Henry Tifft Gage (1852 - 1924)

Born 25 Dec 1852 in Geneva, Ontario, New York, United States

Ancestors

Died 28 Aug 1924 at age 71 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States

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Preceded by
James Budd

20th Governor of California
1899 - 1903

Succeeded by
George Pardee

Biography

Henry Gage was a Californian.

Henry Gage is Notable.

Henry Tifft Gage was an American lawyer, politician and diplomat. A Republican, Gage was elected to a single term as the 20th governor of California from 1899 to 1903. Gage was also the U.S. Minister to Portugal for several months in 1910.

Gage was inaugurated as the 20th Governor of California on January 4, 1899. In his inauguration speech, Gage spoke at length about foreign policy, viewing with favor the recent results of the Spanish–American War and their effect on California's economy. "The peaceful acquisition of the Hawaiian Islands, extending our empire beyond our Pacific shore, should be followed as a political necessity by the annexation of the Philippines," Gage spoke. "The center of commerce must move westward. California, favorably situated, will, among other advantages, reap the harvest of trade with these new territories, developing our many varied and growing resources, creating a western merchant marine for the carriage of our imports and exports, and luring to our markets the nations of the world."

In 1900, the ship Australia brought to the city rats carrying the Third Pandemic of the bubonic plague. The disease soon spread in Chinatown. Rumors of the plague's presence abounded in the city, quickly gaining the notice of the Marine Hospital Service's head in San Francisco, Joseph J. Kinyoun.

Allied withbusiness interests, Gage publicly denied the epidemic in the city, fearing that any word of the bubonic plague's presence would harm the city and state's economy. Supportive newspapers, such as the San Francisco Call, San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Bulletin, echoed Gage's denials, beginning what was to become an intense defamation campaign against Joseph Kinyoun, director of the San Francisco Quarantine Station. In response to the state's refuting of the plague's existence, U.S. Surgeon General Walter Wyman recommended to federal Treasury Secretary Lyman J. Gage to intervene. Secretary Gage agreed, creating a three-man medical commission to medically investigate the city. The commission conclusively discovered that bubonic plague was present.

Like Kinyoun, the Treasury commission's findings were again immediately denounced by Governor Gage. Gage believed the federal government's growing presence in the matter was a gross intrusion of what he recognized as a state concern. In his retaliation, Gage denied the federal commission any use of the University of California, Berkeley's laboratories to further study the outbreak. The Bulletin would also attack the federal commission, branding it as a "youthful and inexperienced trio".

Funny how things never change.

Sources

• Find A Grave Memorial# 5248

• Henry Gage on Wikipedia

• "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MWD1-595 : 19 March 2020), Henry F Gage in entry for Dewitt C Gage, 1860.

• "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHCJ-LJF : 18 March 2020), Henry Gage in entry for D W C Gage, 1870.

• "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6GB-3KY : 26 August 2017), Henry T Gage in household of Thomas W Stackpole, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States; citing enumeration district ED 23, sheet 184D, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,067.

• "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MVLC-JXF : accessed 1 May 2020), Henry T Gage, San Antonio, Los Angeles, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 337, sheet 14B, family 175...