Mayors Of Oakland, California
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Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
, was founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1854. The city uses a
strong mayor Strong may refer to: Education * The Strong, an educational institution in Rochester, New York, United States * Strong Hall (Lawrence, Kansas), an administrative hall of the University of Kansas * Strong School, New Haven, Connecticut, United ...
form of government. Until the early 20th century, all Oakland mayors served terms of only one or two years each. Oakland mayors now serve 4-year terms and are limited to two terms.
Barbara Lee Barbara Jean Lee (; born July 16, 1946) is an American politician who has served as the 52nd mayor of Oakland since 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Lee previously served as a United States House of Repr ...
has served as mayor of Oakland since 2025.


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


Mayors


Biographies of mayors


Horace W. Carpentier (1st mayor)

Born July 1824 in Galway, New York, to James and Henrietta Carpenter. Carpentier graduated from Columbia College (now
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
) in
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in 1848. He and his brother Edward, also a graduate from Columbia, arrived in
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in 1849 and they practiced law for two years before beginning their vast land acquisitions in the
East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Wi ...
. On May 17, 1852, thirteen days after Oakland was incorporated, the board of trustees who governed the city 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 schoolhouse. 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 Alameda County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. A ...
and/or Oakland's incorporation as a city 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 19th 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
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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 The Bank of California was opened in San Francisco, California, on July 4, 1864, by William Chapman Ralston and Darius Ogden Mills. It was the first commercial bank in the Western United States, and considered instrumental in developing the Amer ...
. 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. Carpentier had been elected to the boards of trustees of both Columbia University and
Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...
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 Nicholas Murray Butler (April 2, 1862 – December 7, 1947) was an American philosopher, diplomat, and educator. Butler was president of Columbia University, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a recipient of the Nobel ...
, to make the university not only "great" but also "democratic." Carpentier, who lived with several servants and 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 any immediate 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 The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
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."


Charles Campbell (2nd mayor)

Very little is known about Campbell 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 in Oakland, where he is interred.


Samuel H. Robinson (3rd mayor)

Little more than a historical cipher. The 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."


Andrew Williams (4th mayor)

Williams was born in Cherry Valley, New York, c. 1800, and graduated from
Union College Union College is a Private university, private liberal arts college 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, and second in the s ...
in
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, 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 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 ( , born Francis Brett Hart, August 25, 1836 – May 5, 1902) was an American short story writer and poet best remembered for short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a caree ...
. 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 Starbottle.


Francis K. Shattuck (5th mayor)

Shattuck was born in
Crown Point, New York Crown Point is a town in Essex County, New York, United States, located on the west shore of Lake Champlain. The population was 2,024 at the 2010 census. The name of the town is a direct translation of the original French name, . The town is on ...
, on the shores of
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, 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 , 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.


James Paine Miller Davis (6th mayor)

Davis is a historical enigma. We only know that he was a physician, born in 1817 in North Carolina, 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. (The photo of Davis used for the group portrait is now in the library of the ''
Oakland Tribune The ''Oakland Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Oakland, California, and a predecessor of the '' East Bay Times''. It was published by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of MediaNews Group. Founded in 1874, the ''Tribune'' ...
'', and it is labeled Dr. J.P.M. Davis.)


George M. Blake (7th mayor)

Blake was born in Elizabethtown, New York, and educated at
Middlebury College Middlebury College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont, United States. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists, Middlebury w ...
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 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 Downtown Oakland is the central business district of Oakland, California, United States. It is located roughly bounded by both the Oakland Estuary and Interstate 880 (California), Interstate 880 on the southwest, Interstate 980 on the north ...
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, Millicent 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.


William Henry Bovee (8th mayor)

Bovee was born in
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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 Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...
. 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.


Edward Gibbons (9th mayor)

Gibbons was one of three prominent physician brothers – Henry, William, and Edward – born to a Quaker physician in
Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...
. Edward was born in 1816 and graduated from the University of New York (now
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
) in 1841 and studied law in
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, for four years. He returned to Delaware in 1848 and was elected clerk of the
House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
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 not come back to California until 1873, the year he was nominated for the
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by the Independent Convention and elected by a "handsome majority." He died on May 30, 1886, in Calistoga and is buried in Mountain View.


Benjamin F. Ferris (10th major)

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 Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
, in the
Sacramento River The Sacramento River () is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River D ...
, 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."


