ALEXANDER MADISON ROSBOROUGH

ALEXANDER MADISON ROSBOROUGH, ex-Judge and practicing attorney of Oakland, was born in South Carolina in 1815, a son of Dr. Alexander and Jane (Porter) Rosborough. The father born on the voyage of his father, Alexander, and mother, nee Knox, from Antrim, Ireland, to America, was brought up in South Carolina where his parents settled. Arrived at man’s estate he was married in Chester district, South Carolina, to Miss Porter, whose parents were natives of the Isle of Man. Becoming a physician he practiced for some years in South Carolina, and then moved to Tennessee, where he followed the vocation of a farmer, though still doing some professional work, chiefly of the gratuitous kind. He lived to the age of eighty-nine, and his wife was in her ninety-second year at her death, while her mother reached a still greater age. The five children of Dr. Alexander Rosborough - four sons and one daughter - are all living, in 1890, the youngest being over sixty, and the oldest, the subject of this sketch, who has not had a day’s illness in forty years, is seventy-five. He received in his youth the best education then accessible in Tennessee, including some knowledge of the classics. He enlisted in 1836 in the brigade of two regiments from the Tennessee valley, who served first against the Creek Indians in Alabama, and after six months were sent against the Seminoles in Florida. Discharged in New Orleans in 1837, A. M. Rosborough entered the University of East Tennessee in Knoxville. In 1839 he taught in the academy, keeping up with his class in the university, and was graduated with them in 1840. He then read law in Columbia, Tennessee, under his late Colonel, Terry H. Cahal, afterward a Judge of the Chancery Court until 1843, when he was licensed to practice. Entering on the practice of his profession he soon afterwards, in connection with his brother, J. B., who had also read law under Judge Cahal, bought the Columbia Register, established by Zollicoffer. Losing their printing-office by fire, they purchased a new outfit and resumed publication. Meanwhile the law practice and literary reputation of A. M. Rosborough had grown in the community, and he was invited to take the editorial supervision of the Nashville Daily Whig at $100 a month, which was regarded a liberal salary at that time. This position he accepted in 1849, having with his brother previously sold the Columbia Register.

In 1850 the Tennessee Mining Company was formed to operate in California, and he came out as its superintendent with his brother and some twenty others. At St. Joseph, Missouri, he was elected Captain of the train which arrived in the mining regions in August. Mr. Rosborough mined that winter in El Dorado county, and in 1851 came to San Francisco, where his brother J. B. was already employed as editor of the Evening Picayune. Here he was occupied for a time as a writer on that paper, and in the spring of 1852 went to Trinity county to collect some claims. Finding opportunity to practice his profession he remained there. Before the close of that year, with nineteen others he formed a company to establish a settlement and trade center at what is now Crescent City. They chartered a vessel, and reaching in January 1853, the region of their projected enterprise, they located 160 acres each, and laid out the nucleus of the future city, each associate becoming owner of several lots. Mr. Rosborough was soon appointed by Lieutenant Beale as special Indian agent to ascertain numbers and locations of Indians, with Fort Jones in Scott valley as a center of operation. Going up the Klamath river he arrived at Yreka and engaged in the work assigned to him, and there remained afterwards in the practice of his profession. He was elected Judge of Siskiyou county in 1855 and was three times re-elected, the term being four years. In the middle of his fourth term, in 1869, he resigned and was elected District Judge of Modoc, Shasta, Trinity and Siskiyou counties, and held the position by re-election from January 1, 1870, to December 31, 1879. At the close of the Modoc war, at the request of the Indians, he was appointed one of the Peace Commissioners by General Canby, and escaped unhurt through the special friendship of the savages, though General Canby and Dr. Thomas were treacherously killed and Mr. Meacham was wounded during the pretended armistice.

Judge Alexander Rosborough was married in Yreka, California, in December, 1861, to Miss Nellie Raynes, a native of Maine, the sister of Alonzo E. Raynes, now Postmaster of that city. They have three children: Alex J., a graduate of Bates’ Gymnasium in Berkeley, who studied law for some time, and is now clerk with the Home Insurance Company of Oakland; Fannie J., a graduate of the Young Ladies Seminary at East Oakland; Joseph J., now a student in Oakland Grammar School.

Judge Rosborough moved to this city in 1880, mainly for the better education of his children, and during his residence here he has twice been the candidate of the Democratic party for Superior Judge and once for Police Judge. He is still engaged in the practice of law.

 

Transcribed by Elaine Sturdevant