Butte County
Biographies
J. OSCAR GOLDSTEIN, LL. B.
J. OSCAR GOLDSTEIN, LL. B.—A rising and promising young lawyer who came to Chico a graduate and postgraduate of noted Eastern schools, and a practitioner in leading courts of the land, and who is now a much-sought attorney making a specialty of criminal, civil, and corporation law, is J. Oscar Goldstein, LL. B., who was born in New York City on August 25, 1886, the son of M. Goldstein, a prominent merchant of the metropolis now living in pleasant retirement in Brooklyn. Mrs. Goldstein, now deceased, was Miss Bettie Freifeld before her marriage, and was the mother of nine children, of whom J. Oscar, the only one residing west of New York, was the second youngest.
Brought up in New York City, J. Oscar attended the public schools there, and in 1904 graduated from the De Witt Clinton High School, after which he entered the law department of the New York University. For three years he enjoyed the superior advantages of that institution of higher learning, taking courses with professors of eminent ability and national reputation; and in 1907, when he had been honored with the vice-presidency of the law class in his senior year, he graduated with the degree of LL. B. Having attended Columbia University during the winter of 1907-1908 for postgraduate work, Mr. Goldstein was admitted to the bar in New York in January, 1909; and in the fall of the same year he was also admitted to practice in all the courts of record in Illinois. He practiced law in New York City until early in the year 1912, when, on April 29, he located in San Francisco, and was admitted to practice in all the state courts of record in California. On January 3, 1914, Mr. Goldstein was further admitted to practice in the district and circuit courts of the United States for the northern district of California.
In the meanwhile, on May 1, 1913, Mr. Goldstein located in Chico and began the general practice of law there. A Republican in national politics, in 1914 he was a candidate for district attorney for Butte County and made what has been generally recognized as one of the most effective campaigns in the county, but failed of election principally because he had been in the county but a short time.
Mr. Goldstein makes a specialty of criminal and real estate law, and has been so exceptionally successful in the former field that he is usually found on one side or the other of the most important criminal cases in the Butte County Superior Court, and in the superior courts of the neighboring counties. He is also counsel for large corporations in important litigation now pending, and has built up a lucrative practice among the financial men of the county. He is a member of the Chico Business Men’s Club, a life member of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, and a member of several fraternal organizations.
At San Francisco, on November 8, 1914, Mr. Goldstein was married to Miss Jeanette J. Joseph, a native of Texas, and the daughter of Arnold Joseph, a prominent merchant and cotton dealer in San Francisco. She is a graduate of the Lowell High School in that city, where she was prominent in athletics. Mrs. Goldstein is now the mother of two children: Burton J. Goldstein, aged three years, and Janet Francis, aged five months. Outside of his professional work, Mr. Goldstein is prominent in charitable enterprises, and is deeply interested in music. He has a beautiful baritone voice, is familiar with musical instruments, and frequently contributes to the pleasure of music lovers in Chico and neighboring places. Mr. Goldstein is an able speaker, and is constantly in demand for public addresses on important matters arising in the community.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1148-1149, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies