Milton H. Myrick

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Milton Hills Myrick
Milton H. Myrick smaller.jpg
Milton H. Myrick from History of the Bench and Bar of California (1901).
Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court
In office
January 5, 1880 – January 3, 1887
Appointed byDirect election
Preceded byElections under new constitution of 1879
Succeeded byThomas B. McFarland
Personal details
Born(1826-05-28)May 28, 1826
Oneida County, New York, U.S.
DiedSeptember 18, 1907(1907-09-18) (aged 81)
Saratoga, California, U.S.
Spouse(s)
Mary Ludlow
​
​
(m. 1850; death 1879)​

Lucy Myrick
Emma Adelia Simpson
​
(m. 1883)​

Milton Hills Myrick (May 28, 1826 – September 18, 1907) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California from January 5, 1880 to January 3, 1887.

Biography[]

Born on a farm near Paris Hill, in Oneida County, New York, Myrick's father was Rev. Luther Myrick of New England, a descendant of Ensign William Myrick, who had settled in Eastham, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, in 1646, and served six years under Miles Standish.[1] Myrick moved with his family as his father assumed various ministries.[2] As a boy, Myrick learned to typset for a weekly paper published by his father in Oswego, and worked in a printing office while attended school at the Cazenovia Seminary in Cazenovia, New York.[3][1] In May 1843, the family moved to a farm in Jackson County, Michigan, where Myrick's father died that September.[4][1][5]

From 1845 to 1847, Myrick continued to work in printing, first in Jackson County, then returning to New York, to Albany (where he worked on the Argus), Syracuse, New York City, and finally in the government printing office in Washington, D.C.[1] While employed in Washington, Myrick "saw John Quincy Adams as he lay dying on a cot in the speaker's room".[1] In 1848, Myrick returned to Michigan and read law in the law office of Frink & Blair.[1] During this time, he became the deputy county clerk of Jackson County, and of the Michigan Supreme Court, when it sat in that county.[6] In 1850, he was admitted to the bar, and the following summer he worked for governor William H. Seward, performing tasks related to a case being heard in Detroit.[1]

In 1854, Myrick traveled to California by the Nicaragua route, arriving in San Francisco in October with only five dollars in his possession. He worked as a printer for a year on the San Francisco Sun. In October 1855, he moved to Shasta, California and helped to establish the Shasta Republican. In May 1857, he moved to Red Bluff, California and resumed the practice of law in partnership with Warner Earll.[7] In 1863 to 1865, during the American Civil War, he was a Major in the Lassen Rangers, a state militia unit.[8][9] In May 1866, he returned to San Francisco, this time as an attorney, and was appointed by Judge O.C. Pratt of the Twelfth Judicial District to act as a referee in a complicated partitions case.[1]

In 1871, he was elected to a four-year term on the county probate court as the nominee of the Tax Payer's Convention, taking office on January 1, 1872.[10][11][12] He was reelected as a Republican in 1875, his second term running from January 1, 1876, to December 31, 1879.[13][14][15]

In 1879, when adoption of a new constitution required elections for all seats on the Supreme Court, he was nominated as a Republican candidate and was elected as an Associate Justice.[16][17][18] The new justices drew lots to determine length of term with Myrick picking seven years, serving from January 5, 1880 to January 3, 1887.[19][20]

After stepping down from the high court, Myrick served as president of the Saratoga Village Improvement Association,[21] and resumed the private practice of law with Frank P. Deering.[22][23] In May 1888, Governor Waterman appointed Myrick as a judge of the Santa Clara County Superior Court.[24] In October 1897, he gave a speech at the Unitarian Club of San Francisco opposing Hawaiian annexation by the United States.[25] In January 1898, he was elected a trustee of the San Francisco Bar Association.[26] He remained in practice until his death in 1907.[27][28][29]

Civic activities[]

Myrick was a founding trustee of Mills College.[30][31][32] He was also a member of the Bohemian Club.[33]

Personal life[]

