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Portrait of Governor Henry Markham

Henry Markham

18th Governor, Republican
(1891-1895)

- Short Biography
- Administration
- Personal information
- This Time in California

 

Biography*
Henry Markham was born in New York in 1840. Wounded twice in the Civil War, the young lawyer later came to California. A Republican, he served in Congress prior to campaigning for Governor as "the dashing colonel from Pasadena." He once came upon a woman and her son on the street who had just been evicted from their home for non-payment of rent. He went up to the door and then walked with the boy to the corner, where he told him that he had seen a key in the lock of the door. When the boy went back to his mother they mounted the steps and found a $100 bill tucked in the keyhole. Meanwhile, Markham had slipped quietly away. California suffered a depression during Markham's term. As a means to attract visitors and new residents to the state, he pressed for a Mid-Winter Exposition in 1894. The event was held in San Francisco and was a huge success.

top Administration under Governor Henry Markham

- Inaugural Address - January 8, 1891

top The Life of Governor Henry Markham

Born
November 16, 1840
Wilmington, New York

Died
October 9, 1923
Pasadena, California

Family
First Lady: Mary Adams Dana
Children: 5 daughters

top This Time in California, the Nation, the World
1891 1892 1893 1894 1895
Stanford University founded

Throop Institute (later Cal Tech) founded

 

Hydro-electric industry established in southern California

 

    California Bureau of Highways created

 

  First automatic telephone switchboard

 

U.S. President Grover Cleveland (1893-1897)

Henry Ford builds his first car

 

   
        X-rays discovered

 


* All Biographies excerpted fromThe Governors of California and their Portraits (see credits)
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