JAMES F. STUART

James F. Stuart, the well-known lawyer of San Francisco, is certainly a California pioneer, dating his arrival January 7, 1850. The difference in time from '49 is slight, and no progress of the city worthy of mention was made in the meantime. We consider those who came here in the early '50's, in fact, entitled to what of distinction there is in the term "pioneer," for it was not till after this period the State or city advanced with much of energy. Mr. Stuart came to this coast on the ship Vistula, of Boston, being seven months on the voyage. The captain and he owned a quarter interest in the vessel, the remainder being the property of Mr. Coffin, of Boston. She carried only a limited number of passengers, a dozen or so, all told. The long passage, no doubt, was caused by contrary winds and high seas, as she only stopped for short intervals at Valparaiso and the Island of St. Catherine's.

Mr. Stuart is a New Yorker by birth. His maternal grandfather, Nicholas Hill, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war under Washington. Nicholas Hill, Jr., his son, was a celebrated lawyer of New York State. He was the author of Hill's New York Reports, well known to all lawyers. In the eulogy delivered by Chief Justice Johnson, on Mr. Hill's death, he stated that fully one-fourth of the cases coming before the high court of appeals of the State had been orally argued by him. The Chief Justice said: "With the character of his mind the Judge was thus made intimately acquainted, while his admirable moral and social qualities warmed into affectionate regard the respect and admiration which his intellectual abilities commanded. He made no parade of learning. He had great reverence for the law itself. His arguments were, therefore, marked no less by the masterly handling of legal principles than by the entire candor and fairness with which he encountered the difficulties standing in his way."

Mr. Stuart's father married this Mr. Hill's sister. The early moral grounding he received gave him correct principles for his guidance, and this proved to him a mainstay during all the early days of California, when a fall into temptation was so easy for a young man, considering the character of their surroundings out here. Before coming here he had a house built, and this he set up on a lot he purchased on Jackson, below Montgomery.

He began business in this building,---a general commission business in consignments sent him from the East. He prospered in this far beyond his expectations. With him was associated a partner, Captain John Raynes, who had made the voyage here in the Vistula. This gentleman was his partner, in fact, until he gave up the commission business.

During the time he was in business two great fires swept the city. In the first of these, in 1850,he lost all. Besides the house he had brought here, he had erected an additional one on a lot adjoining, which he had purchased. His first lot covered 25 x 90, and the second 27-1/2 x 50. He had three stores, in fact, on these, and they were consumed with the goods in them, the value of the latter reaching about $42,000. There being no insurance companies here at the time, the loss was a total one. He rebuilt at once, however, and in the fire of 1851 he did not suffer much damage.

Mr. Stuart continued in the commission business and made up his losses, and this lot he sold after this to Mr. Rowe, the well known circus man, for $18,000. He changed his business shortly afterward, and began investing in Spanish and Mexican grants. He operated in these extensively, and lost heavily through unexpected interpretations of law.

The law bearing on title at this time Mr. Stuart studied closely. He has written many very instructive treatises on it. No doubt his study at this time led him to become a lawyer. He was admitted in 1867, and has since practiced here principally, and at Washington, in law cases, and it is conceded, even by his professional brethren, that there is no abler authority on titles here than he. His land operations left him heavily in debt, and the character of the man can be best judged when we state that, although handicapped at the beginning of his practice with this debt, still he never sought relief from it, but paid dollar for dollar to those he owed.

When the war broke out, Mr. Stuart was in Washington, engaged in the settling of some of his claims. At this time he was in difficulties, or otherwise we may be sure that he would have acted very liberally with the Sanitary Fund Committee here. He was decidedly for the Union, and during the war, his brother, G. T. Stuart, published one of the outspoken northern war papers of the time, the Dubuque (Iowa) Daily Times.

Mr. Stuart certainly has, during his residence here, been most industrious. His life has been a worthy one.

Transcribed 4-11-05 Marilyn R. Pankey.

Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, pages 53-54, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.

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San Francisco County

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