Los Angeles County
Biographies
JOHN WHITE PRESTON
John White Preston, attorney, was born May 14, 1877, in Woodbury, Cannon County, Tennessee; the son of Hugh Lawson and Thankful Caroline (Doak) Preston.
He received an A.B. degree from Burritt College, Spencer, Tennessee; then took a post-graduate course at Bethany (West Virginia) College LL.D. 1935; admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1897 and was in practice at Woodbury, Tennessee until 1902.
Mr. Preston moved to California in 1902 and until 1926 was a member of the firm of Preston and Preston, with offices in San Francisco and Ukiah, California.
President of Preston Loan & Investment Company; director of Ft. Bragg (California) Commercial Bank. He was appointed by the President of the United States as special counsel for United States Government to prosecute the Elk Hills Oil litigation; also special assistant to Attorney General of the United States in charge of the tideland eminent domain proceedings at Terminal Island.
From 1904 to 1908 Mr. Preston acted as chairman of Mendocino County Democratic Central Committee; member of the California House of Representatives in 1908, renominated in 1910 (declined); served as United States Attorney for Northern District of California from December 23, 1913 to July 24, 1918 (resigned); special assistant to United States Attorney General for war work from July 24, 1918, to May 15, 1919 (resigned); in private practice at San Francisco, California; then became Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of State of California, 1926 to 1935, being reelected in 1930 without opposition, to a twelve-year term (resigned); appointed U.S. special counsel 1935 for Elk Hills Oil litigation; again in private practice since October 1941.
President of Lawyers Club of Los Angeles in 1940; member of American Bar Association, State Bar of California, Los Angeles and San Francisco Bar Association; member of the following clubs: Commonwealth, Press (San Francisco), Stock Exchange, Town Hall (Los Angeles), San Gabriel Country Club.
On January 8, 1902, Mr. Preston married Sara Rucker. There are two children, Mrs. Elizabeth P. Genesy and John White Preston, Jr. The family home is in Pasadena, California, at 166 Avenue 64.
Offices: Rowan Building, 458 South Spring Street, Los Angeles.
Transcribed 11-19-13 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Eminent
Californians 1953, by Lee E. Johnson & C. W. Taylor. Pages 155-156, C. W. Taylor
Publ., Palo Alto, California, 1953.
© 2013 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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BIOGRAPHIES