San Francisco County
HON. JOHN D. WORKS
Hon. John D. Works.—The author of the “Bench and Bar in California” says, the very strong name which Judge Works bears etymologically furnishes a good index to his character and career. And in this statement, all who are familiar with his life east of the Rockies or since he came to this coast, will heartily agree.
Judge Works was born in Indiana in 1847. He was reared on a farm and educated in the country common schools. At the age of seventeen he became a member of an Indiana Regiment, and served nearly two years in the civil war, taking part in the battle of Nashville and the capture of Mobile. Returning home, he entered the law class of his uncle, Hon. A. C. Downey, thoroughly prepared himself for the legal profession, and in 1868 was admitted to the bar, shortly afterward joining his father, James A. Works, in practice. His father having an extensive practice and being well advanced in years, let much responsibility fall on his son, and in this way the latter soon found himself at the head of a large and lucrative practice.
In 1883 he came to California, and in April located in San Diego, at once engaging in a law practice there. October 1, 1886, he was appointed by Governor Stoneman to serve out a part of a term as Judge of the Superior Court of his county. At the next election he was chosen his own successor, resigning at the end of a year thereafter, because the practice of law offered him much larger compensation. October 1, 1888, Governor Waterman commissioned him a Justice of the Supreme Court of California to succeed, until the next election, Hon. E. W. McKinstry, who had resigned; and November 6, 1888, he was elected to that position by the people. At the close of his term, January 1, 1891, Judge Works decided to be a candidate for reelection as a Justice of the Supreme Court, and resumed the practice of law in San Diego.
On the bench as elsewhere, his duties have been faithfully and conscientiously performed and during his comparatively short residence on the Pacific slope, he has won for himself an enviable reputation.
Aside from the labors already referred to Judge Works has given much time and attention to the performance of literary duties. In 1877 he began his “Indiana Practice and Pleading,” a work in three volumes, which came to be accepted as indispensable. In May, 1887, at San Diego, he completed a small work entitled “Removal of Causes from State Courts to Federal Courts.” And an able article by him in the Century Magazine for January 1889, on “Lawyers’ Morals,” attracted no little attention.
Judge Works is married and has a large family.
Transcribed
by David Rugeroni.
Source: "The
Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, Page 244, Lewis
Publishing Co, 1892.
©
2005 David Rugeroni.