San Francisco County
Biographies
HON. MORRIS M. ESTEE
HON. M. M. ESTEE, is a well-known gentleman who stands second to none in the State of California in all the qualities that go to make up a public man. The name of Hon. M. M. Estee has, during almost the entire growth of the State, been associated with its political, agricultural and industrial development. In the idea of his many friends he has done more to foster the growth of the community than anyone in the line of life which he originally marked out for himself, and which he has so well and ably filled.
Mr. Estee was born in Warren county, Pennsylvania, in 1834, and is consequently in the prime of his physical and intellectual faculties. Sprung from the hardy stock of the early colonists of that great agricultural State, his boyhood and growth had the advantage of a country bringing-up, while his education was received at the public schools and latterly at Waterford Academy. So well did he profit by the educational facilities at his command that, from his sixteenth to his nineteenth year, he was enabled to spend his winters in imparting to his juniors the knowledge he had already acquired and utilized.
It was in his nineteenth year that he turned his eyes to the Golden State, arriving here by way of Panama in 1853. Like many others of our foremost citizens, the first three years of his life in the State were spent in the mines of Amador and El Dorado counties. Again, in 1856 we find him teaching school, and in the following year studying law under Judge T. M. Pawling at Volcano, moving thence to Sacramento, where in 1859 he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court. From that date until 1866 he continued to practice law at Sacramento, representing that city in the Assembly during the legislative session of 1863-‘64, being subsequently elected District Attorney, which office he held for two years. In 1866 he removed to San Francisco, which he has since then made his professional headquarters, though his business and domestic affiliations are properly located in Napa county, where Mr. Estee owns and has most judiciously improved a valuable and beautiful estate, a large portion of which is set out in vines and orchard to the conservation and development of which, as well as to the art of scientific wine-making, he has devoted much of his spare time and energy, being unanimously acknowledged to be one of the foremost viticulturists and horticulturists in the State, his cellar alone having cost him $70,000 to construct and equip.
During the first year of his settlement in this city Mr. Estee was associated in practice with ex-Judge E. H. Heacock, and subsequently for about three years with the late John R. McLaurin, till the latter’s death. From 1870 to 1880 he formed a co-partnership with ex-Judge John H. Boalt, and upon its dissolution in the latter year he associated himself with Mr. Ramon E. Wilson, this firm still existing under the name of Estee, Wilson & McCutchen.
In this connection it may be stated that in 1872 he published a work on Pleadings and Practice in three volumes, which is in its third edition, and is a recognized authority among the profession.
In political life Mr. Estee has all along been a power by reason of his various talents of oratory, sound judgment and leadership. Always one of the most prominent figures in the Republican party, he has time and again demonstrated his ability to mold the sentiments and actions of that party. In 1871 when Hon. Newton Booth entered upon his successful campaign against Hon. H. H. Haight for the Governorship of the State, Mr. Estee was chosen Secretary of the Republican State Central Committee; and two years later it was largely due to his personal efforts that the Legislature elected Governor Booth to the United States Senate, Mr. Estee officiating on that occasion as Speaker of the Assembly.
In 1877 he was a conspicuous and leading figure in the constitutional Convention, of which he was a member, and was Chairman of the Committee on Corporation.
In the session of 1877-‘78 it was only the fact that the Democratic party was in the majority that Mr. Estee was not himself elected to the United States Senate, for which he received the Republican nomination. Should there happen to be a vacancy in that body during the present session of the Legislature, it is highly probably that Mr. Estee would again be the nominee of the party in power, as the most available as well as the most popular candidate.
Mr. Estee was the Republican candidate for Governor of the State in 1882, but the Democrats were still in the majority. In 1888 he held the distinguished position of President of the National Republican Convention at Chicago, and in 1889 was appointed by President Harrison a delegate to the Pan-American Congress, which met at Washington in October of that year.
In 1863 he married Miss Frances H. Divine, the daughter of Judge Divine, of San Jose. They have had three children, a son and two daughters,, who are living. One, the eldest, is married to Mr. Charles J. During. The youngest is still a Miss and in school.
Personally Mr. Estee is a man of commanding presence, urbane, courteous and dignified in demeanor, cool, calm and sound in judgment, fluent in oratory, convincing in argument, and enjoys the respect and confidence of all classes of the community.
Transcribed
5-11-06 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "The Bay of San
Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages 410-412, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
©
2006 Marilyn R. Pankey.