A. P. CATLIN

A. P. CATLIN. Since the pioneer days of Sacramento County no name has been more closely identified with its history that with which this sketch commences; thus it is, that supplementary to the chapter on the bench and bar of the county, this article, giving a brief outline of his life and labors, became necessary. He was born on Livingston Manor, Dutchess County, New York, at Tivoli, then known as Red Hook, January 25, 1823. The founder of the family in America, Thomas Catlin, came from Kent, England, in 1643, and located in Hartford, Connecticut; Litchfield, in the same State, finally became the family seat, and five generations of family were born there, down to and including the father of the subject. His grandfather, David, was a captain in the Connecticut militia during the Revolutionary War, and was at Danbury when General Wooster lost his life resisting the attack of the British General Tyron. He lived to pass his ninety-third birthday. The parents of the subject were Pierce and Annie (Winegar) Catlin. The father was in early life a school-teacher, afterward of wagon-maker, and finally a farmer. In 1826 the family removed to Kingston, New York, were A. P. Catlin grew up, and attended the Kingston Academy, where he was graduated. He had also attended school for the time in Litchfield, Connecticut, making his home during that time with his grandfather, Captain Catlin. When in his eighteenth year he entered the office of the law firm up composed of Judges James C. Forsyth and James O. Linderman, both of whom were in the front rank of legal profession of eastern New York. On the 12th of January, 1844 he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of New York, at Albany, and four days later to the Court of Chancery. He practiced law four years in Ulster County, frequently meeting in forensic battle such antagonists as John Currey, afterward Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; William Fullerton, the Judge Fullerton afterward distinguished as the council in Beecher trial; and T. R. Westbrook, later one of the judges of the Supreme Court of New York. While practicing in Ulster County, he successfully conducted an important litigation in such he had before his client the Spanish Consul, resident in New York. He pleaded the consular privilege of answering only in a federal court, a privilege which was vigorously disputed, but he succeeded ousting the State court of jurisdiction. In 1848 he removed to New York city, and formed a partnership with his cousin, George Catlin, with office at No. 14 Pine street. On the 8th day of January, 1849, he sailed in the brig David Henshaw for San Francisco, arriving at the port on the 8th of the following July. He had brought with him a costly outfit of mining machinery, and after a month at San Francisco, proceeded to Mormon Island, where he was soon engaged in mining. He passed the winter at that occupation, also practicing law before the alcalde of that district. In May, 1850, he formed a partnership with John Currey and opened an office in Sacramento. They were associated but a short time, Mr. Currey being compelled to retire to San Francisco on acconnt of his health. Mr. Catlin was a witness to the squatter riots, and took a deep interest in the matters then in controversy. In the fall of 1850 he closed his Sacramento office and went again to Mormon Island to attend to his own mining interests, and to settle up the affairs of the Connecticut Mining and Trading Company, successors to Samuel Brannan. While there, William L. Goggin, agent of the Post Office department for the coast, visited Mormon Island for the purpose of establishing a post office, and Mr. Catlin was requested by him to furnish a name. He suggested Natoma, the name he had already given to the mining company he had organized and signifying "clearwater." Goggin adopted the name and that section of Sacramento County was officially named "Natoma Township." In 1851 he was nominated by the Whigs for the Assembly, but was, with the whole ticket, defeated. In the following year he was nominated for State Senator, and was elected on the ticket when General Scott was a candidate for President. He served in that capacity for two years, in the sessions at Vallejo, Benicia1, and Sacramento. He was the author of the homestead bill, the same as that afterward adopted, but defeated at the time by the casting vote of the lieutenant-governor. The location of this seat of government as Sacramento was accomplished by Mr. Catlin, after that result had been given up by all the others, by a remarkable piece of parliamentary strategy, invented by himself and referred to more fully in the proper chapter of this work. During this session of 1853 he rendered important service to the city of San Francisco, in contributing largely to the defeat of the scheme to extend the water-front of that city 600 feet further