, Benjamin Marlowe, 42,724 to 29,765. As mayor he gained the title of "Ambassador of Goodwill for Oakland" and "Oakland's Super Salesman" due to his many business trips to Washington and privately financed jaunts abroad. He was badly defeated for re-election in 1961 by John Houlihan and defeated again in a 1963 "comeback" bid for the at-large council seat Long-time residents of 2707 Humboldt Avenue in East Oakland, in 1957 the mayor and his family moved to a new home on a street named in his honor !! (141 Rishell Drive, in the Crestmont district, high in the hills). Rishell's tenure saw the start of the "White Flight White flight White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as... " from Oakland, to the suburbs of Southern Alameda County and Contra Costa County. In 1960, the American Football League American Football League The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence... was created and Rishell worked with Wayne Valley F. Wayne Valley F. Wayne Valley was an American businessman, philanthropist and football player. He attended Oregon State University in the 1930s, where he was a starting linebacker and fullback on the Oregon State Beavers football team, though he would ultimately graduate with a business degree from the... and Ed Mc Gah for the acquisition of the Oakland Raiders Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... ), In 1963, declaring that he no longer wished to live in Oakland, he and his wife relocated to a trailer park in Palm Desert before moving to a retirement community in Santa Barbara, where he died on January 14, 1971 at the age of 80.
43rd	July 1, 1961	John C. Houlihan John C. Houlihan John C. Houlihan was the 43rd mayor of Oakland, California.He was elected Mayor in 1961, through his defeat of incumbent Mayor Clifford D. Rishell, and was subsequently re-elected to a second, four-year term of office in 1965...	John Charles Houlihan was born October 31, 1910 in San Francisco, the son of a San Francisco policeman. He was raised in the Mission District and graduated from the University of San Francisco University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco , is a private, Jesuit/Catholic university located in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1855, USF was established as the first university in San Francisco. It is the second oldest institution for higher learning in California and the tenth-oldest university of... and Santa Clara University School of Law Santa Clara University School of Law The Santa Clara University School of Law is the law school of Santa Clara University, a Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, in the Silicon Valley region. The School of Law was founded in 1911... . He practiced law in San Francisco before moving his practice to Oakland in 1944. He was a city planning commissioner who was appointed to a vacant city council seat by Mayor Rishell in 1959, two years before Houlihan soundly defeated Rishell in a "torrid" mayor's race (53,340 to 36,423). He served as mayor from 1961 to 1966, and actively presided over such major civic accomplishments as the construction of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena the building of the new Oakland Museum of California Oakland Museum of California Oakland Museum of California or Oakland Museum is a museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California located in Oakland, California.... , and major improvements to the Oakland airport and port. Houlihan was both a nationally renowned theorist on urban issues and a convicted felon. He served as a researcher and administrator for major studies on inner-city problems funded by such prestigious think tanks as the Fund for the Republic and the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions before and while he was mayor, and he taught local government at Sonoma State and other Bay Area schools following his release from prison. Houlihan, who had stated publicly and often that his $7,500 mayoral salary was inadequate, finally resigned in February, 1966 (effective April 30), because of the salary issue, two months before he was indicted for embezzling $95,000 from the estate of an elderly widow, Sarilla Whitlock (as a private attorney, but while in office as mayor). He was eventually convicted of this charge, and it was also discovered that he had embezzled a further $100,000 from other estates, including a Catholic order in Oakland. He was imprisoned at the minimum-security California Medical Facility California Medical Facility California Medical Facility is a male-only state prison located in the city of Vacaville, Solano County, California. It is older than California State Prison, Solano, the other state prison in Vacaville.-Facilities:... in Vacaville 1967, paroled in 1969, and pardoned in 1973 by Governor Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor.... . He died in Santa Rosa on July 31, 1986 at the age of 75. A Republican and Catholic (St. Pascal's Church), Houlihan and his wife and four children lived at 4994 Stacy Street (near Joseph Knowland State Arboretum and Park Joseph Knowland State Arboretum and Park Joseph Knowland State Arboretum and Park is a park located in the Grass Valley neighborhood of Oakland, California, formerly a state park, now property of the City of Oakland and the location of the Oakland Zoo.-Park creation:... ) while he was mayor.
