Imperial
County
Biographies
PHILIP
N. MYERS
Philip N. Myers, practicing attorney
of Westmoreland, is well known and highly respected throughout Imperial county in both professional and civic circles. He was born
in Covington, Kentucky, September 16, 1866. His father, Harvey Myers, was a
native of Pennsylvania, a lawyer by profession and a republican in his
political views. To him belonged the distinction of compiling the Kentucky
codes of 1866. He passed away in 1874, being survived for six years by his
wife, who was in her maidenhood Susan Carter Scott, of Georgetown, Kentucky.
They were the parents of six children, Philip N. Myers being the last surviving
member of the family. Harvey Myers, brother of our subject, died in June, 1933.
Philip N. Myers acquired his early
education in the schools of Covington, Kentucky, where he afterward read law
and was admitted to the bar in 1890. While studying law he served first as
deputy clerk of the Kenton Circuit and Chancery courts; he then became
proficient as a verbatim short-hand writer and was the official reporter of the
courts of his native county; he served on the staff of short-hand writers who
reported the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of 1890 of the State
of Kentucky, where the most famous orators of that state and day held forth
upon the revision of its basic law. He began the practice of law in his native
city but two years later, owing to failing health of Mrs. Myers, brought her to
California and became secretary to the general manager of the Kern County Land
& Water Company at Bakersfield. Admitted to the California bar in 1895, he
subsequently engaged in practice in Bakersfield and in San Francisco and next
was associated with the land and water companies at Hemet, Riverside county. Thence he removed to Los Angeles, where he devoted
his attention to law practice for five years, on the expiration of which period
he came to the Imperial Valley and took up his abode in Calipatria,
where he still makes his home. He served first as secretary of the land company
there and also became the first city clerk of Calipatria.
Subsequently he was made city judge of Calipatria and
also served as township justice for eight years, until 1929, when he resigned
and opened an office for the practice of law in Westmoreland, twelve miles
southwest of Calipatria. Here he has received the
appointment of city attorney, besides attending to a growing civil practice.
During his residence in Imperial
Valley, Philip N. Myers was twice chosen as president of the Associated
Chambers of Commerce of Imperial County, of which he was one of the earliest
members, and served usefully in the work of that body for many years.
Mr. Myers was one of those who first
brought to the particular attention of the Valley people the historic facts
about and the location of the route of the early Spanish pioneers through
Imperial Valley---the De Anza expeditions of 1774 and 1775, moving from Sonora,
Mexico, to settle at the then proposed San Francisco. Also the route of the
Butterfield transcontinental stage-line through Imperial county
was relocated and markers erected at prominent points along the old trail. This
line was operated from 1858 to 1862 from St. Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco,
California, carrying the United States mail twice a week under contract with
the government and making the trip in twenty-two days.
Mr. Myers visited personally many of
the places of interest along these routes, in Imperial, San Diego and Riverside
counties. The marking of the routes was done with the co-operation of the
Federation of Women’s Clubs of Imperial County, of which Mrs. Myers served as
chairman of History and Landmarks for several terms, and the Automobile Club of
Southern California erected the markers, upon it being shown from the old
diaries and records that these were the ways followed by the early pioneers.
The extension of the Santa Fe Trail westwardly (sic) to Southern California also received study
and many desert trips, furnishing material for interesting talks before various
public bodies, were made by Mr. Myers in his efforts along this line.
In 1886 Judge Myers was united in
marriage to Alma Newman, of Fulton, Missouri, and they are the parents of two
sons. Harvey H. Myers, the elder, born in Covington, Kentucky, September 23,
1887, was four years of age when he accompanied his parents to California. He
was graduated from Leland Stanford University with the degree of Bachelor of Laws
in July, 1912, and is a member of the Imperial County and California State Bar
Associations. At the time of the World war he served overseas as second
lieutenant with the One Hundred and Sixteenth Engineers. He is a member of the
American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars and fraternally is identified
with the Masonic bodies, being junior warden of the Knights Templar and past
master of the consistory. In 1921 he married Mrs. Lida
E. (Larkin) Nicklas, manager of the telephone
exchange at Calipatria for some years. Philip N.
Myers, Jr., the younger son of Philip N. and Alma (Newman) Myers, was traveling
auditor with the Santa Fe Railway for some years, afterwards being appointed
auditor for the McCloud River Railroad, in Northern California, where he now
resides. He married Vola Dafft,
of Los Angeles, and they have one child, Phyllis.
Judge Myers is affiliated with the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, while his religious faith is that of
the Christian Science Church, of which his wife is also a member, having
formerly been a practitioner in Los Angeles. They are highly esteemed
throughout the community in which they make their home and have an extensive
circle of warm friends in Imperial county and this
part of the state.
Transcribed By:
Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
185-187, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Cecelia
M. Setty.
Golden Nugget Library's Imperial County Biographies