30 Facts About George Pardee

1.

George Cooper Pardee was an American doctor of medicine and politician.

2.

The George Pardee family was well known in the San Francisco Bay Area.

3.

George Pardee's father was a prominent oculist in San Francisco and Oakland.

4.

George Pardee attended the nearby University of California, Berkeley, then studied medicine at the Cooper Medical College in San Francisco.

5.

In 1885, George Pardee traveled abroad to receive his medical degree at the University of Leipzig in the German Empire.

6.

In 1893, following a successful election, George Pardee became the 29th Mayor of Oakland, serving a single two-year term until 1895.

7.

At one point, George Pardee kicked down a piece of the port's fence erected by the Southern Pacific out of anger.

8.

At the start of his term, George Pardee did not fully acknowledge the presence of plague in San Francisco.

9.

George Pardee promised to fulfill all the conditions the officials wanted.

10.

In hopes to avoid a quarantine, Gardner urged George Pardee to recognize bubonic plague in San Francisco.

11.

George Pardee had won the governor election by a narrow margin.

12.

George Pardee feared that acknowledging the plague would divide the already split Republican Party.

13.

George Pardee readily supported the US Public Health Service and agreed to remove state inspectors in Chinatown.

14.

George Pardee stated any disease regardless of plague required sanitary control.

15.

George Pardee believed that acknowledging the presence of plague would ease health officials and foreign countries' fear.

16.

George Pardee continued to elude the topic of plague but continued to work with the government.

17.

George Pardee's administration was now focused on being transparent and would acknowledge all plague cases.

18.

George Pardee welcomed health officials to visit California and provide input regarding sanitation and sanitary conditions.

19.

George Pardee declined, instead continuing to take an active role in state politics.

20.

George Pardee vetoed the bill, explaining that he was not hostile to the idea of an agricultural school, but wanted a less vague proposal.

21.

In 1906, George Pardee announced that he decided upon Davisville in Yolo County, located nearly fifteen miles southwest of the state capital of Sacramento.

22.

George Pardee sought to take command of the situation himself, traveling to his native Oakland in the later afternoon to oversee the state response to the disaster.

23.

George Pardee encouraged creation of new railroad companies to break the Southern Pacific's monopolies.

24.

George Pardee remained publicly active, returning to his native Oakland to become a co-founder of the state Bull Moose Party in 1912.

25.

George Pardee would administer EBMUD from 1924 until shortly before his death in 1941.

26.

George Pardee died in Oakland on September 1,1941, at the age of 84.

27.

Florence George Pardee was killed in a car accident in 1910.

28.

Unlike his predecessor Henry Gage and his successor James Gillett, George Pardee's governorship has been generally well regarded amongst historians.

29.

George Pardee was the first governor to reside in the California Governor's Mansion.

30.

The George Pardee Home, located in downtown Oakland, remains a tourist attraction in the center of the city, hosting tours and speaking events.