San Francisco County
Biographies
WILLIAM H. H. HART
W. H. H. HART, Attorney-General, was
born in Yorkshire, England,
January 25, 1848. His father left England
in May, 1852, and went direct to Little Rock, Kendall
County, Illinois. He remained
there until 1857. In April, 1856, Mr. Hart was stolen by Indians, and was
recovered in October of the same year. The Indians were a portion of the
Blackhawk tribe encamped near Little Rock,
then a frontier village. In the spring of 1857 his father removed to Iowa.
His mother died in February, 1858, and his father in April, 1859. Young Hart’s
first work in Iowa consisted in herding sheep, which he commenced in 1857, when
he was nine years old and at this time he was taught the use of fire-arms, in
which he had considerable practice, until at the time of entering the army, he
was considered an expert for a boy. Having been treated unkindly by the man
with whom he lived, he ran away in August, 1861. Going to a friend of his
fathers some miles away, for whom he worked until Christmas, 1861, when court
proceedings were threatened to obtain possession of young Hart. As it happened,
he had attended school for two winters previous with a young man fifteen years
his elder by the name of Hinckley, and at the breaking out of the war Hinckley
had gone to southern Illinois,
and having been much attached to young Hart, had kept up a correspondence with
him. When Grant was stationed at Cairo in the summer of
’61, Hinckley rendered important services, on account of
which Grant selected him as the proper man to organize a company of private
scouts. Young Hart, hearing of the proceedings about to be taken in court
against him, drew his money from his father’s friend for four months work
at $6 per month, and was taken by his friend to Rock Island, Illinois, and
reached Cairo on the 3rd or 4th of 1862. He there
met Hinckley, and finally decided to join his company of private scouts, which
he did, and was sworn in January 23, 1862, being then two days less then
fourteen years of age. Hinckley’s scouts left a few days later for Paducah, and
along with them young Hart took part in the campaigns of Donnellson, Shiloh,
Vicksburg and Chattanooga, and in command of Hickley’s
scouts preformed important services at the battle of Missionary Ridge, and was
wounded three times during that contest, while caring an important dispatch
from Grant to Sherman’s command across a portion of the field occupied by
Confederate forces (between Citico creek and
Sherman’s right). After partial recovery from these wounds Mr. Hart returned home,
in March 1864. He began study at the public school, and in May enlisted in the
Forty-fourth Iowa as a private. Mr. Hart was mustered out of the service in
September of the same year, and in February, 1865, he enlisted in the One
Hundred and Forty-seventh Illinois. He finally mustered out of the service in
February 1866, having been wounded five times at Shiloh,
Pulmes Ferry and Citico
creek. In the summer of 1865 Judge Russell suggested to young Mr. Hart that he
would make a lawyer, and presented him with a copy of Blackstone. That was
while he was doing provost duty at Dawson, Terrell
County, Georgia.
From that time he continued to study law, and during two years after leaving
the army he devoted himself to study in the public schools, reading law at night.
He was admitted to practice in the county courts of Iowa
in September, 1868, four months before attaining his majority. He was admitted
to practice in the Distract Court of Iowa in September 1869; in the Supreme
Court of Iowa in April, 1870; in the Supreme Court of California in July, 1873;
in the Supreme Court of the United States
in December. 1874; and was since admitted in the Supreme Court of
Illinois, Nevada and Arizona.
He has also been admitted to practice in the Eighth and Ninth Circuit of the
United States Circuit Court, and the United States District Courts for Iowa
and California, and was also
admitted, in December, 1874 to practice in the United States Court of Claims.
While
practicing law in Iowa Mr. Hart was elected City Attorney for the city of Dewitt.
In that city it is a noted fact, during his incumbency, that the ordinances of
the city were enforced; and before coming to California, Mr. Hart was known as
one of the best criminal lawyers in that section of the State. He defended four
murder cases, in which he was uniformly successful. Since coming to California
he has devoted himself to the civil law in all its branches.
As
a citizen of California, Mr. Hart
has been interested in manufacturing, agriculture and mining, and his interest
in mining at the present time is considered very large. He is considered one of
the best mining lawyers in the State, having gained the reputation in the
Copper Queen cases in Arizona and
sustained it through numerous prominent cases in this State.
Mr.
Hart is a member of the Grand Army, George H. Thomas Post, No 2, of San
Francisco; of the Masonic Fraternity; of the Odd
Fellows, belongs to the Golden Gate Commandery,
Knight Templar, and is a director in the Veterans’ Home Association at
Yountville.
Mr.
Hart is the distinguished attorney for Florence Blythe, the successful claimant
of the great Blythe case recently finished in San
Francisco. At the close of that case, after eleven and
a half months’ steady trial, his opponents gave him the credit of having
mastered all the details and evidence in the case in reference to the
collateral claimants, as well as the alleged widow, and his own client. The
preparations which he made for this case, true to his instincts, were arduous
and intricate, but when complete there was not a weak place to be found.
His
management of the child’s case has won for him a reputation that will endure
through life.
Mr.
Hart was the Republican candidate for Attorney-General four years ago in the
swift campaign in which he ran more then 7,000 votes ahead of his ticket. Mr.
Hart was instrumental in having passed by the legislature in 1889 the bill for
a belt railroad in San Francisco, the road to be built on the State property
around the margin of the bay, and to be controlled by the State Board of Harbor
Commissioners, and to be free to all railroads coming into San Francisco, and
Shippers of freight.
As
a political economist Mr. Hart is distinguished for the strong, clear views
propounded by him on the silver question. Like himself, these views have been
growing in favor firmly and steadily.
Transcribed by Kim Buck.
Source: "The Bay of San
Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages 521-522,
Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2006 Kim Buck.
California
Biography Project
San
Francisco County
California
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Golden
Nugget Library