Santa
Clara County
Biographies
HON. NORMAN E. MALCOLM
It is said that a young man in
choosing the career of a lawyer as his life work should possess not only genius
but rare ability. But a lawyer can be successful without being great, and
education, hard work and patience count for much in attaining this success. It
is upon the latter that Norman E. Malcolm bases his claim, and in the short
time in which he has given his entire attention to the practice of his
profession, he has realized that success rarely comes early in the lawyer’s
career.
Mr. Malcolm was born in Butte county, Cal., June 21, 1862, and is one of four children
born to David and Jane C. (Devol) Malcolm, being the
only one who grew to maturity. His father was a native of Scotland, where he
was also reared. In early manhood he left home and went to Australia, working
in the mines of that country until 1850. He then went to California and in
Butte county of that state continued to follow mining
pursuits for several years. Being fairly successful he invested his savings in
a fruit ranch near Oroville and here for the rest of his life he followed
ranching pursuits, his death taking place in 1900 at the age of seventy-two
years. His wife was a native of Massachusetts and went to California in 1851;
she died in that state, her death being due to an accident, when she was
fifty-seven years old.
It was in Butte county,
Cal., that Mr. Malcolm attended the common public schools, from which he
graduated at eighteen. He then taught school, following this as a profession
for a number of years, during which he was principal of the Moore’s Station
school. In 1888 he wedded Miss Vernelia D. Young,
born in California and reared and educated in Butte county.
Entering the employ of the government, the young people went to the Hawaiian
Islands, where they both taught school at Ainaka for
four years and witnessed the establishment of the new government in the
Islands. Returning home in 1894, Mr. Malcolm entered the law department of the
Stanford University and was graduated from that department in 1896, being
admitted soon afterward to the supreme court of the state. His election to the
Ninety-seventh Legislature on the Republican ticket followed and he represented
the thirty-second district. During this time he was connected with the first
legislation in regard to the Stanford University, for taxes, etc., and with Dr.
Gardner he introduced and was author of the State Lunacy Bill, also officiating
as chairman of the Lunacy Committee. In 1898, through President McKinley, Mr.
Malcolm was appointed United States Commissioner and Probate Judge, at Juneau,
Alaska, a position he filled in a highly creditable manner for two years.
Returning to Palo Alto in 1900,
Judge Malcolm resumed the practice of law, and since then he has devoted his
entire time to his professional duties. Fraternally, he is a member of the
Knights of Pythias, affiliating with Palo Alto Lodge No. 209, and at Juneau, Alaska,
he was a charter member of Alaska Lodge No. 1, K. of P. In their religious
views, a difference of opinion exist between Judge Malcolm and his wife, the
former being a Baptist and the latter an Episcopalian. Their home, which is one
of the most attractive places in Palo Alto, is brightened by the presence of
one son, Vernon Y. The family occupies a high position socially.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast
Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 1348. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.