Sacramento
County
Biographies
THOMAS
BARD MCFARLAND
It is generally conceded that Judge McFarland
is one of the ablest jurists on the Pacific Coast. He is a native of
Pennsylvania and graduated in the class of 1846 from Mercersburg College,
Pennsylvania. He chose for his profession the law and was admitted to the bar
in 1849 by that distinguished jurist the late Jeremiah S. Black. He arrived in
California in 1850 and, like most of the stalwart men at that time, tried his
hand at mining. In 1861 he was elected District Judge of the Fourteenth
District, which was then composed of the county of Nevada. In 1883 he was
re-elected District Judge for the counties of Nevada and Placer. In 1884 he was
appointed Registrar of the U.S. Land Office at Sacramento. He was reappointed,
but resigned, and was afterward elected a member of the California State
Constitutional Convention, which met in the fall of 1878. In 1882 he was
appointed Superior Judge for Sacramento county upon
the urgent request of Governor Perkins. In 1884 he was elected to the same
position and in 1888, a Justice of the Supreme Court of California, which
office he now fills with much credit. Justice McFarland is a man with great
breadth of mind and bright intellect. His decisions during his incumbency as
Superior Judge have seldom been reversed, and his dictum as a Justice of the
Supreme Court commands the highest respect of the bench and bar. He is a man of
deep convictions and on all national questions frank in expressing his views.
Although he has taken an active part in politics, he is in no sense a trimmer
to public opinion, and has shown on several occasions the highest type of
manhood in defending and upholding a policy and principles that he deemed to be
for the best interests of our commonwealth.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: “Illustrated Fraternal Directory Including
Educational Institutions on the Pacific Coast”, Page 66, Publ.
Bancroft Co., San Francisco. Cal. 1889.
© 2012 Cecelia
M. Setty.