San Francisco County
Biographies
THOMAS EDWARD HAYDEN
HAYDEN, THOMAS EDWARD, Lawyer and Educator, San
Francisco, California, was born in 1868, in Bleeker, New York,
the son of Charles C. and Maria (Howells) Hayden.
At
the age of 12 he left the village school of Williamstown,
New York, to become a clerk in
the country store. At 13 he accepted a
position as teacher of forty-five ungraded pupils in
the winter school of the village. In the
spring of 1882 he entered Pulaski Academy of Pulaski, New York, attending
during the spring and fall terms and paying his expenses by teaching and
working at other employments. He was
graduated from Pulaski Academy’s
classical department in 1885, and for the next two years, 1886-87, was
principal of the village school of Fine, New York. His next step was into Hamilton
College, in 1887, where he became
business manager of the Hamilton Literary Magazine, and during his vacations,
until 1891, stimulated his practical senses by learning the tanner’s
trade.
In
1891 Mr. Hayden was still in Clinton, New York,
where he organized the Clinton High
School, and until 1893 was the principal
thereof. The years 1894 to 1900 find him
again nomadic, a superintendent at Waterville and a
lecturer on literary and political subjects at the summer schools and the Chautauqua
in different parts of New York State. But while he was at Hamilton
College he had been reading law and
developing his taste for the profession.
In addition to the degree of A. B., which he had taken in 1891, he was
graduated in the following year with an A. M., cum laude, from a special course
in constitutional law. He went to California
in 1900, completed his law studies at Stanford, 1901-03, and then opened an
office in San Francisco as the head
of the firm Hayden, Alderman and Oakford. This partnership continued, with gratifying
success, until shortly after the earthquake in 1906, when Mr. Alderman’s
departure for Arizona left the
local business in the hands of the two other members of the firm. In 1907 Mr. Oakford
withdrew to accept a flattering offer elsewhere, and since then Mr. Hayden has
practiced alone.
He
had not been established long in San Francisco
before he became active in politics.
This was evidenced chiefly by his candidacy for Congress, as a Democrat,
from the Fifth Congressional District, and subsequently by his Assistant City Attorneyship, under Percy V. Long, in 1908. In the following year he became a member and
President of the Board of Education.
His
legal work for the city is especially marked, both by his services as counsel
of the Board of Education, acting under his appointment by Mayor Taylor, and
also as counsel for the city in the final settlement of the eastern boundary of
the Presidio Reservation, which had been in dispute for about forty years. In the former capacity he was a leading
spirit in the injunction proceedings against Mayor McCarthy’s appointees;
again, in the mandamus proceedings in the case of Bannerman vs. Boyd, against
the Auditor, he succeeded in establishing before the Supreme Court a principal
of charter interpretation differing widely from the rule believed to have been
made in the Carter case, wherein it was held that the Mayor did not have to
specify the cause for removal.
Aside
from his legal and educational work, Mr. Hayden has taken interest in oil and
mining development and is interested financially in both fields.
In
college Mr. Hayden was the senior prize debater and chemist and was a Phi Betta Kappa man, a society that in every respect represents
the best traditions and scholarship of college life. He is ex-president of the Iroquois Club,
member of the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco Association for the Study and
Prevention of Tuberculosis, San Francisco Settlement Association and the
People’s Place.
Transcribed by Betty Vickroy.
Source: Press Reference
Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page
831, International News
Service, New
York,
Chicago, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2007 Betty Vickroy.
California Biography Project
San Francisco County
California Statewide
Golden Nugget Library