Background
Born in Dorchester, Boston, he was the son of William and Amelia (Lyon) Mellus, and was a brother of Francis Mellus.
Born in Dorchester, Boston, he was the son of William and Amelia (Lyon) Mellus, and was a brother of Francis Mellus.
He was a successful California businessman. Henry sailed "around the horn" with Richard Henry Dana, Junior. on the ship named the Pilgrim, and arrived in California in 1835. In 1837 Mellus returned to Boston, and then returned in 1839 to California, becoming a successful merchant in San Francisco.
In 1845 he and William Davis Merry Howard formed the firm of Mellus & Howard in San Francisco.
This firm had an active commercial business in San Francisco, and in 1846 bought the property of the Hudson’s Bay Company. After the marriage, the Mellus’ family lived in Los Los Angeles
Bell Row, a two-story, "L" shaped adobe built by Captain Alexander Bell, became Mellus Row, owned by Henry Mellus. After relinquishing the Bryant & Sturgis agency in 1848, Mellus went to Boston with his family on a visit.
He returned to this coast in the winter of 1849-1850, at which time he had an attack of apoplexy.
He partially recovered. Henry Mellus was elected as Mayor of Los Angeles on May 9, 1860 and died while holding that office.