Henry Mellus (August 24, 1816 – December 26, 1860) served as the eighth

Mayor of Los Angeles The mayor of the City of Los Angeles is the official head and chief executive officer of Los Angeles. The officeholder is elected for a four-year term and is term limit, limited to serving no more than two terms. (Under the Constitution of Califo ...

from May 9, 1860, to December 26, 1860. He was a successful California businessman.

Biography

Born in

Dorchester, Boston Dorchester (colloquially referred to as Dot) is a Boston neighborhood comprising more than in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester, ...

, he was the son of William and Amelia (Lyon) Mellus and was a brother of

Francis Mellus Francis Mellus (February 3, 1824 – September 14, 1864), brother of Henry Mellus, was a Los Angeles County Supervisor and a successful California business man. Francis Mellus, born in Salem, Massachusetts, was a younger brother of Henry Mellu ...

. Henry sailed "around the

ape Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a clade of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and as well as Europe in prehistory), which together with its siste ...

horn" with

Richard Henry Dana Jr. Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 – January 6, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of a colonial family, who gained renown as the author of the classic American memoir ''Two Years Before the Mast''. ...

on the ship named the Pilgrim, and arrived in California in 1835, leaving the ship to become an agent's clerk onshore. In 1837 Mellus returned to Boston, and then returned in 1839 to California, becoming a successful merchant in San Francisco. In 1845 he and

William Davis Merry Howard William Davis Merry Howard (1818–1856), known in Spanish as Don Guillermo Howard, was an American businessman, known as one of San Francisco's wealthiest men during the California Gold Rush. Howard was a native of Boston, Massachusetts who cam ...

formed the firm of Mellus & Howard in San Francisco. This firm had an active commercial business in San Francisco, and in 1846 bought the property of the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1846 Henry married Anita F. Johnson (the daughter of James (Santiago) Johnson and a sister of Francis Mellus's wife Adelaida). After the marriage, the Mellus’ family lived in Los Angeles. Bell Row, a two-story, "L" shaped adobe built by Captain Alexander Bell, became Mellus Row, owned by Henry Mellus. After relinquishing the Bryant & Sturgis agency in 1848, Mellus went to Boston with his family on a visit. He returned to this coast in the winter of 1849–1850, at which time he had an attack of apoplexy. He partially recovered. After Henry retired from Mellus, Howard & Co., his brother Francis joined as a partner, and the firm became Howard, Mellus & Co. Francis shortly after withdrew, and the firm name was changed to Howard & Green.Henry Mellus; From Forecastle Hand To Merchant
/ref> Henry Mellus was elected as

on May 9, 1860, and died while holding that office.

References

1816 births 1860 deaths Mayors of Los Angeles 19th-century American politicians Politicians from Dorchester, Massachusetts {{California-mayor-stub