San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOSHUA BERTRAM WEBSTER
During his lifetime there were
probably few members of the legal profession in California more widely known or
accounted more of an authority on patent law than the late Joshua Bertram
Webster, who passed away December 7, 1914.
Endowed with a keen mentality and a broad and liberal experience, he
maintained a high standard of professional ethics, and occupied a well deserved
place in the community which was his home for so many years, as a member of the
law firm of Webster Webster & Blewett. His father, Joshua Webster, was born in West
Parish, Haverhill, Massachusetts, on the old Webster farm on August 17, 1795,
and passed away at Stockton January 7, 1871.
On November 24, 1820, he married Elizabeth Bartlett Chase in Haverhill,
Massachusetts, and in 1825 they removed to Boston, where he engaged in the sale
of shoe trimmings and clothing. In 1837
he became a director of the Kilby Bank of Boston, and
was prominent in the life of the Hub City of those days. He was the founder of the town of Maplewood,
Massachusetts, in 1847; here he bought 200 acres, and laid out the town with
wide streets and ornamental trees. To
boom the future town, he formed a company for the purpose of promoting a
railway through the town, running from Malden to Saugus, and he was the first
president of the company, as well as owner of much real estate in this
section. Active in politics, he was an
old-time Whig and later a Republican, and as a Whig, he was an intimate
acquaintance of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.
Joshua Bertram Webster was born at
Boston, Massachusetts, September 21, 1838, and attended the public schools
there until he was sixteen years of age, then went to sea as a sailor to
satisfy his love of adventure, his first voyage being to England. When he returned to America, he shipped for
San Francisco, going around the Horn and arriving in San Francisco in 1856,
just in time to participate in some of the activities of the Vigilantes, and
witnessing many of the stirring events of that period. In 1857 he located at Stockton and the
following year he went to Cape Flattery, where he opened a trading post and
dealt with the Indians for three years.
Returning to Stockton in 1861, he engaged in the hardware business there
for a number of years, but he had for many years desired to enter the legal
profession, so took up the study of law at Stockton and was admitted to the bar
in 1882. He specialized in the field of
patent law and was known throughout the state as an expert in the field of intricacies
of its practice. During many years and
under many national administrations he served as U. S. Commissioner for the
district of Northern California, and in his court, defendants were arraigned
before being taken before the U. S. District Court for trial. A man of cool, judicious mind, in his legal
work he carefully weighed all the evidence before him, and when he had
determined where the preponderance of right and justice lay, he had the courage
to give his verdict accordingly.
During the early days of Stockton,
Mr. Webster was a member of the famous old Volunteer Fire Department, and was
prominent in the ranks of the Exempt Firemen, being president of that body for
a number of years. Always a firm advocate of Prohibition, he stumped the state in its advocacy
and that in the days when it was far from being a popular issue. He also espoused the cause of the Salvation
Army and gave freely to its charitable activities.
On September 4, 1875, Mr. Webster
was married to Miss Alta Marie Stowe, who passed away on February 8, 1885, the
mother of the following children: Violet
Alta is the wife of George F. Dunham, a prominent architect of Portland,
Oregon; Royal Bertram is a priest in the Roman Catholic Church and a teacher in
St. Patrick’s Seminary at Menlo Park, California; Ethel May is the wife of
Edward H. Charette, a druggist by profession; he
served two years with the Red Cross in Siberia and was taken prisoner there,
passing through many hardships and perilous experiences; they now reside at
Stockton; Perry Stowe Webster is a prominent attorney at Stockton.
Mr. Webster’s second marriage, which
took place on September 19, 1889, united him with Mrs. Helen A. (Proper)
Morgan, who was born near Syracuse, New York, and came to California with her
mother in 1885, when she was seven years of age, her father having preceded the
family here in 1849, mining in Calaveras County; there Mrs. Webster was reared
and for nineteen years taught school there and in San Joaquin County. Her first marriage united her with Rev. Caleb
Morgan, a Congregational minister, who passed away in 1868. She takes an active part in the work of the
Congregational Church at Stockton, and maintains her residence in the family
home at 436 East Lindsay Street.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
420-423. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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