Alameda County Biographies

WASHBURNE R. ANDRUS

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 

	Was born in Farmingham, Hartford County, Connecticut, September 23, 1841, where he 
received his education and learned the carpenter�s trade, at which he has always worked, save 
during seven years, when he served as a policeman at Hartford, of which city he was finally 
elected Captain of Police.  In this position he made an excellent record.  Coming to 
California in the year 1873, he at first worked in the San Francisco Manufacturing Company�s 
Works, but subsequently took up his residence in Oakland, where he followed his trade.  The 
rise of the Workingmen�s Party found him at his bench, prior to which he had been identified 
with the Republicans, but joining the labor movement he became one of the organizers of the 
famous Peralta Street Club.  Elated by recent successes in electing State Senator Bones to the 
Legislature, they determined to take part in the election for city officials of Oakland, and on 
February 19, 1878, at the nominating convention held in Germania Hall, Mr. Andrus received the 
nomination for Mayor, being elected to that high office by a majority of two hundred and ten 
votes, his opponent being William B. Hardy of Oakland.  In 1879 Mr. Andrus was re-elected to the 
office by, strange to say, the same plurality, the citizens� nominee on the occasion being Major 
D. W. Standeford, one of the proprietors of the Oakland Planing Mill.  While Mayor Andres was in 
office he used his opportunity judiciously, while his two messages are official documents that 
bear evidence of deep thought and a practical mind; indeed, so much was he thought of that he was 
appointed Secretary of the State Board of Railroad Commissioners upon the organization of that 
department, and, notwithstanding a change in the Government, has been retained to perform the 
onerous and arduous functions of that position with the second Board.

History of Alameda County, California�, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883, p. 838-839