44th	May 1, 1966	John H. Reading John H. Reading John H. Reading was 44th Mayor of Oakland, California from 1966 to 1977. Reading was born in Glendale, Arizona. He was instrumental in the building of the Oakland Coliseum and the expansion of the Oakland International Airport. Reading was a Republican in a city becoming increasingly Democratic...	Reading was born on November 26, 1917 in Glendale, Arizona Glendale, Arizona Glendale is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, located about nine miles northwest from Downtown Phoenix. According to 2010 Census Bureau, the population of the city is 226,721.... to a cotton farming family, but raised in Oakland. He worked as a newspaper delivery boy while attending Frick Junior High and Fremont High Schools, and he also worked his way through UC-Berkeley, class of 1940. He served during World War II in the Army Air Force as a pilot and flight training officer and attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel He inherited his father's substantial East Oakland business, Ingram's Food Products, famous for its frozen "Red's Tamales," but sold it while mayor. He was appointed to the Seventh District seat on the city council in 1961 by Mayor Houlihan, and in 1966 was elected by a 5-3 vote of the council to replace Houlihan as mayor. Redding welcomed in 1968, the American League American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major... of Major League Baseball Major League Baseball Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League... when Charles O. Finley Charles O. Finley Charles Oscar Finley , nicknamed Charlie O or Charley O, was an American businessman who is best remembered for his tenure as the owner of the Oakland Athletics Major League Baseball team. Finley purchased the franchise while it was located in Kansas City, moving it to Oakland in 1968... moved his baseball team from Kansas City. Redding was mayor when the Oakland Athletics Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum.... won three World Series World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy... . He was subsequently elected to the office three times: in 1967, to finish the unexpired term which he was filling by appointment, with around 85% of the vote in a three-man race; in 1969, to his first full four-year term; and in 1973, when he defeated the famous Black Panther Black panther A black panther is typically a melanistic color variant of any of several species of larger cat. Wild black panthers in Latin America are black jaguars , in Asia and Africa they are black leopards , and in North America they may be black jaguars or possibly black cougars A black panther is... leader Bobby Seale Bobby Seale Robert George "Bobby" Seale , is an activist. He is known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with Huey Newton.-Early life:... by a margin of 77,634 to 43,749, Reading and his family lived at 4735 Sequoyah Road in the Oak Knoll District. He died February 7, 2003 in Indian Wells, California.
45th	July 1, 1977	Lionel J. Wilson	Wilson was born March 14, 1915, in New Orleans, the eldest of eight children. His family moved to Oakland when he was three. He was a graduate of McClymonds High School, UC - Berkeley, and Boalt School of Law. An accomplished athlete as well as a scholar, he once pitched for the Oakland Larks, a black professional team. He was the first African-American appointed to the Alameda County Municipal Court, in 1960, and the first to serve on Superior Court. He was elected the city's first black mayor on May 17, 1977 by defeating Dave Tucker 42,961 to 37,060. He was re-elected in 1981 with over 70% of the vote in a four-man race, and again in 1985 with 32,602 votes to 17,656 for his closest opponent, Wilson Riles, Jr., in a seven-man race. However, in a pivotal primary election on June 5, 1990, in which the four top vote-getters in a seven-person race were all African-American, Wilson came in third, with 13,158 to Elihu Harris Elihu Harris Elihu Mason Harris is a former U.S. Democratic Party politician and college administrator. He served as the 46th mayor of Oakland, California from 1991 to until 1999. He served for 12 years as a member of the California State Assembly before his election as Oakland mayor... ' 34,733 and Wilson Riles, Jr.'s 18,505, and was thus eliminated from the general election that fall (see below). Wilson died at the age of 82 on January 23, 1998. He was praised both as a "man drafted to oversee the removal of Oakland's old Republican guard and the rise of African-American politics and politicians" and as a jurist and civic leader who embodied fairness to all of the city's communities.
46th	January 7, 1991	Elihu M. Harris	He was born on August 15, 1947 in Los Angeles Los Ángeles Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants... , though his family moved to Berkeley when he was young. He was a graduate of Berkeley High School, California State University California State University The California State University is a public university system in the state of California. It is one of three public higher education systems in the state, the other two being the University of California system and the California Community College system. It is incorporated as The Trustees of the... , Hayward (bachelors), UC-Berkeley (masters), and UC-Davis (J.D.). Harris served on the staffs of U.S. Congresswoman Yvonne Burke and California Assemblyman John J. Miller and as director of the National Bar Association before his election to the State Assembly in 1978 from the 13th District. He was re-elected to the Assembly in 1980, 1982, 1986, and 1988. He placed a strong first in a seven-candidate primary election for mayor in 1990, and went on to defeat his closest rival, Wilson Riles, Jr. by a count of 54,259 to 40,586 in the general election. Harris was unfortunate enough to assume office in a city that was barely beginning to recover from the devastating 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake Loma Prieta earthquake The Loma Prieta earthquake, also known as the Quake of '89 and the World Series Earthquake, was a major earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area of California on October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. local time... when the Oakland Firestorm of 1991 destroyed some 3,000 homes in the city's finest neighborhoods. However, by the end of his eight years in office, the fire zone was substantially rebuilt and a downtown revival was underway, highlighted by the renovation of City Hall. Harris resigned from the mayor's office, in order to seek re-election to his old State Assembly seat, a campaign in which he was upset by Audie Bock, who became the only Green Party candidate to win a state legislative seat in the U.S. He resided at 7141 Homewood Drive in Montclair as mayor.