John W. Dwinelle (11th mayor)

Dwinelle was born in
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, on September 7, 1816, of French Huguenot descent and excellent pedigree – his father had graduated from
Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...
and
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and served in both the
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and the
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. His son John graduated from
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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 The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
, 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 The Bohemian Club is a private club with two locations: a city clubhouse in the Nob Hill district of San Francisco, California, and the Bohemian Grove, a retreat north of the city in Sonoma County. Founded in 1872 from a regular meeting of jour ...
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 of 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
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, when he reached Port Costa, California, 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 The Carquinez Strait (; Spanish: ''Estrecho de Carquinez'') is a narrow tidal strait located in the Bay Area of Northern California, United States. It is part of the tidal estuary of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers as they drain int ...
. 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 in 1912. In 1952, Dwinelle Hall on the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
campus was named after John W. Dwinelle to honor his responsibility for the "
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," which established the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
in 1868, as well as the fact that he was a member of the University's first
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.


William Watrus Crane Jr. (12th mayor)

Crane Jr. was born in
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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 San Leandro (Spanish for " St. Leander") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area; between Oakland to the northwest, and Ashland, Castro Valley, and Hayward to the south ...
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 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.


Samuel Merritt (13th mayor)

Merritt was born in
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, on March 30, 1822, the son of a farmer of "independent circumstances" who had served in the Maine legislature. He graduated from nearby
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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
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. 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, 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 is a lake located in a large tidal lagoon basin in the center of Oakland, California, just east of Downtown. It is named after Samuel Merritt, Oakland's mayor in 1867–1869, who had the lagoon dammed turning the varying tidal lag ...
, 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 appointed 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. He is buried in Mountain View Cemetery.


John B. Felton (14th mayor)

Felton was born in
Saugus, Massachusetts Saugus is a New England town, town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. The population was 28,619 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Saugus is known as the site of the first integrated iron work ...
, in 1827, son of an almshouse superintendent in Cambridge and brother of
Cornelius Conway Felton Cornelius Conway Felton (November 6, 1807 – February 26, 1862) was an American educator. He was regent of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as professor of Greek literature and president of Harvard University. Early life Felton was born in ...
, a renowned classics scholar at
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
, and Samuel Morse Felton Sr., a railroad executive. He graduated from Harvard in 1847 and briefly served as a Greek tutor before pursuing the law. He studied the
Napoleonic Code The Napoleonic Code (), officially the Civil Code of the French (; simply referred to as ), is the French civil code established during the French Consulate in 1804 and still in force in France, although heavily and frequently amended since i ...
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 in Oakland in December 1853; Felton arrived a few months afterwards. Felton 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 The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...
in 1874. He was a regent of the University of California 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.


Nathaniel W. Spaulding (15th mayor)

Spaulding was born in North Anson, Maine, 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 The Mokelumne River ( or ; ''Mokelumne'', Miwok for "People of the Fish Net") is a -long river in northern California in the United States. The river flows west from a rugged portion of the central Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada into the C ...
in
Calaveras County Calaveras County (), officially the County of Calaveras, is a County (United States), county in both the Gold Country and Sierra Nevada, High Sierra regions of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the ...
. 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 Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
with two of his brothers. "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 macadamized 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 James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 1881 until his death in September that year after being shot two months earlier. A preacher, lawyer, and Civi ...
. 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 is a city in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is located approximately southwest of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. The city is part of the Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, Capitol ...
, but he remains today at Mountain View.


Rev.

Henry Durant Henry Durant (June 18, 1802 in Acton, Massachusetts – January 22, 1875 in Oakland, California) was an American minister and educator. He was the founding president of the University of California. Durant also served as Mayor of Oakland.SF Chro ...
(16th mayor)

Durant was born in
Acton, Massachusetts Acton is a New England town, town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, approximately west-northwest of Boston, Massachusetts, Boston along Massachusetts Route 2 west of Concord, Massachusetts, Concord and about southwest of Lowell ...
, on June 18, 1802, Durant graduated from
Phillips Academy Phillips Academy (also known as PA, Phillips Academy Andover, or simply Andover) is a Private school, private, Mixed-sex education, co-educational college-preparatory school for Boarding school, boarding and Day school, day students located in ...
in Andover and
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
, class of 1827. He also studied at Yale Theological Seminary and was ordained a Congregational minister in 1833, 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 boys' school, in Oakland, which was chartered as the College of California (later to become the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
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.


