Henry Gaylord Wilshire
Henry Gaylord Wilshire was a prominent real estate developer, publisher, and socialist born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the 19th century. He embarked on his career in banking and later transitioned to real estate, where he played a significant role in developing the Wilshire district of Los Angeles, a key area that features the famous Wilshire Boulevard named in his honor. A believer in socialism, Wilshire became actively involved in political movements, running as a Nationalist candidate for Congress from California in 1890, marking a notable moment as the first person to campaign for the House of Representatives on a socialist ticket.
In addition to his political pursuits, he founded "The Challenge," a socialist newspaper, which later became "Wilshire's Magazine," achieving a substantial circulation of 300,000 at its peak. His writings often addressed issues related to wealth distribution and the impact of capitalism on workers. Throughout his life, Wilshire remained a passionate advocate for socialism, publishing several works to further the movement's principles. He passed away in New York City at the age of sixty-six, leaving behind a legacy intertwined with both his business success and his commitment to socialist ideals.
Subject Terms
Henry Gaylord Wilshire
- Gaylord Wilshire
- Born: June 7, 1861
- Died: September 7, 1927
Real estate developer, publisher, and socialist, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of George Wilshire and Clara (demons) Wilshire, and a grandson of Samuel Wilshire and Mary (Phillips) Wilshire, who emigrated from England in 1810 and settled in Maine. His father was a banker, and Gaylord Wilshire (he did not use his first name) attended Harvard College in 1880-81 before becoming a bank clerk and, in 1883, manager of the Riverside Rolling Mill Company in Cincinnati. In 1884 he moved to San Francisco and was associated for three years with his brother William in the latter’s scale and safe business.
In 1887 Wilshire went to Los Angeles, where he became involved in real estate development and land speculation. He laid out several tracts of land in metropolitan Los Angeles, and he and his brother at one time controlled most of the waterfront property in nearby Long Beach. After the collapse of the land boom in 1888, Wilshire went to live on his ranch in Fullerton, California, and pioneered in the growing of grapefruit and walnuts.
On November 10, 1890, in Los Angeles, he married Hanna (Griffiths) Owen, former wife of William Owen and daughter of David Griffiths of Wales. They were divorced in 1901. On February 10, 1904, Wilshire married Mary Mac-Reynolds of Monticello, Illinois, in New York City. They had one son, Logan Gaylord.
From 1891 to 1895 Wilshire lived in England. After he returned to Los Angeles in 1895, his best-known project was the development of the Wilshire district of Los Angeles, begun in 1896; Wilshire Boulevard is named for him. In 1900 Wilshire helped to frame a municipal charter for Los Angeles; he became president of the British Guiana Gold Company in 1908 and in 1926 was named president of the Bishop (California) Creek Gold Company.
While involved in his successful business ventures in the mid-1880s, he became a believer in socialism. In 1888 he joined the Nationalist movement, a group whose views influenced Edward Bellamy in the writing of the novel Looking Backward. In 1890 Wilshire was a Nationalist candidate for Congress from California, the first to run for the House of Representatives on a Socialist ticket.
In 1900 Wilshire established The Challenge, a weekly socialist newspaper, in Los Angeles. The next year he moved to New York City and established the paper there as a monthly, changing its name to Wilshire’s Magazine. It soon achieved a circulation of 300,000, the largest socialist journal of its time. The magazine lost its United States mailing privileges in the wave of antiradical hysteria following the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, and Wilshire published it in Toronto until 1904; he then moved the periodical to London and published it there until 1914. In 1915 he returned to Los Angeles, publishing his magazine there and in Bishop until he discontinued it later the same year.
As editor of Wilshire’s Magazine, he had a vehicle for the expression of his socialist views, printing such articles as “The Trust Overshadows All Issues,” “America Suffocating With Wealth,” “The Strikers and the Meat Trust,” and “Is Socialism Practicable?” He never considered his business career and personal financial affluence a contradiction or a hindrance in his fight for socialism. Wilshire edited the American edition of Fabian Essays in Socialism, which appeared in 1891. In 1906 he published Wilshire Editorials, a collection from past issues, and in 1907 he published Socialism Inevitable, a collection of articles from the magazine. He also contributed articles to American and British socialist magazines and newspapers.
Wilshire was an ardent spokesman for the cause of socialism. In his preface to Wilshire Editorials he argued that trade depressions were caused by overproduction, in turn caused by the inability of workers to buy what they produced because of their low wages. The low wages, he asserted, were a result of the competitive system, with workers vying among themselves for jobs, a situation that socialism would eliminate. In his article “Why Workingmen Should Be Socialists” he explained the principles of socialism and its tenet that the wealth of the nation be owned collectively by the people, with government ownership and management of all wealth-producing industries.
Wilshire’s background as an energetic businessman was reflected in the vigorous advertising he inserted in the back of his publications, urging readers to buy his books, articles, and leaflets. A copy of “Why Workingmen Should be Socialists” could be had for two cents, or seventy-five cents for 100 copies; he described the publication as “one of the classics of the literature on Socialism in America.” Another advertisement promoted “Socialist Postal Cards” as “unsurpassed for propaganda”: “Send ‘em to your capitalist friends . . .,” he suggested. “Pick out some fellow that needs waking up and send him one every day for a week.”
Wilshire died in New York City at the age of sixty-six.
No full-scale biography of Wilshire has been written. See Who’s Who in America, 1926, and the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, vol. 42. Complete files of Wilshire’s Magazine from December 26, 1900, through February 1915 are in the library of the State University of New York at Purchase. The files of the Los Angeles Times also contain biographical material.