William G. Dryden

William G. Dryden, usually signed W.G. Dryden, (11 February 1807–10 September 1869) was a 19th Century lawyer who was a judge and effectively the longest-serving city clerk in the history of Los Angeles, California.

Dryden was born near Richmond, Kentucky, on February 11, 1807, the son of David H. Dryden. By 1827, he was a trader in New Mexico, and also a militia captain; he was hired by Chihuahua, Mexico, Governor José Calve to build a road in that state. In 1840, after surviving a shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico, Dryden met Mirabeau Lamar, the president of the independent Republic of Texas and was assigned to recruit agents for a scheme by Lamar and others to annex most of New Mexico. Dryden nominated, allegedly without their consent, American John Rowland and English native William Workman, residents of Taos, as agents of the Texas Republic and its annexation plan, but Rowland and Workman left for Los Angeles in September 1841.

Dryden was arrested by Mexican authorities "because of incriminating documents," and he was jailed in Chihuahua for thirteen months until his release in November 1842. He filed a bill of damages for the imprisonment, but failed to perfect his claim. Afterward, he was an editor of the bilingual Republic of the Rio Grande. He then lived on the Rio Grande near Matamoros and was an interpreter for Colonel David E. Twiggs, commander of the American forces occupying that city during the Mexican-American War.

He was married twice, first to Dolores Nieto in 1851, and second to Ana Josefa (Anita) Dominguez of San Pedro in 1868, when she was about 37 and he was about 69. He had three children with Dolores—Guadalupe Lucia, Maria Margarita (Mary) and Julia. He had another child, Guillermo (William), with Dolores's sister, Soledad Nieto.

He died on September 10, 1869, and was buried with Catholic rites.

Dryden arrived in Los Angeles from Texas by way of Mazatlán in 1850 when he was 43 years old. He was soon reunited with Rowland and Workman, whom he represented in the early stages of their land grant claim for the Rancho La Puente in the eastern San Gabriel Valley. In that era, the city and county governments were being organized after the Mexican-American War. Dryden, who was a lawyer, was appointed as secretary to the Los Angeles Common Council to replace Vincente del Campo, the first secretary, who had no legal background; this position effectively was that of a city clerk. Dryden kept this job from November 6, 1850, to May 9, 1860—almost ten years, and then he returned to serve in 1866–69. In the meantime he held other city and county positions as well, leading one historian to call him "the ubiquitous [1] William G. Dryden." His record of holding a multiplicity of public jobs in Los Angeles "therefore remains unique."

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