Los Angeles County
Biographies
HON. OSCAR A. TRIPPET
The bench and bar of Southern California sustained the loss of a distinguished representative in the passing of Hon. Oscar A. Trippet, whose residence in this section of the state covered more than a third of a century. Judge Trippet was born on a farm near Princeton, Indiana, March 6, 1856, a son of Caleb and Mary (Fentress) Trippet. Until he was sixteen years old, he led the comfortable life of a son of a wealthy man, his father being one of the prominent and prosperous farmers in southwestern Indiana. In addition to his land holding, Caleb Trippet owned and operated several boats on the Ohio River. Subsequent to the Civil war, however, he lost his fortune and his death not long afterward left his family in straitened financial circumstances. Thus, when a youth of sixteen years, Oscar A. Trippet deemed it necessary to assist his mother in every way possible in the support of the family. He taught school for several years, attended the Indiana State Normal School, and later, when he was free to go to college, entered the law department of the University of Virginia. His ambition led him to attempt to master the law course in one year, for he felt that he could earn more money as an attorney than as a school teacher, but his health failed and he was obliged to leave college before completing the prescribed course. The dean of the university was so impressed with the earnestness and ability of Mr. Trippet that he wrote him to return for the examinations and receive his degree, but the latter didn’t not have sufficient funds to do so.
In 1879, when a young man of twenty-three years, Oscar A. Trippet began the practice of his chosen profession at Princeton, Indiana, whence he later removed to Terre Haute. He was elected a member of the Indian state senate and while in the legislature devoted particular attention to prison reform. Appointed a member of the prison committee, he was sent to California to study prison conditions in this state. During the brief period he was active in politics, Mr. Trippet became so disgusted with the corruption everywhere evident in political circles that he resigned from the Indiana senate and in 1887 took up his abode in San Diego, California. Among his early acquaintances there was Judge W. T McNeally, one of the leaders at the bar of Southern California. Judge McNeally one day was explaining a case, one point of which was a very puzzling nature; Mr. Trippet supplied the clue to the situation and defined the point so clearly that the Judge was greatly impressed with his clarity of reasoning and asked Mr. Trippet to become a partner. This was the beginning of a delightful professional association that continued for several years. In San Diego, Mr. Trippet found a place of ideal charm and location. He was a great lover of nature and felt a reverence for the beauty of the hills, the sky and the sea of the Southland. He invested considerable of his earnings in San Diego real estate and was deeply attached to the community. However, as a result of a long continued business depression, he decided it wise to follow the example of some of his associates and intimate friends, among whom were J. E. Fishburn and W. D. Woolwine, in coming to Los Angeles, where business and professional prospects were better. Upon his arrival in this city, Mr. Trippet took up an independent practice, and subsequently formed the law firm of Trippet, Chapman & Biby, continuing in this professional relation until March 6, 1915, when President Wilson appointed him judge of the United States district court for the southern district of California. Judge Trippet was a learned lawyer and was considered and authority on many of the most complicated phases of the law. His remarkable memory and his keen reasoning powers and sound logic enabled him to cope with almost every situation that confronted him during his years on the bench. He died July 15, 1923, while an incumbent in office, and his loss was deeply deplored by the bench and bar of the state, particularly in Southern California.
One of the outstanding characteristics of Judge Trippet was his interest in boys. Some of the youths in his neighborhood wanted to organize a troop of Boy Scouts and asked the Judge to head the movement, which the latter consented to do. Weekly meetings were held at his home for more than five years, and he became the loved and trusted adviser of the group. He frequently took the boys on camping trips and hikes, thus cementing their friendship, and for many former Boy Scouts, now grown to manhood, cherish the memory of his inspiring leadership. Judge Trippet occasionally manifested his love of nature through the medium of literature, and one of his truly noble expressions of this love, as well as his deep reverence for God is his poem, “The Call of the Vast.” He was a devoted member of the Christian Church and fraternally was affiliated with the Masons. His political allegiance was given to the Democratic Party. His high standing in the professional circles is indicated in the fact that he was chosen vice president of the American Bar Association for the term 1912-1913.
On the 5th of November, 1902, Judge Trippet married Miss Cora Wilson Larimore, of Larimore, North Dakota. Her father, N. G. Larimore, was a St. Louis man who acquired large holdings of land in North Dakota, and the town of Larimore was named in his honor by his friend, James. J. Hill, of the Great Northern Railway. Judge and Mrs. Trippet became the parents of two sons: Larimore Oscar, who was accidentally killed on March 23, 1918; and Oscar A., Jr., who was graduated in the classical and law departments of Stanford University, did postgraduate work at Harvard University and is now following his profession in Los Angeles as a member of the law firm of Haight & Trippet. Oscar A. Trippet, Jr., married Barbara Wilson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Allan J. Wilson, of Los Angeles, and they have two children, Martha Ann and Oscar A. III.
Transcribed
By: Michele Y. Larsen on June 23, 2013.
Source: California of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 705-707, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los
Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2013 Michele Y. Larsen.
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BIOGRAPHIES