San Francisco County
Biographies
Stephen J.
Field.—This distinguished jurist was born in the town
Haddam, Connecticut, November 4, 1814.
His father, David Dudley Field, a clergyman of note, was born at East
Guilford, Connecticut, May 20, 1781, died at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, April
15, 1867, at the ripe old age of eighty-six years. At the age of thirteen years Stephen J. Field
was sent to Greece, in order to give him a better opportunity to study that and
other modern languages of the East, and he remained nearly three years at
Athens and Smyrna, prosecuting these studies.
He returned in the winter of 1832-33, and in the following autumn
entered Williams College, at which he graduated in 1837. His eldest brother, David Dudley Field, Jr.,
was an eminent jurist, also a graduate of Williams College, and was then
practicing in New York; and the younger brother, having selected the law as his
profession, entered the office of the elder as a student, and there laid the
foundation of a legal experience which has resulted in placing him upon the
highest plane of American jurisprudence.
After being admitted to the bar, he entered into copartnership
with his brother, and the connection was maintained until the spring of 1848,
when he again visited Europe and spent nearly a year in traveling. On his return, in the fall of 1849, the
excitement caused by the discovery of gold in California was at its climax, and
Mr. Field decided to seek a new sphere of operation in the “Land of Gold.” Upon his arrival in California he proceeded
to Marysville, and was elected the first Alcalde of
that already thriving town, which position he held until the organization of
the judiciary under the constitution of the State. Although the jurisdiction of alcaldes’ courts, under the Mexican law, was limited and
inferior, yet in the disorganized state of society at that time in California,
unlimited jurisdiction, both in civil and criminal cases, was claimed and
exercised by them. In October, 1850,
Judge Field was elected to the Legislature, and during the session of 1851 was
an active and efficient member of that body.
He introduced and succeeded in getting passed the several laws governing
the judiciary and regulating the civil and criminal procedure in all the courts
of the State. He was also the author of
that provision of law regulating and controlling the customs of miners in the
determination of their respective claims and in the settlement of controversies
among them; a provision which solved a very perplexing problem and has ever
since remained undisturbed. In 1857 he was
elected a Justice of the Supreme Court of California for six years, from the 1st
day of January, 1858. A vacancy
occurring previous to the commencement of his term, he was appointed to fill
it, and took his seat on the Supreme bench on the 13th day of
October, 1857. The law relative to the
titles to real estate in California was placed on a solid basis while he was on
the bench, and principally by decisions in which he delivered the opinions of
the court. In September, 1859, he became
Chief Justice of the State, and in 1863 President Lincoln appointed him an
associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, which position he
still holds. In 1873 he was appointed
one of a commission, by the Governor of California, to examine the code of laws
of this State, and to prepare amendments to the same for legislative
action. In the summer of 1889 he was
arrested for complicity in the killing of the notorious Judge Terry at Lathrop,
California, but the charge was promptly dismissed, on the ground that the deed
was in self-defense and really a necessity to sustain the Government. Cyrus W. Field, well known as the promoter of
that magnificent enterprise, the laying of the trans-Atlantic cable, which
placed Europe and America in almost instantaneous communication; and Rev. Henry
Martyn Field, of New York, a popular clergyman and
editor of the Evangelist, are brothers of Judge Field, and are men of
exceptional ability in their respective stations in life. The name of Judge Field has often been mentioned
in connection with the presidency of the United States, and his elevation to
that exalted position is among the possibilities of the future.
Transcribed
Karen L. Pratt.
Source:
"The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 1, pages 654-656, Lewis Publishing
Co, 1892.
©
2005 Karen L. Pratt.