WILLIAM B. HAMILTON

      William B. Hamilton is one of the best known and most popular officials in Sacramento county.  A man of splendid character and unusual ability, for years he has been connected with public affairs and has made a record which commends him to public confidence and assures him the highest respect of the community.  For twenty years occupying the position of county clerk, he has manifested marked integrity and fitness in the office and with the multitude of delicate duties which his public service has caused him to discharge, he has acquitted himself with such singular credit as wholly to disarm envious partisan criticism and steadily add to his deserved popularity.   In fact he has usually been the candidate of all parties in seeking office. Few men have been so fortunate in public life.  On starting out with the determination to administer every public trust with honesty, to regard himself as the servant and never as the master of the people and to be courteous and obliging to all, his ability supplied all else that was necessary to insure his success and popular esteem. Endowed in a large measure with personal magnetism, a thorough gentleman at all times, bright and entertaining and full of that sparkling energy which always charms, he makes friends more readily than it is possible for most men to do.

      Mr. Hamilton is a native of England, born in 1848, of Scotch and English ancestry.  His parents came to America, however, when he was only about a year old, landing in New Orleans in 1849.  The father, in that year, continued his journey to California with the adventurous and determined pioneers who were attracted hither by the report of the Marshall gold discovery at Coloma.  In 1854 the family, who had been left in Ohio, followed the father to the land of gold, by way of the Nicaragua route, across the isthmus, locating in Eldorado County, at a place called American Flat, where they resided until 1856.  At that time Eldorado county was probably the most populous county in the state excepting San Francisco, and had equal representation with the latter.  It was also then the mining Mecca of the world.  The gold that was discovered at Coloma by Marshall was the lodestone that attracted the ambitious youth from the eastern states and Europe; it brought about the upbuilding of California by enterprising and talented men in all the walks of life, and thus a great commonwealth was laid by men of worth, nearly all of whom have now passed away; but their work is still appreciated by this generation and will be by posterity through all time to come.

      In 1856 the Hamiltons removed to Sacramento, and in the capital city of California the subject of this review acquired his education, being thus fitted for the important responsible duties which were later to devolve upon him.  During the formative period of his life, when his character and impressions were being molded, he was fortunate in having for his friend, counselor and advisor the late James W. Coffroth, a brilliant lawyer and orator and a magnetic leader of men.  It was under the direction of this gentleman that Mr. Hamilton received his training as a law student.  In 1874 he was appointed by Judge W. R. Cantwell to the position of clerk of the police court of Sacramento, and in 1876 he received the appointment of deputy county clerk under the late A. A. Wood, and continued in that position through the term of Colonel T. H. Berkey and Charles N. Coglan.  In 1884 Mr. Hamilton was elected county clerk of Sacramento county by a majority of one thousand three hundred and one, and two years later was re-elected by a plurality of three thousand, and at each subsequent election, with one exception, he received the vote of the people, not of parties, and has been elected by a very large majority.  In 1898 he was elected for the fourth term, so that he is the present incumbent of the office; and when his time for retirement will have come, in 1902, his political life will have extended over twenty-five years, which is a sufficient commentary on his high standing in the community and his irreproachable course in office.

      Mr Hamilton is well known in social circles, and holds membership in the following fraternities:  A.F & A. M.; Improved Order of Red Men; Ancient Order of United Workmen; Benevolent Order of Elks; and Del Paso Outing Club.  He is a great lover of the gun and rod. In manner he is plain and unassuming, qualities which have won him the regard of many friends. His courtesy and affability are innate traits of his character, and are manifest at all times and under all circumstances.  His manner is genial, his sympathy broad, his temperament kindly. He wins friends wherever he goes and holds friendship as most inviolable.  True worth at all times wins recognition from him, and he believes in the fraternal spirit which so endears a man to the great masses, for in his dealings and manner of address, he knows no rich, poor or middle class.  In all his associations he is valued for his high standard of manhood, his courteous bearing and his individuality.  Where the prominent men of the community are representatives of the best manhood, the future of the state opens constantly with the most brilliant promises, for it is manly men who make the history that the world delights to read, and who develop civilization and encourage the realization of the fondest hopes of the race.