JOSEPH W. HUGHES

    Judge Hughes, of Sacramento, is a distinguished member of the judiciary of California and is one of a class of American jurists whom the people regard as a Gibraltar of Justice.  In the hands of such judges the individuals and state feel that every interest is safe and that the law will be administered with the broadest intelligence and with a keen regard for equity.  He took to the bench and the very highest qualifications for this most responsible office in the system of government and his record as a judge has been in harmony with his record as a man and a lawyer, distinguished by unswerving integrity and a masterful grasp of every problem that has presented itself for solution.

    Joseph W. Hughes was born in Fayette, Howard County, Missouri, June 10, 1860, and is a son of J. R. Hughes of that place, who was born in Kentucky, son of William and Nancy (Morrison) Hughes.  The grandfather was a native of Virginia and died in Fayette, Missouri, at the age of forty-four years.  His wife, whose birth occurred in Kentucky, also spent her last days in Missouri.  The maternal grandparents of our subject were Joseph and Amanda (Stapleton) Wilcoxson, and the former, who was probably born in Virginia, died in Fayette, Missouri.  J. R. Hughes, the father of our subject, is a farmer by occupation and from Kentucky he removed to Missouri with his parents and is still a resident of that state.  His wife bore the maiden name of Priscilla Ann Wilcoxson, and was born in Missouri.  They became the parents of six children all of whom are yet living, namely:  Joseph W., William; Minnie; Morrison; Gussie; and James R.  The father entered land from the government in Missouri, and taking up his abode on the wild tract transformed the wild prairie into rich and fertile fields.  

     On the old homestead Judge Hughes spent the days of his boyhood and youth and in early life attended the public schools of the neighborhood.  When seventeen years of age he became a student in the college in Fayette, Missouri, but left that institution five months before graduation.  Entering upon his business career he secured a clerkship in a general store, where he remained for eighteen months, and then bought out his employer, after which he conducted the store until his removal to California.  On the 6th of April, 1882, he left his home in Missouri and started for the Pacific coast, reaching Sacramento on the 16th of the same month.  Here he accepted the position as bookkeeper for Jefferson Wilcoxson, his great uncle, in whose employ he remained for five years.  

     In the meantime he determined to make the practice of law his life work and devoted all his leisure hours in mastering the principles of jurisprudence as set forth in Blackstone and other reliable works on law.  On the 11th of March, 1886, he was admitted to the bar, and in his profession he has won a position of prominence that many an older practitioner might envy.  His thorough understanding of the law, his careful preparation of cases and his ability to apply judicial principles to the point in litigation won him marked success before court and jury and gained to him a liberal clientage.  In 1896 he was elected a judge of the superior court and is now acceptably filling that position.  The judge who makes a success in the discharge of his multitudinous delicate duties, whose rulings are seldom reversed and before whom counsel and litigant come with an unshakeable confidence, is a man of well rounded character, finely balanced mind and splendid intellectual attainments.  That Judge Hughes is regarded as such a jurist in a uniformly accepted fact.

     The judge was married in 1893 to Miss Nellie Stanley, a daughter of Lee Stanley who came from Indiana to California in the fall of 1850, when only seventeen years of age. He possessed marked determination and his resolute will and indefatigable energy enabled him to make continuous and marked progress on the road to success.  He was first employed by a mining company engaged in draining the middle fork of the American river near Mount Gregory.  Later he entered into partnership with a man who was operating Works' ranch in El Dorado county, ten miles above Georgetown.  After two years passed in that way he engaged in teaming, making regular trips to Georgetown and Mount Gregory with two teams. During this time he maintained his residence in Sacramento.  In 1861 he was married and abandoned teaming, devoting his energies to the hay and grain business.  He was conducting a livery stable when he was elected the sheriff of Sacramento county in 1890, being the candidate of the Citizen's Association and endorsed by the Democracy.  He is, however, and always has been, a Republican in politics and the majority which he received was a high compliment to him, indicating his personal popularity and the confidence reposed in him by his fellow citizens.  He is now a member of the firm of Clark Brothers & Stanley.

      Judge Hughes is a Democrat in his political affiliations and cast his first presidential vote for Grover Cleveland in 1884.  Socially he is connected with the Sacramento Lodge, F. & A. M. , of which he is past master.  He has also taken Scottish Rite degrees and is a charter member of the Order of Elks in San Francisco, and is a past grand chief of the Foresters of America.  Of all men he seems to be satisfied with the simple discharge of his duty without regard to its effect upon his growing fame. Indeed, in his very modesty of manner and fidelity is found not only the chief causes of his popularity among his associates, the legal profession and the people, but also one of the best evidences of his marked ability and worth.