Mack Webber (17th mayor)

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.


Enoch H. Pardee Enoch Homer Pardee (1829–1896) was an American medical doctor and politician. He served as the 18th Mayor of Oakland, California, from 1876 to 1878. Biography Born in Greece, New York, on April 1, 1829, Pardee settled in the Midwest before i ...
(18th mayor)

Pardee was born on April 1, 1829, in
Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...
, 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 ophthalmia as a teenager by a leading doctor in Detroit, he determined to become an "
oculist Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...
" 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 is the medical school of Rush University, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Established in 1837, it is affiliated with Rush University Medical Center, and John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County. ...
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, the Pardee Home, at 672 Eleventh Street. A staunch Republican and strict Unionist, he achieved great political prominence in the East Bay shortly after moving to Oakland – he was elected to four terms on the city council (1869–1872), including one as president (1871), as well as to the
State Assembly State Assembly is the name given to various legislatures, especially lower houses or full legislatures in states in federal systems of government. Channel Islands States Assembly is the name of the legislature of the Bailiwick of Jersey. The Baili ...
(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" 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 The ''posse comitatus'' (from Latin for "the ability to have a retinue or gang"), frequently shortened to posse, is in common law a group of people mobilized to suppress lawlessness, defend the people, or otherwise protect the place, property, ...
'', 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 most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...
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.


Washburne R. Andrus (19th mayor)

Andrus was born on September 23, 1841, in
Farmington, Connecticut Farmington is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County in the Farmington Valley area of central Connecticut in the United States. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, Capitol Planning Region. The populati ...
, where he trained and worked as a carpenter, except for seven years of service on the
Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
, 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 1870s 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.


James E. Blethen (20th mayor)

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.


Charles K. Robinson (21st mayor)

Robinson was born in
Livingston County, New York Livingston County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 61,834. Its county seat is Geneseo. The county is named after Robert R. Livingston, who helped draft the Declaration of Independence a ...
, on January 16, 1835, but moved at the age of three to
Genesee County, Michigan Genesee County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 406,211, making it the fifth-most populous county in Michigan, and the most populous in Mid Michigan. The county seat and largest city is ...
, where his family was pioneering farmers. He studied at
Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...
and
Antioch College Antioch College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection and began operating in 1852 as a non-secta ...
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 was a city in Saginaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is now part of the city of Saginaw. History Much of the area that later became East Saginaw was granted by treaty to James Reilly, the Métis son of fur trader Stephen V. ...
, 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.


J. West Martin (22nd mayor)

Martin was born to the gentry in
Hagerstown, Maryland Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States, and its county seat. The population was 43,527 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Hagerstown ranks as Maryland's List of municipalities in Maryland, sixth-most popu ...
, 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 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 (firing employees, slashing salaries, and turning 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.


Ashmun Cooke Henry (23rd mayor)

Henry was born on December 6, 1828, in
Millersburg, Ohio Millersburg is a village in Holmes County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located south of Cleveland, it is in the heart of Ohio's Amish Country and is part of a large regional tourism industry. The population was 3,151 at the 2020 ...
, 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.


Eli W. Playter (24th mayor)

Playter was born on October 6, 1819, in
York, Upper Canada York was a town and the second capital of the colony of Upper Canada. It is the predecessor to the Old Toronto, old city of Toronto (1834–1998). It was established in 1793 by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe as a "temporary" location fo ...
, (now
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
,
Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, Canada), but his family moved to rural
Niagara County, New York Niagara County is in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 212,666. The county seat is Lockport. The county name is from the Iroquois word ''Onguiaahra''; meaning ''the strait'' or ''thunder of ...
, 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.


William R. Davis (25th mayor)

Davis was born in
Washington County, Iowa Washington County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 22,565. The county seat is Washington. Washington County is included in the Iowa City metropolitan area. History Washington County was ...
, on February 26, 1850, Davis came to California at the age of five, and was educated in the public schools of
Sonoma County Sonoma County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 488,863. Its seat of government and largest city is Santa Rosa. Sonoma County comprises the Santa Rosa-Petaluma ...
and at Oakland's Brayton School before graduating from the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
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 the 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.


