San Francisco County
Biographies
JAMES CHARLES BACON HEBBARD
HEBBARD, JAMES CHARLES BACON, Attorney,
San Francisco, California, was born
at Charleston Village, Quebec,
Canada April 11, 1854,
the son of James Josiah Hebbard and Charlotte (Bacon)
Hebbard. His
first ancestor to reach this country from England
was Roger Williams, who came in the Mayflower; and on his paternal side he is
descended from French Huguenots who settled in Canada. Among his distinguished maternal forbears he
counts his grandfather, Ebenezer Williams, a Magistrate of 1812, and a
great-great-uncle, General Putnam of the Revolution. Judge Hebbard
married Gertrude Elizabeth Gates, and to them were
born two children, Harriet and Gates Hebbard.
Judge Hubbard’s
early schooling consisted largely of his mother’s tuition. In 1862 the family moved from Canada
to California and settled first in Nevada
City, were the son attended the
high school until he was 15 years old.
From 1869 to 1872 he was a pupil of the St. Augustine
Military College,
Benicia, and upon his graduation
was appointed military instructor in St. Matthew’s
Military School of San Mateo County.
This position he
retained until 1879, and while discharging his duties and helping materially to
build up the school he was studying law under the direction of General John H.
Dickinson, formerly military instructor at Benicia. In that year he began the practice of his
profession as an associate of General Dickinson, and continued as such until
1883, when he severed this successful connection to go to Seattle.
After a short
period of private practice in the North, he accepted the editorship of the
Seattle Evening Herald and became an active journalist. But beyond these duties he accomplished much
for that city, both in a military and a civic way. While acting as military instructor at San
Mateo he had become a Major of the National Guard of
California, and from 1881 to 1882 had been First Lieutenant of Company B. Stimulated by this experience, he organized,
in 1883 and 1884, and captained the first military company in Seattle. He was also chiefly responsible for the
establishment of the first fire department there, as well as other important
institutions.
In 1888 he
returned to California and
shortly thereafter was elected local Justice of the Peace for one term. Three years later, in 1891, he began his
eventful career as Judge of the Superior Court of California. This extended over eighteen years and was marked
by much important litigation, involving questions of interpretation of law and
vast sum of money. Conspicuous among
these cases is that of the famous mining suit, Fox vs. Hale and Norcross, and
also that of Emeric vs. Alvarado et al., in which
latter thirty years; litigation terminated in the award to 600 tenants of their
titles to the land they had occupied.
Judge Hebbard had the additional distinction of deciding for the
State the important tax cases of 1887 of the Central Pacific Railroad,
involving a million dollars. In 1909 he
retired from the bench with the remarkable record of having had 90 per cent of
all his cases affirmed by the appellate courts.
Since then he has been engaged in private practice.
Beyond his
judicial and legal talents Judge Hebbard has a marked
literary bent. He has contributed
largely both in verse and prose to papers and periodicals and regards his work
in this field as a soothing recreation.
Mr. Hebbard was formerly a well-known writer for the Examiner
and other papers.
He is a man of
magnetic personality, genial manner and possessed of a wide circle of
friends. His popularity among his
fellows is attested by his membership in the following social and fraternal
organization in San Francisco: Olympic Athletic Club, the Press, the Elks
and the Masons (Blue Lodge).
Transcribed
by Pat Seabolt.
Source: Press Reference Library,
Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page
892, International News
Service, New
York,
Chicago, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2007 Pat Seabolt.
California Biography Project
San Francisco County
California Statewide
Golden Nugget Library