into the bay. He wrote the report of the select committee having the matter in charge in such a forcible manner as to virtually kill all chance of the project. This powerful argument is to be found in the published journals of the fourth session of the Legislature. He had meantime continued his mining operations, and on Christmas day, 1851, located a mining canal, starting two and a half miles above Salmon Falls, and carrying the water of the south fork of the American River to Mormon Island and Folsom. This undertaking was completed early in 1853. It was then a very important work, as indeed it is now, though used for a different purpose--that of irrigation. He continued mining until 1865, when he permanently moved to Sacramento. During the interim, however, he had taken an important part in other affairs than those of mining. In 1854 he was tendered the nomination for Congress on the Whig ticket, but declined. During the height of this success of the Know-Nothing movement, in 1855-'56, he was practically retired from politics. In the summer of 1856 he and Robert C. Clarke (afterward county judge and later superior judge) were nominated by a convention of some forty persons, composed of old-line Whigs and Know-Nothings, as candidates for the Legislature, and having been prevailed upon to run against apparently strong odds, both were elected. John H. McKune was also elected at the same time on the Democratic ticket. That session of the the Legislature, which commenced January 1, 1857, was a very important one. During this session Henry Bates, State Treasurer, was impeached, and it was thought Mr. Catlin that this result was brought about, and the gigantic raids upon the treasury of the State were brought to light. In March, 1872, Mr. Catlin was appointed one of three members of the State Board of Equalization, and served as such until April, 1876. The most effective powers conferred on the board by the Legislature were, after a long contest, declared unconstitutional by three of the five judges of the Supreme Court, and this led to the abolition of the board. In 1875 he was brought forward as a candidate for governor before the Independent State, Convention, but was defeated by the combined votes of the supporters of John Bidwell and M. M. Estee, which on the final ballot were cast for General Bidwell. In 1878 he was nominated by the joint convention of Republicans and Democrats of Sacramento as delicate to the constitutional convention, but declined. In 1879 he was one of the nominees of the Republican Party for one of the seven judgeships of the re-organized Supreme Court, but was defeated with all but one on his ticket. Mr. Catlin has had an extensive and varied practice in United States Circuit and District Courts in the State, in the courts of San Francisco, in Sacramento and other counties, and in the Supreme Court of California. He was also, in times past, for considerable periods, at intervals, editor of the old Sacramento Union. He was thus employed from September, 1864, at the commencement of the Lincoln' s second campaign, until April 1865. His political articles were generally recognized as fair by the opponents of the war, against whom they were aimed. His editorial on the execution of Maximilian, headed "The End of a Tyrant," attracted wide attention and was copied in Spanish in the leading Mexican papers. During ten years he successfully defended the Union in eight different actions for libel. His successful prosecution of the celebrated Leidesdorff ranch case, was one of his most brilliantly legal victories. When the government eventually appealed the case to the highest legal tribunal in the land, it came up for argument before the United States Supreme Court, in December, 1863, Mr. Catlin proceeded to Washington and was admitted to the Supreme Court on motion of Judge Jere. Black. He was heard for the greater part of two days, and his argument won six of the nine judges, and carried the case. His further connection with events and Sacramento County is omitted here to avoid repetition of matters elsewhere mentioned in this volume. His partners of law practice since John Currey, have been: Judge T. B. McFarland, David A. Hamburger, Lincoln White and his present associate Judge George A. Blanchard. Mr. Catlin was married me 1,1860, to Miss Ruth press A. C. Donaldson, a native of Iowa. She died in February, 1878, leaving for children, viz: Alexander Donaldson, John C., Ruth B., and Harry C. Mr. Catlin is a member of the Sacramento Society of California Pioneers, of the San Francisco Historical Society, and of the Bar Association of San Francisco. No man who has figured in history of Sacramento has a more honorable record then has Mr. Catlin.

Source: An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. By Hon. Win. J Davis. Lewis Publishing Company 1890. Page 249-251.

Submitted by: Nancy Pratt Melton.