47th	January 4, 1999	Jerry Brown	Brown was born in San Francisco on April 7, 1938 to the future governor of California, Edmund Gerald (Pat) Brown, Sr. Pat Brown Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown, Sr. was the 32nd Governor of California, serving from 1959 to 1967, and the father of current Governor of California Jerry Brown.-Background:... He graduated from St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco, studied at Santa Clara University Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private, not-for-profit, Jesuit-affiliated university located in Santa Clara, California, United States. Chartered by the state of California and accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, it operates in collaboration with the Society of Jesus , whose... and at the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Los Gatos before graduating from the University of California University of California The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University... at Berkeley in 1961 with a degree in Greek and Latin, and he received his law degree from Yale University Yale University Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States... in 1964. He served as California secretary of state from 1970 to 1975, as governor from 1975 to 1983, as attorney general of California from 2007 to 2011, as governor from 2011 -present. He was the youngest governor in California history when first elected in 1974, and in 1978 he won re-election with the largest vote margin ever in a governor's race here. After winning in 2010, he is the oldest governor in California history. As governor, (1975-1983) he established the first agricultural relations law in the nation, started the California Conservation Corps California Conservation Corps The California Conservation Corps, or the CCC, is a department of the government of California, falling under the state cabinet-level California Resources Agency... , enacted the California Coastal Protection Act, halted nuclear power development and made the state the national leader in solar and alternative energy. He also appointed more women and minorities to high government positions than any other governor in California history. He mounted three unsuccessful runs for the presidency, in 1976, 1980, and 1992, and one unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate. Following the last attempt, he moved to Oakland and built a live/work space at 200 Harrison Street in the waterfront warehouse district, where he hosted a populist, call-in radio show "We the People," beginning in 1994. He was elected mayor in 1998, garnering 58.7% of the vote in an eleven-candidate primary, and he was also able to muster his enormous popularity to win support for a "strong mayor" initiative which was passed by the city's voters in the general election. He took office as Oakland's very first "celebrity mayor," as much a national icon of political iconoclasm and a figure in popular culture as an established force in state or city politics. In March, 2002, Brown defeated his only opponent in the primary, Wilson Riles, Jr., a veteran city council member and mayoral aspirant, by a vote of 39,628 to 22,794.
48th	January 8, 2007	Ronald V. Dellums Ron Dellums Ronald Vernie "Ron" Dellums served as Oakland's forty-fifth mayor. From 1971 to 1998, he was elected to thirteen terms as a Member of the U.S...	Born in Oakland on Nov. 24, 1935, Dellums grew up at 1014-16 Wood St. in West Oakland and attended St. Patrick's School on Peralta Street, Westlake Junior High on Harrison Street, and Oakland Technical High School on Broadway. Dellums spent two years in the Marines. He has a B.A. from San Francisco State University (1960) and an M.S.W. from UC Berkeley (1962) and spent some time in social work. Dellums was elected to the Berkeley Berkeley, California Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington... City Council in April 1967, and served during the People's Park crisis of May 1969. While on the Council, he defeated sitting U.S. Representative Jeffery Cohelan Jeffery Cohelan Jeffery Cohelan was a United States Representative from California. He was born in San Francisco, California and attended the public schools and San Mateo Junior College. He earned his B.A. from the University of California's School of Economics... in the Democratic primary of June 1970 and won the general election in November. He served in Congress, representing Berkeley, neighboring cities and part of Oakland, from 1971 until his resignation in February 1998, becoming Chairman of the House Committees on the District of Columbia (1979-1993), and Armed Services (1993-1995). Dellums became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War immediately after his arrival in Washington, and in later years he became equally well-known on the national stage for his fundamental challenges to the domestic priorities and international initiatives of successive presidential administrations.
49th	January 3, 2011	Jean Quan Jean Quan Jean Quan is the Democratic mayor of Oakland, California. She previously served as City Council member for Oakland's 4th District...	Jean Quan is the first woman and the first Asian American to be elected Mayor of Oakland. She was the first Asian American woman elected to the Oakland School Board and to the Oakland City Council. She is the first Asian American woman mayor of a major US City. Jean's family roots in Oakland date back to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, when her great-grandfather, grandfather and his two brothers took the ferry across the Bay and became part of a new Oakland Chinatown. Jean’s father died when she was five, and she was raised by a non-English-speaking mother. She received a scholarship to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where she helped found Asian American Studies and worked to recruit poor and minority students. Jean has been married to Dr. Floyd Huen for more than 40 years.

Sources

Includes photos

List of mayor, Oakland Public Library
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

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