Charles D. Pierce (26th mayor)

Pierce was born in 1859 in Pennsylvania, but we know nothing else of his early life, until he appeared in Oakland in the late 1870s. 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.


John R. Glascock (27th mayor)

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 A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary education, tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding academic degree, degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further educatio ...
as valedictorian in 1865. He studied law in his father's office in Oakland and at the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...
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. 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, though he was defeated in his race for a second term. 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.


Melvin C. Chapman (28th mayor)

Chapman was born in
Westfield, Illinois Westfield is a village in Westfield Township, Clark County, Illinois, United States. The population was 536 at the 2020 census, down from 601 at the 2010 census. History The village of Westfield was laid out in 1839, and a post office opened th ...
, 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 is a village in Onarga Township, Iroquois County, Illinois, Onarga Township, Iroquois County, Illinois, Iroquois County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,333 at the 2020 census. Geography Onarga is located in western Iroquois ...
. 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 The University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (abbreviated as UC Law SF or UC Law) is a public law school in San Francisco, California, United States. It was known as the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (a ...
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 West Oakland is a neighborhood situated in the northwestern corner of Oakland, California, United States, situated west of Downtown Oakland, south of Emeryville, and north of Alameda. The neighborhood is located along the waterfront at the ...
marsh, dredging of
Lake Merritt Lake Merritt is a lake located in a large tidal lagoon basin in the center of Oakland, California, just east of Downtown. It is named after Samuel Merritt, Oakland's mayor in 1867–1869, who had the lagoon dammed turning the varying tidal lag ...
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 G. 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 Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...
shortly before his death on March 4, 1936. His current address is Mountain View Cemetery.


George C. Pardee (29th mayor)

Pardee, son of
Enoch H. Pardee Enoch Homer Pardee (1829–1896) was an American medical doctor and politician. He served as the 18th Mayor of Oakland, California, from 1876 to 1878. Biography Born in Greece, New York, on April 1, 1829, Pardee settled in the Midwest before i ...
, who was born on July 25, 1857, in
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, 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 ( Spanish ''Rincón'', meaning "corner") is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is one of San Francisco's many hills, and one of its original " Seven Hills". The relatively compact neighborhood is bounded by Folsom Stre ...
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. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, so that they could call upon
President Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War, defeating the Confederate State ...
at the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
, and he would always recall his moments sitting in Lincoln's lap as a formative political experience. He attended McClure's Academy on Telegraph Avenue before graduating from Oakland High School and the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
, class of 1879. He studied medicine at
Cooper Medical College The Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California, United States. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Fran ...
(now part of
Stanford University School of Medicine The Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California, United States. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Fra ...
) in San Francisco, followed by three years of study at the
University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...
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 The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
'' 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 East Oakland is a geographical region of Oakland, California, United States, that stretches between Lake Merritt in the northwest and San Leandro in the southeast. As the southeastern portion of the city, East Oakland takes up the largest porti ...
'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 is a lake located in a large tidal lagoon basin in the center of Oakland, California, just east of Downtown. It is named after Samuel Merritt, Oakland's mayor in 1867–1869, who had the lagoon dammed turning the varying tidal lag ...
, 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 The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that uses pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lens (optics), lenses, and a light source. ...
slide shows, depicting the shortcomings of his opponents, during the campaign. Like his father, the Pardee fils faced major labor unrest, including striking railroad workers seizing trains, marines being called in from
Mare Island Mare Island (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Isla de la Yegua'') is a peninsula in the United States in the city of Vallejo, California, about northeast of San Francisco. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait junc ...
to quell riots, and hundreds of "
Coxey's Army Coxey's Army was a protest march by unemployed workers from the United States, led by Ohio businessman Jacob Coxey. They marched on Washington, D.C., in 1894, the second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in United S ...
" 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
1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...
, 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 (EBMUD), colloquially referred to as "East Bay Mud", is a public utility district which provides water and sewage treatment services for an area of approximately in the eastern side of San Francisco Bay.Sectio ...
) and the
eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...
for the Pardee Dam, 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, next to his father, Oakland's eighteenth mayor, following a grand funeral at the Masonic Scottish Rite Temple overlooking
Lake Merritt Lake Merritt is a lake located in a large tidal lagoon basin in the center of Oakland, California, just east of Downtown. It is named after Samuel Merritt, Oakland's mayor in 1867–1869, who had the lagoon dammed turning the varying tidal lag ...
.


