The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-05
JUST FORTY YEARS AGO
Hon. Matthew Hall MCAlliSter
Was Appointed the First
Judge.
LAWYERS WERE IN DEMAND
Cases Cropped Up on All Sides
and BriefIess Barristers We're
Unknown.

A canvas-covered book containing few
hundred pages of blue-tinted paper, fairly
well written up as penmanship goes, is
Minute Book No. of the United States
Circuit Court, in this City, now stored
among the archives in the clerks office of
that tribunal. On page L of this old-time
record-the date is July 3, 1855-is TO be
found copy of commission" which re-
cites that Franklin Pierce, President of the
United States, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, has appointed
Matthew Hall McAllister Circuit Judge for
California, all of which is duly attested by
William L. Marcy, Secretary of State. The
date of the commission is March 3, 1855,
and from recitalS in the court minutes it
appears that his Honor Judge McAllister
duly took the oath of Office before JUS
tice Nelson of the United States Supreme
Court on March 5, 1855, as appears by
duplicates of the oath subscribed on file in
the Department of State and in the Office
of the Acknowledgement of the United
States at Washington.
Matthew Hall McAllister the first in
cumbent of the Circuit bench, was a native
of Savannah, Georgia. He arrived here in
ment as Judge was one of the leading
counselors-at-law OF early California days.
In later years his two sons, now deceased,
Hall and Cutler, gained well-deserved en-
inence at the bar. The history of the Nc
Allister family is closely interviewer with
that of these United States, since the
father of our first Circuit Judge was ap-
pointed by George Washington as United
States Attorney for the Southern District
j ; ID H.
position under the administration of John
Quincy Adams.
Immediately upon taking his seat as
Circuit Judge, George Penn Johnston,
well known among the newspaper frater-
nifty of early days. was appointed by
Judge McAllister clerk of the Circuit
Court. Among other officials of the Cir
cult Court in 1855 was William H. Rich
arc son, then United States Marshal for
California, who in November of that year
was killed on Clay street, near the press
rooms Of the CALL, by gambler named
Charles Cora, subsequently taken from the
custody of Sheriff Dave Scannell and
hanged by the Vigilance Committee for
Richardson's murder.
1t may repay the curiosity of the reader
= to inspect the prints of those early days. to
pick out the names and number of the
then practicing attorneys as compared
with those now encountered in practice.
In 1855 there were all told ESQ lawyers
domiciled in San Francisco. According to
the present city directories we are hemmed
in by $40 of the craft. The practice of the
law must. in some instances, be conducive
to longevity when one stops to consider
that the following -named barristers have
had their shingles hung out in
San Francisco since '55-yes, some
of them since 1850, all of whom
are now living: David P. Belknap,
Ind Nd oh Tah
Doyle, William Barber, Harvey S. Brown.
S. w. Holiday, James c. Cary, Charles
McC. Delaney, II. L. Dodge, A. J. Gunni-
son, George Hudson; George 7. Knox, the
veteran notary; E. B. Mastick, William T.
Wallace and D. T. Murphy, present
Judges of the Superior Court; John Rey-
nolds, now Superior Judge of Santa Clara
County; r. r. provinces, ex-Justice of the
California Supreme court; w. II. Rhodes
and John Curry, Horace w. Carpenter,
ex-Mayor of Oakland. To which might be
auded the names of J. B. Haggin and
Lloyd Tevis long since retired from active
pursuit of clients at law.
In 1855 the disciples of Blackstone and
Kent could boast of no such sumptuous
quarters as is now afforded by the Mills,
Croker, Mutual Life and other sky
scrapers. The territory wherein they con-
gregated was circumscribed. On the north
west corner of Montgomery and Jackson
streets the old Iron House." with its
antiquated iron-railed veranda in Mont
gomery block, Bolton andBarron's building
and Naglee's building, respectively sit
uated on the northwest and southwest
corners of Montgomery and Merchant
streets, on Clay street from the waters
edge at Sansome street up to Kearny-in
fact, from Jackson street on the north to
California street on the south were located
all the law offices of forty years ago. Hal
leck, Peachy & Billings, firm consisting
of the Captain H. w. Halleck of those
days. afterward major-general in the
Union army, had offices in Montgomery
block. Therein were also domiciled H. D.
Dodge. who afterward withdrew from
active law practice, became a merchant of
renown and subsequently had charge as
Superintendent of the United States Mint
in this City; Colonel, afterward Superior
Judge, Joe ?. Hoge and his partner,
Samuel NJ. Wilson; Superior Judge
Murphy of Heard d Murphy Frank NJ.
Pixley and E. J. Pringle.
In the old Iron House Colonel E. D.
Baker, Police Commissioner Judge Tobin,
Judge Joseph Baldwin, ex-United States
District Judge of Nevada (who was killed
in railway accident near Pleasanton a
quarter of century ago., Elisha Cook
Gather of Carroll and William Hoff Cook,
and Charles McC. Delaney hung out their
shingles. Banker Lloyd Tevis met his
CllenIS GAGIC III TIC OlQ OOllOH anu barron
building, and in the Naglee building oppo-
site WV. Stow, recently deceased, and
Judge Stanly, who is still living and To-
Gated on Sansome street, were to be found
In the Wells building on the southwest cor
ner OF Clay and Montgomery streets Ma
thaniel Holland, ex-Federal Supervisor of
Election, held forth from 1850 up
TO the day of his death last fall.
Harvey S. Brown, now of the South
ern Pacific law department, was
his next door neighbor. and ex-Judge and
Mills building, iostled against Holland
and Brown in the narrow corridors of the
old Wells block. Eugene Casserly, ex-
United States Senator, once occupied the
floor where the Consul of France now
gives audience, at the northwest corner of
Montgomery and Commercial streets, and
O former Governor of California Henry III