Santa Clara County
Biographies
HON. WILLIAM Z. ANGNEY
Though so long a time has elapsed since the death of Hon. W. Z. Angney, January 28, 1878, the firmness of his character, the brilliancy of his mind, the extent of his public services, and the progressiveness of his life as as readily recalled as though he swept across the horizon of today rather than yesterday. As a lawyer, rancher, legislator and reviser of the code bearing upon the revenue law, his name is indissolubly associated with the history of Santa Clara county, and it has been the privilege of comparatively few, in this or any other community, to become the center of as wide a circle of personal friends or to attach to themselves, by the chains of affectionate esteem, so many men and women of varying fortunes and social rank. Born at Carlisle, the county seat of Cumberland county, Pa., October 3, 1818, Mr. Angney secured his preliminary education in the grammar school of his native town, and at the age of seventeen entered Dickinson College, from which he graduated with high honors. Having a a preference for the law, he owed his first legal insight to the instruction of Mr. Alexander of Carlisle, with whom he remained for two years, and then made his way to Jefferson City Mo., where he was admitted to the bar. During the Mexican war he arose from the rank of lieutenant to that of captain, acceptably commanding a brigade of regular troops. When peace was restored he was elected a delegate to intercede at Washington for a civil government for the territory of New Mexico, and having completed his mission, he returned to New Mexico and in 1851 set out for California, being one of the first to drive sheep across the plains.
Mr. Angney did not
blindly accept the popular opinion of California's opportunities and resources,
but set out to find out for himself to what extent he could rely upon
hearsay. Traveling throughout the state,
he was favorably impressed but nevertheless returned to his home in the east,
and there made permanent arrangement to settle on the coast. Returning via Panama in 1853, he practiced
his profession in San Francisco, but the state of affairs there going contrary
to his moral nature, he determined to abandon law,
temporarily at least, and therefore purchased a herd of sheep, establishing
himself upon the ranch now owned by Scott and Hersey, near Gilroy. His inclination for public affairs was
commendably apparent in his new locality, and his ability seemed to beckon
toward him opportunities of large worth in the administration of affairs. In 1867 he was elected to the general
assembly, and in the session of 1867-68 served as chairman of the committee on
ways and means, the special committee of adoption of a uniform system of fees
for all the counties in the state, and was a member of the standing committee
on education. In July, 1870, he was
appointed by Governor Haight a member of the state
board of equalization, and while thus serving the public, took charge of the
revision of the code bearing upon the revenue law. That this task required more than average
ability and knowledge of law is most obvious.
Mr. Angney lent to the undertaking the weight
of his clear mind and practical common sense, with the result that the immense
amount of labor was successfully accomplished, and the greater part of his revision
accepted by the code revisers. For this
undertaking he received no substantial remuneration whatever. In 1875 he was again elected to the county
legislature and served as chairman of the committee on finance, chairman of the
committee on public lands, and was a member of the committees on agriculture,
fisheries and public morals. The first
session witnessed some of his most brilliant legislative achievements, but in
the second his health began to fail, and during the Christmas holidays he
returned to his home, never more to appear in the halls of legislature. Deep and intense sorrow was felt at the time
of his death the following January, and the newspapers, regardless of party
strife, bestowed upon the departed public servant the praise due his admirable
service and noble character. The
committee appointed by the senate to attend the funeral in a body consisted of
Senators Murphy, Montgomery, Flint, Fowler and Evans, and in their meeting it
was universally acknowledged that the state body had lost one of its ablest and
most faithful statesmen.
To Mrs. Angney's constant sympathy and keen intellectual companionship Mr. Angney attributed much of his success in life. Mrs. Angney was formerly Lydia Frances Witham, a native of Denmark, Oxford county, Me. Her father, Eli Witham, a representative of one of the old time families of the state and the son of a Revolutionary soldier, came from Witham, on the eastern coast of England, situated on the bank of a river bearing the family name. Mrs. Angney's mother was Hannah (Fernald) Witham, a native of Portsmouth, N.H., which town had been the family seat ever since the first ancestor came to America, her great-grandfather Fernald being the establisher of the name in America. Great-grandfather Fernald met accidental death through the firing of a gun, intended as a salute for a ship coming to the harbor of Portsmouth. His son, Gilbert, the grandfather of Mrs. Angney, was a man of much learning and literary skill, and his granddaughter has in her possession a book which bespeaks his rare knowledge and facile expression. Eli Witham cleared a farm in the heavy timber land of Maine, and this farm remained in the family possession until the fall of 1887. Mrs. Angney engaged in education work after completing her education in the public schools of Maine, finally taking a course at the Coney Female Academy at Augusta, Me. The Maine winters proving too severe for her frail health, she came to California in 1853, and while living with friends in San Francisco, met and married Captain Angney in 1864. Mrs. Angney is a woman of brilliant mind, and remarkable descriptive powers, and for years has been one of the foremost of California's women correspondents. Many of her poems have been widely read, and she has been a contributor to the papers of New York and San Francisco, of Santa Clara county, and different parts of the state almost continuously. She is the personification of charity and good will, generous in her contributions to worthy causes, and always ready to do a kindly action for those less fortunate than herself. Mrs. Angney has been a writer of considerable note and is the author of many poems, among them “California and Other Poems,” in pamphlet form. She has written more for Gilroy and vicinity than any other writer, speaking of the beauties and possibilities of the valley.
Transcribed
5-8-15 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 587-588. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Marilyn R. Pankey.