Alameda
County
Biographies
HON. HENRY A. MELVIN
The name which heads this review
is one well known throughout the state of California, for it has been
represented here by men of two generations---father and son, the latter of
whom, Hon. Henry A. Melvin, is now one of the superior court judges of Alameda county. A man of moral strength as well as of far-reaching
intellect, earnest and steadfast in purpose, he has made his influence felt in
judicial, political and social circles, and while bringing about a personal
success has contributed no little to the development of resources and the
material upbuilding of the community which has numbered him among its citizens
for so many years. Born in Springfield, Ill., September 28, 1865, he names an
ancestry which has been prominent in the history of this country since colonial
days.
The Melvin family came originally
from the north of Ireland, where the great-grandfather of our personal subject
was born, William Melvin by name, removing from his home near Belfast to Cecil county, Md., where he spent his years in agricultural
pursuits. His son, James, was born in Cecil county, where he spent his boyhood
years, in manhood removing to Washington county, Pa.
Later locating in Steubenville, Ohio, he engaged as a merchant for some years,
when he removed to Illinois and followed the same business at Chatham until his
retirement from active duties. A popular and prominent man in the community he
served as justice of the peace for a quarter of a century. Coming to
California, he spent his last days among the pleasant scenes of this western
state, dying at the age of seventy-five years. He married Miss McMillan, a
native of Belfast, Ireland, who was visiting in Philadelphia at the home of
Gen. Robert Patterson, she being famed at that time for her beauty and charm of
manner. Their son, Samuel Houston Melvin, was born in Washington county, Pa., and was reared to manhood in Ohio, whither his
parent removed. He studied medicine and practiced in Steubenville, but later
abandoned the practice and engaged in the drug business, removing to
Springfield, Ill., in the course of time, where he became the neighbor and
intimate friend of Abraham Lincoln. He was a prominent and influential man in
Republican State Central Committee when Lincoln was nominated for the
presidency; also being at the time a delegate to the convention that nominated
his friend. Judge Melvin now has in his possession a wardrobe which came from
Mr. Lincoln’s home, and which he prizes highly. Upon the close of the war, Dr.
Melvin left the drug business and became interested in the financial
institutions of Springfield, serving as a director of the First National Bank of
Springfield and president of the Springfield Savings Bank, and was also
president of the corn planter works of that city, and of the Gilman, Clinton
& Springfield Railroad Company. The panic of 1873, which brought down so
many substantial houses of the business world, also depleted his fortunes, but,
realizing that better opportunities existed in the west he brought his family
to California in 1875, locating first at St. Helena, where he remained for
three years. Removing then to Oakland he engaged in the drug business, with his
usual ability making rapid strides to the front rank and becoming one of the
most prominent pharmacists of the city, as well as the state. He was appointed
the first president of the State Board of Pharmacy and for many years
maintained his position with great efficiency, and was also president of the
College of Pharmacy, a department of the University of California, as well as
holding the same position in the State Pharmaceutical Society for several
years. In personal character the doctor was absolutely fearless, his strong
principles and unswerving integrity leading him to stand firm on an issue where
right was involved. During the Civil war he was president of the Union League
of Sangamon county, and so stanch was his support and
so fearless his denunciation of what he considered such menace to his country
that a price was set upon his head by those of opposite convictions. Into his
political life in the west he carried the same fearless integrity and firmness
which, though it made him enemies among a certain class of people, also won for
him the regard of all sober-minded, thoughtful citizens. At one time he was a
candidate for mayor, when he was defeated by but thirty-five votes, this being
brought about by a combined effort on the part of the water company of Oakland,
as the doctor had advocated the sprinkling of the street of the city with salt
water. Fraternally the doctor was a Master Mason. In religion he had always
been a Presbyterian and had served as an elder in that church until he came to
Oakland, when he entered the Congregational Church on account of a friendship
for Rev. Dr. McLean, becoming an officer and a very active member, and
subsequently founding, with others, Pilgrim Congregational Church. His death
occurred in 1897 at the age of sixty-eight years. Personally he was a man of
fine appearance, being tall and well built, and weighing two hundred pounds.
His hair was white as snow, being prematurely gray. He was a man of
irreproachable character, unswerving in his integrity, broad-minded, charitable
and of a kindly disposition, and all who knew him gave him their esteem and
confidence to an exceptional degree. By his marriage with Sarah Amanda Slemmons, a native of Cadiz, Ohio, and the eldest of her
father’s family, Dr. Melvin allied himself with a family known both on this
side of the Atlantic and the other. Her father, Samuel, born in Washington county, Pa., was a son of William Slemmons,
of Washington county, Pa., a slave owner who freed his slaves in the face of
financial loss because he believed their bondage a sin. Samuel Slemmons married Susanna Osburn,
of Pennsylvania, the daughter of Alexander Osburn,
and settled in Cadiz, Ohio, where he engaged as a farmer and manufacturer, and
had large landed interests in various states, Iowa, Missouri and Texas. While
establishing a stage line in Texas, soon after the Mexican war, he became a
victim to cholera. His wife had died early in life. The Osburns
were descendants of the Earl of Herford, of the Isle of Wight, and in religion
were all members of the Presbyterian Church. An inherent characteristic of the
descendants of the families of Slemmons and Osburn is a love and talent for music, nearly every member
of the families being musically inclined. The inventor, Robert Fulton, was a
cousin of Judge Melvin’s great-grandmother Osburn.
