HON. JOHN W. ARMSTRONG

 

 

HON. JOHN W. ARMSTRONG, Judge of the Superior Court of Sacramento County, was born in 1834, in Fountain County, Indiana, and his parents moved to Missouri in 1839.  His schooling was obtained during short sessions of the country school and from the careful training of good parents.  Having inherited a somewhat rheumatic tendency in his right leg, he soon perceived that a farmer's life, which was that of his father, could never serve him as a calling, and accordingly when twelve years of age, he bound himself as an apprentice to a blacksmith in the neighborhood, his father having died in the meantime without leaving much property.  His master in the shop prove to be an unpleasant one and picked a quarrel with young Armstrong; and the latter was to independent and self-reliant to submit to such an ill-nature.  On the following morning his mother gave him a lunch and he started afoot for St. Joseph, the nearest large town.  Reaching there, he seated himself upon the railing of the public fountain, ate his lunch, washing down with a basin of water, and, hearing the ring of a blacksmith's anvil near by, sought out the shop and in an hour had his apron on and was at work.  Later he learned plow-making at another shop, and engaged at ironing wagons at a third place, in the summer of 1851 was employed at mill work at Columbus.  He was determined to come to California, although he had but $10 money besides what he had packed upon his back, and started afoot.  Reaching the mouth of the Platte River, he found a drove of some 500 head of cattle belonging to Martin Pomery & Co., waiting to cross.  Drivers being wanted, he was employed to drive loose cattle.  Reaching the North Platte it was necessary to cross that river by making the cattle swim; but they would not enter.  Young Armstrong then proposed that he should be given a yoke of oxen with which to swim for the river first, then the rest of the cattle would follow.  The plan was successful, young Armstrong swimming the cold river no less than twenty-one times!  That night he lay out on an island, and in the morning woke with a disabled right leg.  He was therefore carried in a wagon or rode upon a mule until they came to Truckee, where most of the men, including Mr. Armstrong, were discharged, without provisions or means to buy any.  Mr. Armstrong's leg had swollen to a great size, and to ease the continual pain he opened it with his knife, while on Mary's river (now the Humboldt), letting out a great volume of morbid matter.  Desperate, he set out with two companions, John Scott and John Hannan, over what they understood was a shortcut to Marysville.  After two days’ traveling, without meeting any one, he was so exhausted and the pain so unbearable that he threw himself on the ground and begged the others to leave him!  They manfully refused, declaring they would carry him first.  Nerved by this, he started again, and to their joy soon after they saw a flag appearing over the trees, and were soon at the hotel at Rough and Ready camp, kept by John Magruder.  He was generous and took care of the penniless wayfarer until he was able to go out.  He first secured a job as dishwasher in the mine boarding house, but in a short time was promoted to be blacksmith, taking the place of the man who had gone off on a drunken spree.  With $40 earned there, he came by way of Marysville to Sacramento, arriving in the fall of 1852.  After a time he obtained employment at his trade of plow-making, at a shop at the corner of Sixth and K streets; but the flood of that year drove him both out of work and out of the city.  He then worked at his trade in San Francisco for time.  The disadvantages of his imperfect early education were very manifest to him, and, like Elihu Burritt, he had set himself to study while an apprentice boy by his forge, perfecting himself in English branches and gaining a fair amount of Latin.  Having fortunately discovered his elder sister in San Francisco, who had preceded him to California in 1844, with the famous Murphy party, was happily married, by her assistance he was able to go to Santa Clara and take a course of study at the University of Pacific.  The name of his sister appears in the first census ever taken of San Francisco, in 1846.  She was married first to a Mr. Montgomery in Missouri and later to Senator Wallis, of Santa Clara.  Her son, T. H. Wallis, is now State Librarian at Sacramento.  Returning to San Francisco, Mr. Armstrong began the study of law, spending portions of his time in different offices, among others those of F. A. Fabeus and Oscar L. Shafter, a former Judge of the Supreme Court.  In 1855 he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of this State and for a time practiced with some success in San Francisco.  He then followed his profession for over eleven years in Jackson, Amador County, with signal success, for a portion of the time with the late Senator Farley; and finally, in the fall of 1868, he came to Sacramento where he has since resided, building up the good practice, establishing himself firmly in the esteemed and confidence of the people.  He was first appointed judge in 1883 by Governor Stoneman to fill an unexpired term, and in 1886 was appointed to fill the same position.  It is a coincidence worthy of notice that he was first appointed by the first official act of Governor Stoneman and the second time by his last official act.  The Governor then remarked, "The first shall be last and the last shall be first."  At the last election Judge Armstrong was chosen by the people for the same position.  As a judge he is dispassionate and irreproachable.  Politically he has always been a consistent Democrat; but to his present position he was practically elected by Republican votes, as the county has a Republican majority of 1,500, thus showing his great popularity.  He was, first married August 29, 1863, but during the succeeding year his wife died.  Sept. 29, 1866, he married Miss Annie E. Hinkson, a native of Missouri.  They have no children.  It should be further stated that Judge Armstrong served for twelve years as trustee of the State library, which institution he was chiefly instrumental in building up.

 

An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. By Hon. Win. J

Davis. Lewis Publishing Company 1890. Page 274-276.

 

Submitted by: Nancy Pratt Melton.