San Francisco County
Biographies
FISHER AMES
FISHER AMES, attorney, San Francisco, is well known to the People of
California, although he has not sought publicity. His notoriety is due solely to his extended
practice as a faithful lawyer and advocate, and to this is mostly due his
promotion to public position for a number of years past. He has evinced his
independence of spirit and conscientiousness by pursuing a determined course
even though he knew it would displease some, which every faithful public
officer is obliged to do at times.
Mr.
Ames comes of a good New England family, who were originally from old England.
For five generations they lived in New Hampshire and Massachusetts,
throughgoing Americans, doing their duty as patriot
when called upon. Mr. Ames indeed had a brother, Thomas Gardner Ames, in the
civil war who went to the front with the fifteenth New
Hampshire, and participated with his regiment in the
different engagements that followed. His last battle was that of Port Hudson. From
the hardships and sufferings he endured in connection with that engagement, he
fell ill and died. His devotion to the country he thus sealed with his life,
dying in the service, and certainly with as much honor
as if death had come to him in all the roar of battle. Mr. Fisher Ames was then
to young to enlist, although he much desired so to do.
Of Mr. Ames` family his only sister is also dead, and the other members reside East, he being the only one to come to this state.
Mr.
Ames was born in Holderness, New Hampshire,
February 8, 1844. His boyhood was spent on a farm and
in teaching school. He attended Plymouth Academy
at Plymouth, New Hampshire, then
the Kimball Union
Academy at Meriden, New
Hampshire and finished at Dartmouth Collage, Hanover,
New Hampshire, where he was graduated in
1869. His law studies he pursued at the law department of the University of Albany, New York, where he was graduated in 1870.
Following, he came to this State believing the prospects to be better here for
a young and ambitious lawyer then in the East. He at once entered on the
practice of his profession, and of his progress since, and the position he has
gained, readers of the papers should be able to form a good general estimate.
In all that time he has been in practice alone. He has almost entirely devoted
himself to civil procedure. His advocacy has certainly been as successful as
the facts warranted. To every case-entrusted to him he has given great care.
His clients in fact have had the benefit to the full extent of his knowledge
and ability, and let the case be a trivial one or an important one, he has ever
gone into the merits exhaustively. For what Mr. Ames has accomplished the
credit is the greater inasmuch as he began without influence or wealth. The
present result, a good position, is due alone to his own
efforts.
In
politics Mr. Ames has always been a consistent Democrat through conviction. He
certainly has been a great benefit to the party in this State. His example,
indeed, had influence even had he been less a worker then he was. In the
offices he has held he has done his duty faithfully and fully, and in these his
record runs parallel with his record as a lawyer. He was assistant city and county
Attorney during 1872-3-4. The
latter part of 1874 he was appointed special counsel by the Board of
Supervisors for the collection of delinquent taxes. He was a member of the
Board of Education in 1875-1877. He was a member of the Board of Freeholders to
frame a city charter in 1883. He is now one of our Fire Commissioners.
In
business enterprises he was director of the Sutter Street Railroad Company
prior to the change to the present management. He is now the director of the
State Investment Insurance Company, and attorney for the Company. Naturally he
belongs to the Bar Association. In manner Mr. Ames suggests the wide awake
merchant or lawyer. He is cool, searching, self-possessed, but pleasant and
courteous to all. He is a man of firm and determined purpose, one indeed who
could be relied upon in any emergency. He certainly has always shown the
courage of his convictions, His record justly entitles
him to the respect in which he is held by the people.
Transcribed by Kim Buck.
Source: "The Bay of San
Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages 507-508,
Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2006 Kim Buck.
California
Biography Project
San
Francisco County
California
Statewide
Golden
Nugget Library