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Drury (Wells) Papers
BANC MSS 86/36 c
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
The Bancroft Library
Title: Wells Drury Papers,
Creator:
Drury, Wells, 1851-1932
Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 86/36 c
Physical Description:
1.25 linear feet
(1 carton)
Date (inclusive): 1871-1932
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Abstract: Correspondence, articles and stories by Drury, and newspaper clippings including obituaries.
Language of Material: English
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Head of the Manuscripts Division. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The
Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder,
which must also be obtained by the reader.
[Identification of item], Wells Drury Papers, BANC MSS 86/36 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
The Wells Drury papers were given to The Bancroft Library in September 1976 by Newton B. Drury.
Wells Drury, pioneer newspaperman and member of the Nevada House of Representatives, was born September 16, 1851 in New Boston, Illinois. Orphaned while crossing the Oregon Trail in 1852, he was adopted and brought up in Oregon on a Indian reservation on Puget Sound. Drury arrived in San Francisco in 1873. Successful investments in mining concerns in the Comstock in Nevada convinced him to move to Virginia City, where he became one of the editors of the Virginia City
Chronicle, the
Territorial Enterprise, the
Gold Hill News, and the Bodie
Daily Miner. As a reporter in the Comstock, Drury knew Mark Twain and Bret Harte and later, in San Francisco, met Robert Louis Stevenson. In 1882 Drury became deputy secretary of the state of Nevada and in 1887 became a member and speaker pro tem of the Nevada
House of Representatives.
Drury returned to California in 1888. He was at different times managing editor of the San Francisco
Call, city editor of the San Francisco
Examiner, a news editor of the San Francisco
Chronicle, news editor of the Sacramento
Union, managing editor of the Los Angeles
Record, and on the staff of the Oakland
Tribune. In addition, Drury was one of the first presidents of the San Francisco Press Club. Beginning in 1908, he was for fifteen
years managing director, and later president, of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce. When Drury died in 1931, he was known as
a politician, newspaperman, and publicist.
While the collection covers all aspects of his life, the material primarily concerns his activities as a newspaperman in
the Comstock, including articles and stories written during that time or about his experiences there. The collection includes
correspondence with Dan de Quille as well as typed copies of articles by de Quille; photostats and clippings of articles by
Bret Harte; and tear sheets, notes and clippings by and about Mark Twain. A small group of correspondence, including some
with family members, is found at the beginning of the carton and concerns primarily newspaper business.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Drury, Wells, 1851-1932