John L. Davie (30th mayor)

Davie was born on June 24, 1850, in
Saratoga County, New York Saratoga County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, and is the fastest-growing county in Upstate New York. As of the 2020 United States census, the county's population was enumerated at 235,509, ...
, 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 The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east–west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigability, navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, ...
as a mule driver, and was studying the law in Chicago when the
Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago, Illinois during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left mor ...
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 The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...
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 years earlier in his defeat by 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 tenures 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.


William R. Thomas (31st mayor)

Thomas was born in
Cook County, Illinois Cook County is the List of counties in Illinois, most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the List of the most populous counties in the United States, second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, C ...
, on February 12, 1842, orphaned at the age of six, and educated in the Chicago public schools until the age of thirteen. He was a
Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
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 is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 100,420. Its county seat is Sycamore. DeKalb County is part of the Chicago–Naperville–Elgin, IL–IN–WI Metropolit ...
, after the war, but moved to California in 1870. He lived in
Redwood City Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in the Bay Area of Northern California, approximately south of San Francisco and northwest of San Jose. The city's population was 84,292 according to the 2020 census. The Port of Redwo ...
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 to 1888, 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 the early 20th century. 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.


Roland W. Snow (32nd mayor)

Snow was born on
Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Isl ...
, 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 end 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 Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, Progressivism, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on h ...
," 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 only 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 San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQ), formerly known as San Quentin State Prison, is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in ...
, 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 Ventura County () is a county located in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises ...
; the remains of the 38-year-old Goldman were buried in Salem Cemetery in
San Mateo County San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City, California, Redwood City is th ...
.


Anson Barstow (33rd mayor)

Barstow was born in
Haverhill, New Hampshire Haverhill is a town and the seat of Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,585 at the 2020 census. Haverhill includes the villages of Woodsville, Pike, and North Haverhill, the historic town center at Haverhill Corn ...
, 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 John Griffith London (; January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors t ...
(the well-known author) 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 (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until Assassination of William McKinley, his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...
to Oakland while mayor, shortly before the president's assassination in September at
Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
. He lived at 1356 Franklin from c. 1889 until his death on February 5, 1906, and is buried at Mountain View Cemetery.


Warren Olney Warren Olney, Sr. (March 11, 1841 – June 2, 1921) was an American lawyer, conservationist, and politician, in California. He was a founding member, alongside John Muir and the young botany professor, Willis Linn Jepson of the University of ...
(34th mayor)

Olney was born in
Davis County, Iowa Davis County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,110. The county seat is Bloomfield. Davis County is included in the Ottumwa, IA Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Davis County wa ...
, on March 11, 1841, and educated at the Baptist College at
Pella, Iowa Pella is a city in Marion County, Iowa, United States, with a population of 10,464 at the time of the 2020 U.S. Census. Founded by immigrants from the Netherlands, it is forty miles southeast of Des Moines. Pella is the home of Central Colleg ...
. 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 The University of Michigan Law School (branded as Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparati ...
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 ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the national park, National Parks", was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologi ...
in 1889 through their mutual friend, William Keith, 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 The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...
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 is a valley, reservoir, and water system in California in the United States. The glacial Hetch Hetchy Valley lies in the northwestern part of Yosemite National Park and is drained by the Tuolumne River. For thousands of years before ...
, 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 ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the national park, National Parks", was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologi ...
, William Keith, and
David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Universi ...
were frequent visitors. He was a long-time trustee and benefactor of
Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...
, 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.


Frank K. Mott (35th mayor)

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 The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete most of the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in North Americ ...
(later
Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...
), died when he was 11, and Mott, who had attended Prescott School, went to work as a messenger boy for
Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denver, Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the co ...
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 1906 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 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 The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...
, 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 William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...
to Oakland. The Chief Executive laid the cornerstone for the present
City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...
. 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 The Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts is a historic, publicly owned multi-purpose building located in Oakland, California. Originally known as the Oakland Civic Auditorium, it was renamed in honor of Henry J. Kaiser following a 1984 renovation, ...
), 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.


