Biographies
JOSIAH GOULD
SEVERANCE, attorney, San Francisco, was born in the State of Maine,
September 30, 1832, prepared for college at Hampden Academy, and was admitted
at Bowdoin College in 1852, but through persuasions
of friends, withdrew, and entered upon the sturdy of the law in the office of
the Hon. Hannibal Hamlin at Hampshire, where he pursued his studies for about
one year, and then removed to Bangor, at which place he prepared himself for admission
to the Supreme Judicial Court in the office of the late Hon. John E.Godfrey, for many years Judge of the Probate Court of
Penobscot county. Immediately after his
admission to practice, in 1855, he determined to try his future in California,
and landing in San Francisco on the first day of January, 1856, proceeded at
once to the mining county of Amador, where he was elected a member of the Board
of Supervisors in the fall of 1856, and District Attorney in 1858 by the
Douglas Democracy. He was very active in
the formation of the Union party in Amador, and was chairman of the first
county central committee, and ran as its[sic]candidate for the Assembly in
1862, but was defeated with the entire ticket, - he requiring only twenty-nine
more votes to elect him. In the fall of
1862 he married Miss M. J. Tiel of
Mr. Severance has besides his legal
labors, given some attention to literary work, and for a time was editor of the Amador Ledger, and was editor and proprietor of the San Andreas Register. He has
written several poems, which have appeared in the periodicals, and has on
numerous occasions composed and read poems at public celebrations.
Early in the history of fraternal
societies Mr. Severance took an active part, and has continued to labor for the
building up of these institutions, - notably the A. O. U. W. and Knights of Honor. Passing the chairs several years ago, he has
been a member of the Grand Lodge of the A. O. U. W. every year for the past
nine years, all of which time he has been a member of it’s most important
committees - seven years on Committee on Appeals and two years on Laws. As chairman of the Committee on Appeals his
decisions have been sustained without exception, and many of them embraced
questions of great legal technicality involving important rights, without the
advantage of precedent in the crude state of new fraternal principles of
law. He is now a member of the Committee
on Appeals. He is also a member of the
Grand Lodge of the Knights of Honor, and has several times served on the
Committee on Laws of that body. He was
made a Master Mason before leaving his native State, but has never affiliated
in
He is a fluent, eloquent and forcible
speaker; courteous and aff-able to all classes; a
steadfast friend, given to large hospitality and very popular. Fraternity is not a meaningless word with
him, and benevolent deeds to the unfortunate and distressed have endeared him
to his fraters and among those who have known him in the community in which he
has lived. He is a fine specimen of
physical and mental manhood, and stands at the head of the bar as one of the
ablest lawyers on the Pacific coast.
Although he has a large and lucrative practice, he finds time to attend
to fraternal organizations, and almost from the commencement of society life he
has been called upon to deliver addresses on all important occasions.
Transcribed by Walt Howe.
Source: "The
© 2005 Walt Howe.