Los
Angeles County
Biographies
Harry Fisher Sewell, a prominent
representative of the bench and bar of Southern California, with offices in Los
Angeles, also has to his credit four term’s service in the state
legislature. He was born in Walsenburg,
Colorado, February 9, 1889, a son of Harry Fisher and Marietta (Stockwell)
Sewell and a grandson of General H. Sewell, who won fame as a soldier of the
Confederate Army in the Civil war. Harry
Fisher Sewell, Sr., the father of our subject, was a native of Louisiana and a
graduate of the Louisiana State University.
He preached the gospel as a minister of the Presbyterian denomination
throughout his active life and passed away in 1901. Following his death, Mrs. Sewell removed for
the benefit of her health to Philipsburg, Montana, where she resided for a
number of years. She married again,
becoming the wife of Dr. W. I. Powers, one of Montana’s foremost physicians and
a leader in state politics. His foster
children found him ever kind and indulgent.
He spent his last years in California, passing away in this state in
April, 1929, and for two years was survived by his wife, whose death here
occurred in 1931.
Harry F. Sewell was a youth of
twelve years when he accompanies his mother on her removal to Montana in
1901. He supplemented his early
education as a student at the University of Michigan, from which he was
graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1910. His professional training was received at the
University of Montana School of Law, which in 1915 conferred upon him the LL.B.
degree. During the succeeding five years
he engaged in law practice in Montana and then in 1920 came to Los Angeles,
California, where he continued in the work of his chosen profession until
removing to Whittier, Los Angeles county in 1922. Two years later he was elected to the
California general assembly, in which he served with great distinction for four
terms, being accorded every honor within the gift of the lawmaking body. At one time he was chairman of three of the
strongest committees of the legislature – the judiciary, ways and means and
apportions committees. “A record of
Judge Sewell’s legislative work,” said a contemporary writer, “would fill a
book in itself.” On the 3d of December,
1933, he was appointed by Governor Rolph to fill a judgeship in the superior
court of Los Angeles county and at the close of his term resumed the private
practice of law in Los Angeles, now maintaining a suite of offices in the
Commercial Exchange building.
In 1915 Judge Sewell married Mabel
Cox and to them was born a son, Willis Powers Sewell. In 1934 the Judge married May Virginia
Platte. He is affiliated with the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks, belonging to Lodge No. 1258,
and along strictly professional lines has membership in the Los Angeles County Bar
Association and also the State Bar of California.
Transcribed by
Mary Ellen Frazier.
Source:
California of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty,
Pages 743-744, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2013 Mary Ellen Frazier.
GOLDEN
NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES