M. H. de Young

Michael Henry de Young (September 30, 1849 – February 15, 1925) was an American journalist and businessman.

Early life De Young was born in St. Louis, Missouri. The family was Jewish. Michael in later years claimed that his father was a Baltimore banker of French birth, but he may have been a peripatetic jeweler and dry-goods merchant named De Jong or De Jongh. Michael was the son of Cornelia "Amelia" (née Morange; 1809–1881) and Miechel de Young (died 1854), who married in 1837. His maternal grandfather, Benjamin Morange, who served as the French Minister to Spain under Napoleon I, moved to the United States about 1815

The de Young family moved from St. Louis to San Francisco in 1854. M. H. de Young's father was said to have died of a stroke during the journey. M. H. de Young attended and graduated from Heald College, a San Francisco college founded in 1863.

Career News

In San Francisco, de Young and his brother, Charles de Young (1846–1880), founded the Daily Dramatic Chronicle newspaper, first published on January 17, 1865, with the loan of a twenty dollar gold piece which Michael received from his landlord. A third brother, Gustavus, whose initial originally appeared in the masthead ("G. and C. de Young"), later vanished. As a result, de Young wanted the fair to be held in Golden Gate Park. However, John McLaren, the superintendent of Golden Gate Park, was concerned about how the removal of many trees would affect the environment of the park. In an intense debate, de Young asked McLaren, "What is a tree? "What are a thousand trees compared to the benefits of the exposition?" Significantly, de Young owned about 31 blocks south of the park and could have been motivated by the fair's potential positive impacts on his real estate holdings. While the vast majority of the fair's buildings were soon destroyed, de Young persuaded the city to save the Fine Arts Building. The building was renamed the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum after de Young's death. De Young supported the museum throughout his life and bequeathed $150,000 to the museum upon his death.

In 1895 he was nominated for U.S. Senate, but lost to fellow Republican George C. Perkins.

Personal life

De Young and his wife Katherine had five children: Charles de Young (1881–1913) Helen de Young (1883–1969), who married George T. Cameron (1873–1955) Constance Marie de Young (1885–1968), who married Joseph Oliver Tobin (1878–1978) Kathleen Yvonne de Young (1888–1954), who married Ferdinand Thieriot (1883–1920) Phyllis D. de Young (1892–1988), who married Nion Robert Tucker (1885–1950) In 1884, De Young was shot by an irate businessman, Adolph B. Spreckels, apparently due to a negative newspaper article, and survived the injury. De Young died on February 15, 1925; a Roman Catholic mass was held in St. Mary's Cathedral (he had converted to Catholicism after marrying his wife, Katherine I. Deane).

Legacy The M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, is named in his honor. According to his daughter, Helen de Young Cameron, de Young "loved objects. He was an incurable collector. He collected everything. He stored his collections at the Memorial Museum, where he would visit them at all hours. He took genuine delight in sharing them with the citizens of San Francisco, insisting that his museum never charge admission."

Descendants In 1956, one of De Young's grandsons, Ferdinand Melly Thieriot (1921–1956), the circulation director of The Chronicle, and his wife Frances (1921–1956), were among the 46 killed aboard the when it was struck by the off the coast of Nantucket.

De Young was the grandfather of Nan Tucker McEvoy (1919–2015), chair of Chronicle Publishing Company's board of directors until the 1990s. He is also the great-great-grandfather of actor Max Thieriot (born 1988). His great-granddaughter, Kit Tobin, married society reporter and lawyer George Whipple III.