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Portrait of Governor Henry Gage

Henry Gage

20th Governor, Republican
(1899-1903)

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

 

Biography*
Henry Gage was a New Yorker, born in 1852. He was a lawyer by profession, but established himself in California as a sheep dealer. After returning to the law, he served as Los Angeles City Attorney. A Republican, Gage's term as Governor was a rocky one. When bubonic plague broke out in San Francisco, he publicly denied the existence of the plague, only to be proved wrong. Later, he "negotiated" a major labour strike by threatening to impose martial law if both sides did not compromise. (Still later, Gage would go down to the waterfront dressed in a disguise and mingle with the stevedores in order to assure himself that no violence was brewing.) When a newspaper printed a cartoon of railroad king C.P. Huntington leading Gage around on a leash, Gage retaliated by signing legislation that restricted the press whenever politics - or politicians - were involved.

top Administration under Governor Henry Gage

- Inaugural Address - January 4, 1899

top The Life of Governor Henry Gage

Born
December 25, 1852
Geneva, New York

Died
August 28, 1924
Los Angeles, California

Family
First Lady: Frances V. Rains
Children: 5 children

top This Time in California, the Nation, the World
1899 1900 1901 1902 1903
  State population - 1,485,053

 

     
    U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)

 

  First flight by Wright bothers

 

         


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