Riverside
County
Biographies
HON.
FRANK E. DENSMORE
Steadily progressing in the field of professional
service, the Hon. Frank E. Densmore made an enviable record as judge of the
juvenile court of Riverside County and was known and esteemed as a man of fine
intellect, broad sympathies and scrupulous honesty. Born in Independence, Inyo County,
California, August 18, 1869, he was the only son of Sanford A. and Elizabeth E.
(Cofer) Densmore. His father, a native of Maine, sought the opportunities
of the west as a young man, becoming a pioneer rancher and fruit raiser of
northern California.
After attending an academy in his native county the Hon.
Frank E. Densmore read law in his brother’s office and at the age of twenty-one
was admitted to the bar of California. For a time he practiced in Inyo County removing to Riverside in
1902, and soon became recognized as an able attorney and safe counselor. On the 18th of August, 1906, his
thirty-seventh birthday, he was appointed judge of the juvenile court of
Riverside County, assuming these duties on the resignation of Judge Noyes, and
later was elected to this office, which he filled with distinction for ten
years, or until his death on the 11th of March, 1916.
Judge Densmore was a devoted husband and a kind and
indulgent father who sought earnestly to promote the welfare and happiness of
his family. His widow, whose maiden name
was Nellie L. Craig, was born in Trinity County, California, a daughter of C.
W. and Elizabeth E. (Lockhart) Craig.
The father was a pioneer newspaperman of Trinity County. Mr. and Mrs. Craig had three children, of
whom one is deceased. The others
are: Nellie L., the widow of Judge
Densmore; and George L. Craig, who lives in Los Angeles. Mrs. Densmore obtained her high school
education in Oakland, California, in the social life of Riverside she has been
accorded a place of prominence and is a past president of the Wednesday Club
and one of the Daughters of Rebekah.
Judge and Mrs. Densmore were the parents of three children: Enid M., who is the wife of Ralph D.
Chambers, city license clerk, and the mother of two children, Lyndell Jean and Lorena Jane, twins; Lorena, who died at
the age of thirty years; and Craig F., who resides with his mother in the
family home at 4567 Seventh Street, Riverside.
Judge Densmore was a man of kindly nature, with a firm
belief in the ultimate triumph of the right and with a clear understanding of
the frailties of human nature—an understanding that made him sympathetic and
helpful and at all times lenient in his judgment of others, while his own life
was exemplary and in many ways of inspirational worth. At his passing the following resolutions were
adopted by the Riverside County Bar Association: “Whereas, the judge of our superior court,
Hon. Frank E. Densmore, has been stricken while in the full strength of years,
and has been summoned by the decree of an all wise Providence within that
portal which swings ever inward but never outward, and Whereas, he had served
the people of his native state for a decade in the exalted position for which
his abilities so eminently fitted him, and Whereas, his relations with the
members of the bar of the court over which he presided with such distinction,
were always marked by courtesy, friendliness and cordial good-will; now,
therefore, be it Resolved by the Bar Association of the County of Riverside
that in the passing of Judge Frank E. Densmore the people of the State of
California have lost the service of a judge whose every action was
guided
by conscience, whose learning in the law conspicuously fitted him for the
duties of his high office, whose course never swerved from the paths in which
he believed right and justice to lie, whose judgment was never swayed by
considerations other than a desire to administer law in the light of justice,
who held kindly intercourse with his fellows in hours of leisure, but who knew
neither friend nor foe while on the bench, who held the scales of justice
evenly poised, and by the gifts with which nature had endowed him determined
the issues before him under the guidance of his conscience, of whom it should be
said that he was a just and good man, a wise and upright judge, and be it
further Resolved, that, although he has been called to a higher and better existence
while yet a young man, the record of his life and work will be cherished by all
who know him; and his high attainments, his scrupulous integrity, his tireless
devotion to duty and his upright course will ever remain as a sweet and
fragrant memory, a consolation and a blessing to those who mourn his death; and
be it further Resolved, that with profound sorrow for his death, mingled with
reverence for his happy memory, and with sincere sympathy for his family, a
copy of these resolutions be presented to the court to be spread upon the
records thereof and be transmitted by the clerk of the court to the family of
our deceased friend.”
Dated March 13, 1916
Craig, Hugh H.
Winder, A. H.
Freeman, G. R.
Committee
of the Riverside County Bar Association
The
following tribute was paid by the juvenile court committee: “Whereas, the community has suffered an
irreparable loss in the passing of Hon. Frank E. Densmore, judge of the
superior court, and who has presided so wisely and efficiently over the
juvenile court, and Whereas, the probation committee has found in him a wise
counselor, a courteous and kindly official whose heart was full of love and tenderness
for the sad waifs whose misfortunes brought them under his ministration, now,
therefore, be it Resolved that in the death of Judge Densmore, juvenile judge
of the County of Riverside, the community has lost an unwavering friend of the
cause of civic righteousness, an upright administrator of the law, who with his
keen intellect and warm heart never failed to uphold the principles of the law,
yet tempered his justice with the mercy of a personal friendliness; and be it
further Resolved, that with grief and sorrow for our own loss and with profound
sympathy for the family of Judge Densmore, that a copy of these resolutions be
filed with the records of the juvenile court and be sent by the secretary of
the probation committee to the bereaved family.”
Dated March 13,
1916.
R. E. Moss, president
Harriet Robbins
W. H. Robinson
John Wherrell
Stella M. Atwood
C. W. Matthews
Isabel Rutherford,
secretary
Juvenile
Court Committee
The judges of the superior court of Los Angeles County
adopted the following resolutions:
“Whereas, our brother jurist, Hon. Frank E. Densmore of Riverside County,
has been suddenly summoned to that higher Tribunal before which all must
appear, and Whereas, we have observed the fidelity with which he has performed
the arduous duties of his high office, and have known of his splendid qualities
as a lawyer and judge, and appreciate that by his ceaseless attention to the
multitudinous duties of his office, by his splendid mental equipment, by the
dignity as well as the kindliness with which he has performed his judicial
work, he has maintained the respect and authority of our courts so essential to
the maintenance of a free country, and Whereas, we appreciate his high
qualities as a son, a husband, a father, and as a citizen, and desire to
express our deep sense of loss and our sympathy to those who, with us, mourn his
death, therefore be it Resolved that the undersigned judges of the superior
court, in and for the County of Los Angeles, State of California, tender to the
people, and especially to the bar of Riverside County of our said state, our
sincere sympathy for the loss of an able, efficient and conscientious judge,
and to the wife and children of Judge Densmore we tender our sympathy for the
loss of a loving husband and father suddenly stricken while exercising the
cherished duty of a father—teaching a son; to the surviving mother of Judge
Frank E. Densmore we express our sympathy for the loss of a loving and dutiful
son.”
Gavin W. Craig Charles Monroe Charles Wellborn
Frank G. Finlayson Louis W. Myers Curtis
J. Wilbur
Leslie R. Hewitt Sidney N. Reeve Frank
R. Willis
Frederick W. Houser John C. Rives J. T. Wood
Grant Jackson John N. Shenk Lewis R. Works
Paul J. McCormick Fred H. Taft John
M. York
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 211-215, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN
NUGGET'S RIVERSIDE BIOGRAPIES