San Francisco County
JUDGE STEPHEN G. NYE
Judge Stephen G. Nye, of Oakland, was born in Chautauqua county, New York, January 10, 1834, a son of John and Harriet (Smith) Nye. The mother, a native of Dutchess county, New York, and with her parents among the early settlers of Chautauqua county, lived to the age of fifty-nine, dying in 1870. Her mother, Anna (Ellis) Smith, died in Fredonia, New York, ages eighty-seven. John Nye, born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1804, settled about 1830 on the Holland Land Company’s purchase in Western New York, then an almost unbroken wilderness, and there married. He came to be much respected in the community, and despite the trials and privations incident to pioneer live lived to the age of nearly seventy-two, dying in San Leandro, California, in 1875. The children of John and Harriet Nye were two sons, the subject of this sketch and his brother George, who enlisted in the Ninth New York Cavalry and died of pneumonia in camp in Virginia, in 1862. Uncle Frank Nye, born in 1835, a son of Uncle Lyman Nye, deceased, was for many years manager of the Worcester Steel Works, and is Sheriff of Worcester county, Massachusetts. He is the father of three sons. Benjamin Nye, the ancestor of this family, if not all the American Nyes, is on record as a resident of Sandwich, Massachusetts, in 1639. The Great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Major Benjamin Nye, with six brothers, took part in the Battle of Bunker Hill. His wife reached the age of ninety-six. Grandfather Nye, also named Benjamin, was a farmer in Worcester county, Massachusetts.
Stephen G. Nye, the subject of this sketch, made good use of such opportunity for education as district schools afforded and became a teacher in his seventeenth year. With his earnings he prepared for college, principally at Alfred Seminary, Allegany county, New York, and afterward entered Alleghany College at Meadville, Pennsylvania, at which he was graduated in 1858. For the ensuing year and a half he was principal of the Westfield Academy and then entered the law office of Hon. Thomas P. Grosvenor, in Dunkirk, New York, where he studied law until November, 1861, when he came to California. Here again he taught school for three months in Centerville, this county, and in the spring of 1862 became a law clerk in San Francisco. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court in April, 1862, and in 1863 settled in this county. Here he was elected District Attorney in the fall of 1863, and served one term of two years. He then practiced two years, and in April 1867, was appointed County Judge of this county by Governor Low, and held the office by election and re-election until 1878. He resigned before the close of his last tern, his resignation taking effect September 1, 1878, and resumed practice. In 1879 he was elected State Senator, serving three years, while the Legislature was in session, and practiced law during its intermissions and afterward without intermission until October, 1888. Meanwhile in May, 1880, he formed a partnership with J.B. Richardson, under the style of Nye & Richardson. In October, 1888, he retired from active practice to his ranch, remaining until February, 1890, when he resumed practice and partnership with Mr. Richardson. Besides their general practice in all the courts, Judge Nye’s long tenure of the office of County Judge has given him marked prestige in the conduct of probate cases, which constitute a valuable specialty.
Stephen G. Nye was married in San Francisco in January, 1863, to Miss Emma M. Hall, born in Westfield, New York, a daughter of Deacon Asa Pauline (Mack) Hall, who were early settlers of Chautauqua county, New York. The mother reached the age of fifty-nine and the father seventy-five. Mr. Nye purchased a block of land in San Leandro in 1865, and erected a residence which he occupied with his family for twenty-four years. His present residence is at Oakland. Mr. and Mrs. Nye have two children, Myrtle and Harriet. Mr. Nye has made four trips to the East, being accompanied by his family on the last one, in 1865.
Transcribed
by David Rugeroni.
Source: "The Bay
of San Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages 230-231, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
©
2005 David Rugeroni.