Myrick married three times. On October 24, 1850, Myrick married Mary Ludlow in Jackson, Michigan, and they had a son, George Fred Myrick. By 1870, he was remarried to Lucy Myrick and living in San Francisco. By 1880, he was a widower. On November 7, 1883, he married again to Emma Adelia Simpson in Virginia City, Nevada.[34][35]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Shuck, Oscar Tully (1901), History of the Bench and Bar of California, p. 726-730. Retrieved August 20, 2017.
  2. ^ Strong, Douglas M. (2001). Perfectionist Politics: Abolitionism and the Religious Tensions of American Democracy. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. p. 34. ISBN 0815629249. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  3. ^ Hammond, Luna M. (1872). History of Madison County, State of New York. Truair, Smith. p. 243. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  4. ^ "We are called to mourn the passing of Luther Myrick". The Voice of Freedom. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. October 5, 1843. p. 59. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  5. ^ Hotchkin, James Harvey (1848). A History of the Purchase and Settlement of Western New York: And of the Rise, Progress and Present State of the Presbyterian Church in that Section. M.W. Dodd. p. 173. Retrieved August 16, 2017. Criticism of Luther Myrick within the Presbyterian Church.
  6. ^ Thomas, James M. (1867). Jackson City Directory and Business Advertiser for 1867 & 1868: With a History from the First Settlement of the City, and a General Portrait of Its Business at the Present Time. Carlton & Van Antwerp. p. 101. Retrieved August 16, 2017. Village Recorder, Milton H. Myrick, 1852-1853.
  7. ^ "Candidates". Red Bluff Beacon (54). California Digital Newspaper Collection. 13 June 1863. p. 3. Retrieved August 16, 2017. The following named gentlemen have been spoken of for positions before the Republican Convention which meets to day. County Judge: W. Earll and M. H. Myrick.
  8. ^ "Camp Ellis". Red Bluff Independent (26). California Digital Newspaper Collection. 3 November 1863. p. 2. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  9. ^ "Military Election". Red Bluff Independent (79). California Digital Newspaper Collection. 4 May 1865. p. 2. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  10. ^ "The Tax-payer's Ticket". Daily Alta California. 23 (7817). California Digital Newspaper Collection. 17 August 1871. p. 1. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  11. ^ "Domestic News". Marysville Daily Appeal. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 20 October 1871. p. 3. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  12. ^ Johnson, J. Edward (1963). History of the California Supreme Court: The Justices 1850-1900, vol 1 (PDF). San Francisco, CA: Bender Moss Co. pp. 140–142. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 27, 2016. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  13. ^ "New San Francisco Judicial Convention". Sacramento Daily Union. 1 (201). California Digital Newspaper Collection. 6 October 1875. p. 1. Retrieved August 16, 2017. Probate Judge, M. H. Myrick, present incumbent.
  14. ^ "San Francisco Elections". The New York Herald. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. October 22, 1875. p. 7. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  15. ^ Myrick, Milton Hills; Rearden, T. H. (1944). Reports of cases in the Probate Court of the city and county of San Francisco : from January 1, 1872, to December 31, 1879 (2015 ed.). Buffalo, NY: Dennis & Co. ISBN 1347589759. OCLC 26701090. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  16. ^ "Supreme Court Nominations". Daily Los Angeles Herald. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. June 20, 1879. p. 2. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  17. ^ "Official Returns of the Election". Sacramento Daily Union. 8 (191). California Digital Newspaper Collection. 20 October 1879. p. 2. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  18. ^ "The State Government, Associate Justices". Sacramento daily record-union. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. January 10, 1880. p. 3. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  19. ^ "The New State Supreme Court". Sacramento Daily Record-Union. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. January 6, 1880. p. 1. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  20. ^ "The Supreme Court". The San Francisco Call. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. June 22, 1895. p. 5. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  21. ^ Saratoga Chamber of Commerce, History of the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce Archived 2015-10-03 at the Wayback Machine.
  22. ^ "Resumed Practice". Daily Alta California. 42 (13699). California Digital Newspaper Collection. 4 March 1887. p. 1. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  23. ^ "Lawyers, Myrick and Deering". Daily Alta California. 81 (7). California Digital Newspaper Collection. 7 July 1889. p. 11. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  24. ^ "Coast Cullings". Los Angeles Daily Herald. Library of Congress Historic Newspaper. May 19, 1888. p. 5. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  25. ^ "Shall We Wrong the Hawaiians?". The San Francisco Call. Library of Congress Historic Newspaper. October 10, 1897. p. 8. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  26. ^ "Bar Association Officers". The San Francisco Call. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. January 15, 1898. p. 5. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  27. ^ "Supreme Court, Department One". The Record-Union. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. November 17, 1896. p. 5. Retrieved August 17, 2017.
  28. ^ White, James Terry (1950). The National cyclopaedia of American biography. p. 379, entry for Frank Prentiss Deering. Retrieved August 17, 2017.
  29. ^ "Judge M. H. Myrick is Dead at Campbell". San Francisco Call. 102 (111). California Digital Newspaper Collection. 19 September 1907. p. 4. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  30. ^ "Mills Seminary Library". Daily Alta California. 37 (12594). California Digital Newspaper Collection. 6 October 1884. p. 2. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  31. ^ "Articles of Incorporation". Daily Alta California. 39 (12992). California Digital Newspaper Collection. 9 October 1885. p. 8. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  32. ^ "The Eastern Shore, Oakland". Daily Alta California. 42 (14152). California Digital Newspaper Collection. 30 May 1888. p. 8. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  33. ^ "Bohemian Club Election". Daily Alta California. 42 (13738). California Digital Newspaper Collection. 12 April 1887. p. 2. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  34. ^ "Death Calls Mrs. Myrick". San Francisco Call. 104 (10). California Digital Newspaper Collection. 10 June 1908. p. 15. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  35. ^ "Social and Personal". Sacramento Daily Union. 18 (72). California Digital Newspaper Collection. 14 November 1883. p. 5. Retrieved August 17, 2017. Judge Myrick, of the Supreme Court, is accompanied to the city by Mrs. Myrick.

External links[]

Legal offices
Preceded by
Elections under new constitution of 1879 		Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court
1880–1887 		Succeeded by
Thomas B. McFarland
Retrieved from ""