The record-union., 1891-09-05
JUDGE 7. B. M'FhRLAND.
He is Going Back to the Old Home
stead.
The Crown of Honors He VIII Bear
TO the Scenes of His
Childhood.

own fortunes VINO most command Ille lS-
spect and inspire the esteem of their fel-
lows. He whose character passes the
fires of contemporary criticism and comes
out of the crucial test of the Judgment of
his own people, is honored deservlngIy
and has achieved, whatever the limits OF
his ambition, a success. For they 1--we TO
good purpose who deserve the esteem,
affection and confidence of their fellow
men, and whose love is sufficient to en-
brace all humanity.
1t is a pleasure to write IN commenda-
ton of such men, and one of these, dis
tinguished citizen and jurist, Thomas
Bard Mcfarland, Justice of the Supreme
Court of California, furnishes us the op-
portunity by proposed visit to the home
of his birth after an absence OF forty-one
years. We have deemed it fitting that
this representative citizen of California
should be introduced to the new genera
tiOn in Pennsylvania he is about TO meet,
and that has grown up since nearly half a
century ago he left his home to conquer
for himself a career of honor in the far
West. Mr.. Justice Mcfarland needs no
eulogium from us for the enlightenment
of Californians, and especially of Sacra-
mentans; his character is written in the
hearts of the people who have so many
years reposed in him high and weighty
trusts, to not one of which has he ever
proved unequal. He goes back to the
old homestead to satisfy the hunger OF
his heart and to feast himself by one long,
loving, last review Of the scenes of his
boyhood, and by visit to the old home
where he was born, as was his father be-
fore him.
In behalf of Californians we claim the
privilege thus early before his departure
he leaving on September 15th-to make
record Of the "Godspeed" with which
our people send him, his wife and lovely
daughter back to the people among whom
he spent his early manhood, that has
ripened so richly in honors and high
achievements in the State of his adop-
ton.
For we are proud of the men in Cali
fornia whom we class as representative.
A State has no higher or better product
than its manhood; it can point to no
achievement in its history that rises su-
perior to its growth Of men. Be it never
so rich in the products of soil and of in
dustry, its chiefest wealth resides in its
man product; its greatest influence
abroad, the profOundeSt impress it can
make upon other communities is pro-
duced by the men it grows whose char
acter and attainments command the ad-
miratiOn of those who view the State from
4 distance.
But as we have said, the occasion of the
visit to the old homestead by Judge Nc
Farland justifies some reminiscent
glances at the life career of this emf
nently representative Californian, whom
the ten thousand are honored in calling
friend. Judge Mcfarland was born upon
a farm in the Cumberland Valley, near
the town of Mercersburg, Franklin
County, Pennsylvania, on the 18th day
of April, 1928. His father, John McFar-
land, was of Scotch Irish descent, and
stock, but his ancestors on both sides
were born and lived in the United States
and the colonies for several generations.
He learned upon that old homestead
the value of labor and the dignity of in
dustry. But his leisure hours, few
though they were, were employed in fit
ting himself for higher walks and en-
abled him while yet of school age to en-
ter Marshall College then located at Mer-
cersburg. from which, in the class of
1916, he was graduated and which in
stitution, now consolidated with another
as Franklin and Marshall College of Ian
caster City, still continues in its useful
life.
Leaving the school with its class honors
rich upon him, he began the study of law
in 1876 at Chambersburg, Pa, with Rob-
ert NJ. Bard, and so rapid was his pro-
gress and so close his application, his
mind having strong tendency for the
J
tiles, that in November, lS49, he was
called to the Chambersburg bar, Judge
Jeremiah s. Black being the presiding
Judge. He began practice, but within a
year his prescience enabled him to see that
the far West afforded broader and better
field for vigorous youth, and he stepped
into the tumultuous current then surging
toward the ewly-discovered gold fields
of California. He was then, in 1850,
scarcely % years of age, full of vigor and
inspired by ambitious hopes, but con-
trolled by the reason of we'll balanced
mind and far-seeing judgment.
He crossed the plains by wearying
marches, but even upon the desert his
judicial cast of mind was acknowledged,
and he was called upon in the very heart
of the wilds TO render the first judicial
decision of his life. Two brothers. with
full equal partnership in the movable
property OF a train, were pushing for the
land of gold. But they quarreled, as
brothers sometimes will, unfortunately
for weak human nature, and resolved to
submit the question of division Of the
property. Young McFarland's camp
was sought and before him each laid his
grievance. He heard them patiently and
then entered upon the delicate task of an
equitable division of the effects, and ac-
complished it 50 well that each party was
entirely satisfied and expressed to him
the gratitude they felt.
Arriving in California, in common
with the energetic young men of the time
and place he sought his fortune delying
in the mines of FL Dorado. Placer and
Nevada Counties. But the work was un-
congenial: it cribbed his mind and gave
no opportunity for those intellectual
studies and activities TO which by nature
he inclined. He therefore returned to the
law, located in Nevada City in 1853. and
was soon in the enjoyment of Il good
practice, which rapidly expanded in
scope and augmented in value and inn
portance, and he took first place among
as brilliant coterie of legal lights as ever
graced the bar Of any county in the State.
His judicial mind, vigorous intellect,
natlVe courage, robust reasoning, and ac
complished manner won recognition, and
his uprightnesS and manlineSs com
manded the respect and confidence of the
people, so that in 1856 he was elected to
the Legislature from Nevada County
From this position to the bench was Il
sequentlal step that was irresistible, and
the people placed him, in January, 1862,
upon the bench of the Fourteenth Ju-
dicial District, q position TO which he was
twice chosen and from which he retired
with high honors in 1870. His career in
a judicial capacity was brilliant. He was
early ranked among the foremost iurists
of the State, and his decisions took first
place among those of the district judiciary
of California, which stood in dignity
next to the Supreme bench.
In 1861 Judge Mcfarland was married to
Miss Susie Briggs, a native of New York,
and TO them has been given an accom-
plished daughter, who accompanies her
parents upon the trip about to be made
Mrs. Mcfarland is widely known in this
community, where she lived so many
years engaging in labors of charity and
beneficence. and shedding wherever she
goes the warmth of q genial nature and
sunny disposition. When her husbands
homo shall have hnnr NiSitnl the liitln