John L. Davie (36th mayor)

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 The Port of Oakland is the port authority for the city of Oakland, California, United States. Its primary responsibilities are the operation of the Oakland Seaport and the Oakland International Airport. It also operates a commercial real est ...
, the opening of natural history and fine arts museums, the building of Skyline Boulevard by city prisoners, construction of the
Posey Tube The Posey and Webster Street Tubes are two parallel underwater tunnels connecting the cities of Oakland and Alameda, California, running beneath the Oakland Estuary. Both are immersed tubes, constructed by sinking precast concrete segments to a t ...
, construction in 1927 of the
Oakland International Airport Oakland International Airport is an international airport in Oakland, California, United States. The airport is located south of downtown Oakland and east of San Francisco, serving the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. The airport is ...
, major improvements to the harbor and
Lake Merritt Lake Merritt is a lake located in a large tidal lagoon basin in the center of Oakland, California, just east of Downtown. It is named after Samuel Merritt, Oakland's mayor in 1867–1869, who had the lagoon dammed turning the varying tidal lag ...
, 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.


Fred N. Morcom (37th mayor)

Morcom was born March 3, 1874, in
Grass Valley, California Grass Valley is a city in Nevada County, California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 14,016. Situated at roughly in elevation in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, this norther ...
, 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), 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 in 1953. He lived at 4231 Lakeshore Avenue as mayor and up to his death on October 4, 1955.


William J. McCracken (38th mayor)

McCracken was born in Oakland on January 31, 1878, graduated from Oakland High, the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
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 council in 1949 (by a woman). He claimed credit, as mayor, for the acquisition of
Tilden Park Charles Lee Tilden Regional Park, also known as Tilden Park or Tilden, [], is a regional park in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. It is between the Berkeley Hills and San Pablo R ...
, 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.


John F. Slavich (39th mayor)

Slavich was born March 27, 1881, in
Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...
. 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 World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, 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 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, a time when the city was being 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 in Oakland.


Herbert L. Beach (40th mayor)

Beach was a farmer's son, born on April 14, 1876, in
Stafford County, Virginia Stafford County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is approximately south of Washington, D.C. It is part of the Northern Virginia region, and the D.C area. It is one of the fastest-growing and highest-income counties in ...
. 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.


Joseph E. Smith (41st mayor)

Smith was an Oakland native, son of Joseph John Smith, a mail carrier and Elizabeth Dougherty Smith, born August 15, 1913, "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. Smith married G. Marie Phillips on January 7, 1939. He served 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. He died at Rossmoor Walnut Creek California on February 13, 1999.


Clifford E. Rishell (42nd mayor)

Rishell was born in
Glenwood, Iowa Glenwood is a city in, and the county seat of, Mills County, Iowa, United States. The population was 5,073 in the 2020 census, a decline from 5,358 in 2000. History Located in a hollow of the Loess Hills on the east side of the Missouri River, ...
, on October 10, 1890. He left school at the age of 16 to lay railroad track, and also worked as a "
printer's devil A printer's devil was a young apprentice in a printing establishment who performed a number of tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type. Notable writers including Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, Ambrose Bierce, Bret Harte, and Mar ...
" at the ''Glenwood Opinion'' and as a sign painter in
Council Bluffs Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The population was 62,799 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the state's List of cities in Iowa, te ...
before following his brother to Oakland in 1912. He worked there as a sign painter for
Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...
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). 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 The white flight, also known as white exodus, is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the Racism ...
" from Oakland, to the suburbs of Southern Alameda County and Contra Costa County. In 1960, the
American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, AFL–NFL merger, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Foot ...
was created and Rishell worked with F. Wayne Valley and Ed Mc Gah for the acquisition of the
Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...
), In 1963, declaring that he no longer wished to live in Oakland, he and his wife relocated to a trailer park in
Palm Desert Palm Desert is a city in the Coachella Valley region of Riverside County, California. The city is located in the Colorado Desert arm of the Sonoran Desert, about east of Palm Springs, northeast of San Diego and east of Los Angeles. The populat ...
before moving to a retirement community in Santa Barbara, where he died on January 14, 1971, at the age of 80.


