Milton A. Wheaton

Milton A. Wheaton, one of the foremost members of the California bar, came from New York, having been born in Oneida county, in that State, on November 14, 1830.  His family has been American for many generations back.  From his father, who was a wagon-maker, he inherited a genius for mechanics, which afterward was of incalculable benefit to him in the management of the many patent suits intrusted to his care.  From the time he was twelve years old until stories of fortunes to be gained in the new El Dorado turned his course to the Golden Gate, young Wheaton obtained means for maintaining and education himself, first by working on dairy farms, next by manufacturing cheese-boxes, and then by school-teaching.  Even at the work of dairy farming he was more able than the ordinary farm hand, for when he was fourteen, besides making butter and milking cows, he could make three different kinds of cheese.

     At an early age he appreciated the value of an education, and he was always eager to obtain and read books.  During the winter months he went to school.  When he was seventeen years old he went to Whitestown Seminary and at twenty-one years of age he entered Hamilton College, both institutions being in his native county.  He remained there only two years, however, the invitation of an uncle who was about to start for California being too alluring for the young student to withstand.  He therefore bade farewell to the college halls and early in 1853 sailed for San Francisco by way of Panama.  He arrived here on May 5, 1853.

     The young New Yorker struck at once for the interior.  He went to Butte county, and there had ample opportunity to again call up visions of wealth while chopping wood for a steam mill.  The wood-chopper became a teamster in 1854, during the summer of which year he hauled lumber for Philip Cain & Co.  It was in the succeeding summer that the muscular young woodsman - when nearly twenty-five years old - laid the foundation from which sprung his future success, by entering the law office of Carter Hartley at Sacramento.  On September 15, 1856, he was examined by the Supreme Court and admitted to practice at the bar of that august tribunal.  He opened a law office at Suisun, Solano county, in the following January.  His choice location was a good one, for at that time land titles in Solano and adjoining counties were very unsettled, much to the satisfaction of those who knew the law.  For eight years Mr. Wheaton lived in Suisun.  It was during these first years at the bar that the young lawyer had the opportunity to display his abilities and make a name for himself.  He acquired a great reputation for the successful conduct of suits involving land titles, and was soon recognized throughout the State as an authority in that department of practice. 

     The early California reports abound with Mr. Wheaton's cases, he was so uniformly successful in his appeals to the higher tribunals.  His first appeal was in a case of his own, a dispute over land.  The suit was commenced in the Seventh District Court on August 1, 1859, and was decided in Mr. Wheaton's favor by the Supreme Court in October, 1861.  In this appeal Mr. Wheaton was opposed by John Currey, at that date a distinguished lawyer and afterward a judge of the Supreme Court.

     About the year 1867 William G. Wood, who was then acting as clerk of the California Supreme Court, stated that Mr. Wheaton at that time had had more cases and had won more cases in that court than any other lawyer or firm of lawyers in the State.  Mr. Wood had examined the records and made a count of the number of cases had and the number of cases won in the Supreme Court by the various attorneys in the State, and in this way he had ascertained the fact above stated.

     Mr. Wheaton was also counsel for Hidden, the appellant, in the case of Hidden vs. Jordan, reported in 21 Cal., 93, which is considered a leading authority on trusts in all the Pacific States; also made and won the appeal in Ellis vs. Jeans, - an ejectment suit in which 500 acres of land in Solano county were involved.  In Long vs. Neville, 29 Cal., 132, Mr. Wheaton established clearly the kind of case in which notice of lis pendens must be filed. When the Supreme Court first heard this case it overruled Mr. Wheaton; but he argued the matter on a petition for a rehearing, taking issue with the court.  The rehearing was granted, and Wheaton won the case, the Supreme Court overruling the lower court.  In 1865 Mr. Wheaton removed to this city, and three years later, by his connection with the great suit of A. W. Spaulding & Co. against Tucker & Putnam, agents for the American Saw Company, he began his successful career in patent cases, which has made him known throughout the country as a leader in that difficult branch of practice.

     Mr.Wheaton was married twice.  His first bride was Miss Carrie C. Webster, whom he wedded at Suisun on December 24, 1862.  She died in July, 1873.  On September 24, 1876, he married Miss Dora Perine of Suisun, by whom he has had two daughters.  He also had a son by his first wife, who is now a young man.  Mr. Wheaton has a moderate fortune and an elegant and happy home at 1106 Sacramento street.

     His law office at 405 Montgomery street is spacious and well furnished, and he is happy in the possession of a large and select law library.

 

Transcribed 9-1-04  Marilyn R. Pankey