Amador
County
Biographies
DIOVOL B. SPAGNOLI
In viewing the mass of mankind in
the varied occupations of life, the conclusion is forced upon the observer that
in the vast majority of cases men have sought employment not in the line of
their peculiar fitness but in those fields where caprice or circumstances have
placed them, thus explaining the reason of the failure of ninety-five per cent
of those who enter commercial and professional circles. In a few cases it seems that men with a
peculiar fitness for a certain line have taken it up. Such is the fact in the case of the subject
of this biography, Diovol Benedetto Spagnoli.
He is one of the most capable members of the bar in this section of the
state and has shown that he is endowed with a strong mentality and keen
analytical powers that enable him to win prominence in connection with judicial
interests. He is also numbered among the
early pioneers of the state, having arrived in California on the 1st
of August, 1854.
Mr. Spagnoli is a native of
Piedmont, Italy, born on the 30th of November, 1840, and is
descended from an old Roman family of prominence. His father, Diodato
Spagnoli, was born in Piedmont, and after arriving at
the age of maturity wedded Marie Antoinette Fantoli,
also a native of Piedmont. The father
was a merchant and a prominent road contractor and builder. In 1854, with his wife and two sons, he
sailed for California, landing in New York, the American metropolis, on the 1st
of July. On the 5th of that
month he took passage for San Francisco, making the journey by way of the
Nicaragua route, and on the 1st of August the steamer in which they
sailed dropped anchor in San Francisco, California. The father engaged in mining for a few
months, but afterward established a mercantile store at Clinton, Amador County,
where he continued to carry on a successful business up to the time of his
death, which occurred September 24, 1863, in the fifty-fourth year of his
age. His good wife, surviving him for a
decade, departed this life on the 17th of March, 1873, at the age of
sixty-six years. Their other son,
Sylvester G. Spagnoli, is now the treasurer of Amador County.
Mr. Spagnoli, whose name introduces
this review, obtained his literary education in Italy and in France, and
pursued his law studies under the direction of Judge R. M. Briggs and United
States Senator J. T. Farley. He has
always been an active advocate of Democratic principles and on the ticket of
the party was elected clerk and recorder of Amador
County in 1869, filling the position for two years. Later he was admitted to practice law in the
district courts, the supreme court of the state and in
the United States district court, and in 1895 was licensed to practice before
the supreme court of the United States.
The same year he had the honor of being appointed by President Cleveland
to the position of United States Consul at the city of Milan, in the Kingdom of
Italy, and served his country in that capacity in a most creditable manner for
three years. On the expiration of that
period he returned to California and resumed the practice of law in Jackson,
where he now has a large and distinctively representative clientage. At the bar he has won great honor by reason
of his superior ability, his close application to his business, his devotion to
his clients’ interests and the able manner in which he handles his cases. His keen analytical power enables him to
determine easily the important points in the suit and these he presents in a
forceful manner to judge and jury.
In 1889 Mr. Spagnoli was united in
marriage to Miss Rose Isabella Bryan, a native of Penobscot, Maine. To them were born five sons and a daughter,
but only two of the sons are now living:
Sylvester Nelson D., who was born in San Francisco, served as United
States Vice Consul to Italy during his father’s term and is now reading law in
his father’s office; and the other son, Urbano G. D.,
is a graduate of the School of Pharmacy of California, at San Francisco. The mother died on the 8th of August, 1874,
and in 1881 Mr. Spagnoli was joined in wedlock to Miss Ida B. Kerr, a daughter
of Professor A. W. Kerr, a prominent educator of this state. Their marriage has been blessed with a son
and daughter, Ernest B. D. and Roma Venetia, both attending school.
Mr. Spagnoli has not only been a
successful law practitioner but has also made profitable investments in mining
and other property interests. He owns
considerable stock in large quartz mines, has five hundred acres of mining and
agricultural lands, and is the proprietor of a drug store in Jackson, which
business is now carried on by his son Urbano. He also built and owns the Spagnoli block
building, opposite the court-house at the county seat. His residence is one of the most tasteful and
attractive homes in Jackson and he enjoys a warm regard of a host of
friends. Mr. Spagnoli is one of the
oldest representatives of the Masonic fraternity in the county. He received the sublime degree of Master
Mason in Amador Lodge, No. 65, F. & A. M., of Jackson, in 1866 and is now
past master. He has also taken the Royal
Arch degree and the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite,
and is past patron of Chapter No. 66, in the Order of the Eastern Star. He is likewise a member of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, has filled all of its offices, and belongs to the Ancient
Order of United Workmen and the Chosen Friends.
He is well and favorably known by the citizens of the county, being a
pioneer of the state, and merits honorable mention among the representative men
of California.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 464-466. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Amador County Biographies