John C. Houlihan (43rd mayor)

Houlihan was born October 31, 1910, in San Francisco, the son of a San Francisco policeman. He was raised in the
Mission District The Mission District ( Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as the Mission ( Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name ...
and graduated from the
University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded in 1855, it has nearly 9,000 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees ...
and
Santa Clara University School of Law The Santa Clara University School of Law (Santa Clara Law) is the law school of Santa Clara University, a Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States, in the Silicon Valley region. The School of Law was founded in 1911. Santa Cla ...
. 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 Oakland Arena, often referred to as the Oakland Coliseum Arena, is an indoor arena in Oakland, California, and part of the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Authority. Opened in 1966, the arena was originally home to the California Seals of the ...
the building of the new
Oakland Museum of California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
, 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 think tanks including the
Fund for the Republic The Fund for the Republic (1951–1959) was an organization created by the Ford Foundation and dedicated to protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties in the United States. In 1959, the Fund moved from New York City to Santa Barbara, ...
and the
Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...
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 (CMF) is a male-only state prison medical facility located in the city of Vacaville in Solano County, California. It is older than California State Prison, Solano, the other state prison in Vacaville. Facilities ...
in Vacaville in 1967, paroled in 1969, and pardoned in 1973 by Governor
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
. 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 is a park located in the Grass Valley neighborhood of Oakland, California. It was formerly a state park, and is now the property of the City of Oakland. The Oakland Zoo occupies the developed western low ...
) while he was mayor.


John H. Reading (44th mayor)

Reading was born on November 26, 1917, in
Glendale, Arizona Glendale () is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. Located about nine miles northwest of the state capital Phoenix, Glendale is known for State Farm Stadium, which is the home of the Arizona Cardinals football team. The city al ...
, 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. In 1968, Reading welcomed the
American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...
of
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
when
Charles O. Finley Charles Oscar Finley (February 22, 1918 – February 19, 1996), nicknamed "Charlie O" or "Charley O", was an American businessman who owned Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics. Finley purchased the franchise while it was located in Kansas ...
moved his baseball team from Kansas City. Redding was mayor when the
Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (frequently referred to as the Oakland A's) were an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Oakland, California from 1968 to 2024. The Athletics were a member club of the American League (AL) American League We ...
won three
World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...
. 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 A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...
leader
Bobby Seale Robert George Seale (born October 22, 1936) is an African American revolutionary, political activist and author. Seale is widely known for co-founding the Marxist–Leninist and black power political organization the Black Panther Party (BPP) ...
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.


Lionel J. Wilson Lionel Joseph Wilson (March 14, 1915 – January 23, 1998) was an American political figure and a member of the Democratic Party. He was the first Black mayor of Oakland, California, serving three terms as mayor of Oakland from 1977 until 1991. ...
(45th mayor)

Wilson was born March 14, 1915, in
New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
, 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 African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
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 Mason Harris (born August 15, 1947) is a retired American politician and college administrator. A member of the Democratic Party, Harris served as the 46th Mayor of Oakland, California from 1991 to 1999; he previously served for 12 years ...
' 34,733 and Wilson Riles Jr.'s 18,505, and was thus eliminated from the general election that fall (see below). During Wilson's tenure as mayor, he appointed the first two
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
women to serve on the powerful Oakland Board of Port Commissioners, Christine Scotlan and
Carole Ward Allen Carole Ward Allen is an American politician, professor, and political consultant. She is a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, and serves as the chief executive officer of CWA Partners, LLC. As a mass transportation ...
. In his last three months in office, he convinced the city council to appoint him to the port, which was extremely controversial. 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.


Elihu M. Harris (46th mayor)

Harris was born on August 15, 1947, in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, though his family moved to Berkeley when he was young. He was a graduate of Berkeley High School,
California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a Public university, public university system in California, and the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, largest public university system in the United States ...
, 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 On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. PST, the Loma Prieta earthquake occurred at the Central Coast of California. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately 10 mi (16 km) ...
when the
Oakland firestorm of 1991 : The Oakland firestorm of 1991, also known as the Tunnel Fire was a large suburban wildland–urban interface conflagration that occurred on the Oakland Hills, Oakland, California, hillsides of northern Oakland, California, and southeastern B ...
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 on Homewood Drive in Montclair as mayor.


Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic P ...
(47th mayor)

Brown was born in San Francisco on April 7, 1938, to the future governor of California, Edmund Gerald (Pat) Brown Sr. He graduated from St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco, studied at
Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private university, private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university' ...
and at the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Los Gatos before graduating from the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
at Berkeley in 1961 with a degree in Greek and Latin, and he received his law degree from
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
in 1964. He served as California secretary of state from 1971 to 1975, as governor from 1975 to 1983, as attorney general of California from 2007 to 2011, as governor from 2011–2019. He was the sixth-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 The California Conservation Corps, CCC, is a department of the government of California, falling under the state Cabinet (government), cabinet-level California Resources Agency. The CCC is a voluntary work development program specifically for me ...
, 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.


Ronald V. Dellums (48th mayor)

Dellums was born in Oakland on November 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 San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...
(1960) and an M.S.W. from
UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...
(1962), and spent some time in social work. Dellums was elected to the Berkeley 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 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 Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
(1979–1993), and
Armed Services A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...
(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.


Jean Quan Lai Jean Quan (born October 21, 1949) is an American politician who served the 49th mayor of Oakland, California from 2011 to 2015. She previously served as City Council member for Oakland's 4th District. Upon inauguration on January 3, 2011, sh ...
(49th mayor)

Quan was 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. Quan'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. Quan'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. Quan has been married to Dr. Floyd Huen for more than 40 years.


Libby Schaaf Elizabeth Beckman Schaaf (born November 12, 1965) is an American politician who served as the 50th Mayor of Oakland, California from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served on the Oakland City Council. Schaaf won ...
(50th mayor)

Schaaf previously served on the
Oakland City Council The Oakland City Council is an elected governing body representing the City of Oakland, California. Since 1998, Oakland has had a mayor-council government. The mayor is elected for a four-year term. The Oakland City Council has eight council me ...
, representing district 4. In 2014, she ran for Mayor while supporting a ballot measure that raised the city's minimum wage. Her administration launched the city's first Department of Transportation.


Sheng Thao Sheng Thao ( RPA: ''Seeb Thoj'', Pahawh: '; born July 18, 1985) is an American politician who served as the 51st mayor of Oakland, California from 2023 to 2024. She was the first Hmong American mayor of a major city in the United States. She wa ...
(51st mayor)

Thao was the first
Hmong American Hmong Americans ( RPA: ''Hmoob Mes Kas'', Pahawh Hmong: "") are Americans of Hmong ancestry. Many Hmong Americans immigrated to the United States as refugees in the late 1970s, with a second wave in the 1980s and 1990s. Over half of the Hmong ...
mayor of a major city in the United States. She was recalled in November 2024 after a corruption scandal and later indicted with corruption charges.


Nikki Fortunato Bas Nikki Fortunato Bas (born 1968) is an American politician serving on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors for the 5th district. She was previously a member of the Oakland City Council from the 2nd district from 2019 to 2024, serving as the Coun ...
(interim)

Bas was appointed interim mayor after Thao's recall, but resigned due to her election to the
Alameda County Board of Supervisors The Alameda County Board of Supervisors is the five member non-partisan governing board of Alameda County, California. Members of the Board of supervisors are elected from districts, based on their residence. History The board was created in 1855, ...
.


Kevin Jenkins (interim)

Jenkins was elected the City Council president and appointed as interim mayor at the start of the 2025 City Council, following Fortunato Bas's resignation. His successor,
Barbara Lee Barbara Jean Lee (; born July 16, 1946) is an American politician who has served as the 52nd mayor of Oakland since 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Lee previously served as a United States House of Repr ...
was elected on April 15, 2025, to finish Thao's original term ending in 2027.


Barbara Lee Barbara Jean Lee (; born July 16, 1946) is an American politician who has served as the 52nd mayor of Oakland since 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Lee previously served as a United States House of Repr ...
(52nd mayor)

Lee represented Oakland in the
U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...
from 1998 to 2025. Following her unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate in
2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...
and the recall of Sheng Thao, she was elected mayor of Oakland. She was sworn in on May 20, 2025, becoming the first Black woman to serve as mayor of Oakland.


Notes


See also

* Timeline of Oakland, California *
List of mayors of the 50 largest cities in the United States This is a list of Mayor#United States, mayors of the List of United States cities by population, 50 largest cities in the United States, ordered by their populations as of July 1, 2022, as estimated by the United States Census Bureau. These 50 cit ...


References


Sources

* * Includes photos *
List of mayors
Oakland Public Library
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Mayors Of Oakland, California
Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...
Mayors In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...