Wells Drury is unusually well qualified for his present position of secretary of the Chamber of Commerce of Berkeley, California, as he is intimately acquainted with the resources and possibilities of the Bay country. He has a still broader background for his work as he knows conditions throughout the state of California and even on the whole Pacific slope. The greater part of his life has been spent west of the Rockies, and he held editorial positions on many of the important papers in California, thus being brought into direct contact with present-day conditions in the state. He is making the Chamber of Commerce of Berkeley a potent force in the development of that beautiful university city and finds his knowledge of the country of value in his work. He is vice president of the Alameda County Exposition Commission and secretary of the Publicity Commissioners of Alameda county, California.
Mr. Drury was born in New Boston, Illinois, September 16, 1851, a son of Squire Thompson and Rebecca (Newton) Drury. His education was acquired in the high school of Olympia, Washington, and in Christian College located at Monmouth, Oregon. In his youth he acted as interpreter for the superintendent of Indian affairs on Puget Sound, Washington, after the Medicine Creek treaty. He served an apprenticeship as compositor and pressman and worked at this trade in Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, from 1866 to 1870. After he had learned the mechanical part of the printing business he became editor of the Monmouth (Ore.) Messenger, holding that position from 1871 to 1873. In 1873 he moved to San Francisco where he joined the staff of the Alta California. He was connected with a number of papers throughout the Pacific slope, being editor of the Carson City (Nev.) Daily News from 1876 to 1878 and of the Virginia City (Nev.) Daily Stage, 1879-1880. In 1881-1882 he was city and managing editor of the Daily Territorial Enterprise of the last named city, and in 1888 we find him as city editor of the San Francisco Examiner. He founded the Daily Evening News of Sacramento, California, being also its editor, and so continued until 1893. In 1895-6 he was managing editor of the San Francisco Daily Call and from 1900 to 1901 he was managing editor of the Los Angeles Daily Record, after which he was in the period from 1902 to 1906 news editor of the Sacramento Union, becoming city editor of the San Francisco Daily Examiner in 1907. On the 1st of August, 1908, he left the field of journalism to become secretary of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Drury has written voluminously for newspapers and magazines aside from his work as an editor and is the author of "To Old Hangtown or Bust," published in 1912, and in conjunction with Aubrey Drury he compiled the "California Tourist Guide and Handbook," published in 1913. During his residence in Nevada he was deputy secretary of state from 1882 to 1886 and from 1887 to 1889 a member of the Nevada house of representatives, of which he was speaker pro tem. He was for years a member of the First Regiment, National Guard, of Nevada, being a commissioned officer from 1877 to 1883, rising from second lieutenant to first lieutenant. He was captain and aid-de-camp of the First Brigade from 1883 to 1887. Mr. Drury is a charter member and ex-president of the San Francisco Press Club and is an honorary member of the Typographical Union, associations which keep him in touch with the field of newspaperdom.
Past and Present of Alameda County California, Vol. II
Published in Chicago by The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1914
Pages 366-367
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 6/29/2008
Alameda County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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