Henry Mellus

Henry Mellus (born August 24, 1816 in Boston , Massachusetts , †  December 26, 1860 in Los Angeles County , California ) was an American politician . Between May and December 1860 he was mayor of Los Angeles .

Career

In 1835, Henry Mellus first came by ship to California, which was then still in Mexico . After returning to Boston in the meantime, he settled there permanently from 1839. He initially lived in San Francisco , where he was a successful dealer. In 1845 he founded the company Mellus & Howard with a partner . A year later, he acquired the property there previously used by the Hudson's Bay Company . Also in 1846, after his marriage, he moved to Los Angeles, where he continued to work in commerce. After California fell to the United States as a result of the Mexican-American War and became a state of the United States in 1850 , Mellus also became involved in politics. He joined the Democratic Party .

In 1860, Henry Mellus was elected Mayor of Los Angeles. He held this office between May 9, 1860 and his death on December 26 of the same year. At that time the city had 4399 inhabitants. In October 1860, the first telegraph connections to San Francisco and the eastern United States were completed and put into operation. After Mellus' death, William Woodworth became acting mayor before his predecessor Damien Marchesseault was re-elected mayor of Angeles.

Web links

• Henry Mellus in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• The Political Graveyard
• The Mayors of Los Angeles