Sacramento County
Biographies
HON. JOHN HILL McKUNE
HON. J. H. McKUNE,
one of the oldest and most eminent members of the bar
of Sacramento County, was born in Sullivan County, New York, March 22,
1819. From 1839 to 1844 he read law in the office of Bentley &
Richards, at Montrose, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania,
and was admitted to the bar at that place in 1844. He practiced law at
Montrose until 1848, when he removed to Illinois and
resumed the practice of his profession at Lee Center,
Lee County. In
1849 he came overland to California, starting from Independence,
Missouri, May 7, and crossing the Sierra
Nevada September 1, at a point near where the present railroad
crosses. First, he mined for gold at Nevada City, and hunted deer in the
fall of 1849 until some time in January following, and then came to Sacramento,
where he has ever since resided. At the election April 5, 1850, he was
chosen county attorney, and he held that office two years. In March, 1854,
the President of the United
States appointed him agent for the United
States Land Commission, and he held this office also two years. At the
general election of 1856 he was elected on the Democratic ticket to the
Legislature, and during the session of 1857 he took a prominent part, acting as
chairman of the committee appointed to conduct the impeachment of State
Treasurer Bates. He was elected District Judge of the Sixth Judicial
District, at the regular election of 1858, having been a candidate of the
Douglas Democrats, and to the same office as a Republican in 1863; he held that
office until December 31, 1869. In company with John C. Burch and Creed Haymond, he was appointed by Governor Booth as Code
Commissioner to compile the statutes that were ratified by the Legislature in
1871-‘72. Judge McKune has probably been connected
with more celebrated lawsuits than any other attorney in Sacramento; and he
also compiled all the ordinances of the city of Sacramento except a few
touching franchises, into one ordinance numbered 17, and that number is still
preserved among the ordinances of the city. February 26, 1855, Judge McKune married Mary G. Bennett, at San
Francisco, and they have had two children: Florence A.
and Charles Ralph. The latter, who clerked for
Baker & Hamilton for a time, and also worked upon a farm, died in August,
1889, in Sacramento, at the age of
thirty-one years.
Transcribed 9-25-07 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated
History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 766-767.
Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.