Mrs. Melvin, the judge’s mother was a very prominent woman in society of the
city in which she made her home for so many years, taking an active interest in
all public affairs that lay within her reach, among other offices holding that
of president of the Ladies’ Relief Society. While in Springfield she was an
intimate friend of both Mr. Lincoln and his wife. She died in 1899, the mother
of eight children, of whom six attained maturity, namely: Samuel Slemmons, educated at the Chester Pennsylvania Military
Academy, became a railroad man, and died in Springfield; James Breed, educated
in the University of Illinois, is now with the California Fruit Canners’
Association, of San Francisco; Charles Stewart, graduated from Lafayette
College in 1882, is now with the San Francisco Savings Union; William
Patterson, deceased in 1898, was the secretary of the Mount View Cemetery
Association; Mary Lincoln is now Mrs. Dewing, of Oakland; and Henry Alexander,
our personal subject, is the youngest.
The childhood days of Judge Melvin
were passed in Springfield, Ill., and when ten years of age he was brought by
his parents to California, since which time his life has been spent in the
Golden State. As a child he attended the public schools, taking the High School
course and graduating therefrom in 1884, after which
he engaged in business with his father for one year, having understood the drug
business from boyhood, and after the age of thirteen being able to put up
prescriptions. In 1885 he entered the University of California, from which
institution he was graduated June 28, 1889, with the degree of Ph. B. While
attending college he held a prominent place among the students of the
university, being chief editor of Blue
and Gold during his junior year, and was president of the Phi Delta Theta
both junior and senior years. He did newspaper work throughout California, and
after graduation continued as telegraph editor of the Oakland Tribune until September. He also held the rank of first
lieutenant and cadet quartermaster, and inspector of rifle practice,
and on graduation was commissioned first lieutenant of the National Guard of California,
retired. Becoming a student in the Hastings College of Law, a department of the
University of California, he was graduated June 28,1892,
with the degree of LL.B. In the meantime he was appointed by the board of
supervisors to fill a vacancy as justice of the peace in Brooklyn township, which occurred in 1891, and after completing the
term he was elected to the office for four years. This was the fall of 1892; in
March of the next year he resigned to accept the appointment of assistant
district attorney under Charles E. Snook. In September of the same year he was
appointed prosecuting attorney of Oakland, and filled the two offices for about
five years. On election of J. J. Allen to the office of district attorney in
January, 1899, he was appointed chief deputy district attorney and Allen’s law
partner, serving then until October 1900. During the months of October,
November and December of the year 1900 he served as deputy attorney general
under Attorney General Ford, and on the return of Deputy Attorney General Moore
from Europe, resumed his duties as chief deputy district attorney. In March,
1901, he was appointed by Governor Gage to fill the newly created department of
the superior court. He served until the general election in 1902, when he was
nominated by acclamation by the Republican party with two colleagues, and
though there was a combine of all the other parties against them (among whom
were many prominent men), they were all elected, Judge Melvin’s majority being
about seven hundred votes over that of his colleagues, while their combined
majority amounted to twenty-three hundred. In January, 1903, he took up the
duties of his six years’ term, the brief time which has since elapsed being
sufficient to demonstrate the ability in which his fellow citizens have so
firmly believed, and justify the faith which marked their choice to public
office.
In Portland, Ore., Judge Melvin was
united in marriage with Sarah Louise Morse, a native of that city but a
descendant of a New England family associated with American history since the
first settlements along the coast---the family of Governor Bradford, of
Massachusetts. Her father, S. Bradford Morse, was himself a native of
Massachusetts, being born in Boston. He became a successful insurance man of
Portland, where he married Frances L. Peters, whose parents were pioneers of
the state of Oregon. Mr. Morse’s mother was a member of the family of Cheevers, of Boston, and a second cousin of Jefferson
Davis, while Mrs. Melvin’s maternal grandmother was a second cousin of General
Grant. Mrs. Melvin was reared and educated in the city of her birth. To the judge and his wife have been born one son, Bradford Morse.
Fraternally the judge is a prominent man in Oakland, holding some important
office in the greater number of the lodges with which he is associated. He was
made a Mason in Brooklyn Lodge No. 225; is a member of Oakland Lodge No. 171,
B. P. O. E., and past exalted ruler, having been twice elected to that office
by acclamation, and at the close of his last term in
1902 was presented with a gold watch. He is now serving his third year as
member of the Grand Lodge Committee on Appeals and Grievances. In 1902 he
attended Grand Lodge at Salt Lake; in 1903 at Baltimore; and in 1904 at
Cincinnati. Identified with the Modern Woodmen of America, he is a member of
Golden Gate Camp, and was state lecturer for two years, during which he
attended a convention of state lecturers at Rock Island in 1899. He is a member
of Pacific Lodge No. 7, A. O. U. W., California Chapter, Phi Delta Theta, the County
Bar Association, and is ex-vice-president of the Alumni of Hastings Law
College. Socially he is a member of the Athenian Club, member and president of
the Nile Club, member of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco, and of the Family
Club of the same city. Politically he is a stanch
adherent of the principles advocated in the platform of the Republican party,
and like his father is frank and fearless in his support of all measures he
deems advantageous to city, county or state. In 1891 he served as secretary of
the committee on city, county and town governments at the California state
senate at Sacramento. Though he has accomplished much in a comparatively short
time----for he is still a young man---much is expected in the career of Judge
Melvin, for to an earnest and forceful character, a manhood bent toward the
fulfillment of high ideals and a purpose in life, a past success is but a
stepping stone to future heights. The judge is honored wherever known, and numbers
his friends as liberally as his acquaintances.
Transcribed
by: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California &
Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A.
M., Pages 1111-1114. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.
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