Elihu Anthony

Elihu Anthony (November 30, 1818 – August 15, 1905) was an American alcalde, blacksmith, industrialist, abolitionist, postmaster, and minister. He is considered a founding father of the city of Santa Cruz. He also served as a member of the California State Assembly from 1880 to 1881. Despite his earlier abolitionism, he was active within the anti-Chinese movement. His family were Quakers and he was raised as a Quaker. They took a Northern route of travel and decided to change course and head to California, despite the danger and crossing Donner Pass where one year prior in November 1846, the Donner family had died. Anthony helped establish the San Jose First United Methodist Church the same year, founded in 1847. to work as a local Methodist Episcopal Church preacher. His land spanned what is now the downtown of Santa Cruz (the main area of the lot was near what is now the junction of Mission Street, Water Street and N. Pacific Avenue in downtown, the building no longer exists) and eventually developed the first commercial block in Santa Cruz called the Anthony Block. He built the first business, a blacksmith shop named the Santa Cruz Foundry, and sawmill that later became a general store. He invested in building real estate on a hill called "Anthony's Bluff" since uneven land was less preferred by the local Native Americans.

In 1849 Anthony help build with industrialist Henry Cowell the first wharf, Cowell Wharf which was primarily used for shipping lumber and lime. It was later preceded by six other wharfs in a similar location, currently the only remaining one is the Santa Cruz Wharf.

Anthony was a member of the anti-Chinese Workingmen's Party of California, serving as president of the Santa Cruz Workingmen's Club. Although the party withered away in 1881 and the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882, by 1885 the Santa Cruz club remained as a larger movement called the "Non-Partisan Anti-Chinese Association" headed by Anthony and Duncan McPherson, editor and publisher of the Santa Cruz Sentinel, which spread down the coast to local cities and towns. They pursued blatantly racist ordinances aimed at shutting down Chinese laundries.