CHAPTER VII.

Lorenzo Sawyer-With McDougall in Illinois-In the El Dorado Mines in 1850-The Early Bar of Nevada County—A Remarkable Murder Case-Honors in San FranciscoA Long Tenure on the Bench-Judicial View of the Chinese Question-The Authorship of the Sole Trader Act-The Principles of Masonry-First Meeting with the Eccentric Lockwood-References to A. A. Sargent, Judge J. B. Crockett, Jno. R. McConnell, E. W. Roberts, E. F. W. Ellis, Stanton Buckner, C. H. S. Williams, Roderick N. Morrison, Frank M. Pixley and Tiburcio Parrott.

(Judge S. Like the

Lorenzo Sawyer holds for life the most exalted judicial station in California, and his career on the bench has already been longer than any other in the annals of the State, except those of Judges Hoffman and Field. A quiet, unassuming man, his forensic record is yet full of interest, and to those who may have the idea that his life has been uneventful, I promise a pleasant surprise. He was born in Jefferson County, New York, May 23, 1820. C. Hastings was born in the same county, six years earlier). Shafters, who were born in Vermont, four and eight years before him, he had the blessing of a noble parentage, and, like them, reared in the home of honesty, simplicity, sobriety and frugality, he heeded every parental counsel, and has led a life of exceptional beauty and purity. His father has been dead some years but his mother lingered until passed ninety-two, dying on June 9, 1886, at Belvidere, Illinois. Their golden wedding was celebrated at that place, February 11, 1869, when there was a happy reunion of their descendants and relatives. On that occasion the Hon. Joel Swain Sawyer, of Minnesota, the next eldest son, delivered to the aged couple an affecting memorial address, which closed with these words:

"To the principles of morality, virtue and Gospel truth, early instilled into their minds, enforced by your examples, do your children owe whatever of good may appear in their characters, whatever of success they may obtain in life, whatever of public or private consideration and esteem they may inspire; and as a fitting return for your care, your integrity, and the other Christian graces illustrated by your daily lives, you now realize the assurance of the sacred proverbialist; your children shall arise and pronounce you blessed-as we do this day."

At this "wedding" a hymn was sung which had been sung at the

marriage fifty years before, to the same tune, Exhortation, and from the same books.

Lorenzo Sawyer was born on a farm, and lived there until his sixteenth year. In winter he attended the district school; in summer he helped to bear the harvest home. The neighborhood contained a large and excellent library, of which he availed himself at night and on Sundays. After passing a year at the high school at Watertown, New York, called the Black River Institute, he went with his father and family to Pennsylvania, where a new farm was located and cleared. The next eight years were spent in teaching school in New York and Ohio, and in reading law, which profession he had decided to follow before he first left his native State.

The first law office he entered was that of Hon. Gustavus Swan, who then led the Ohio bar in land controversies. Judge Swan soon retired from practice, and Lorenzo Sawyer then was received into the office of Noah H. Swayne, afterwards a Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

had the benefit of excellent instruction until his admission to the bar in 1846. He then went to Chicago, and passed a year in the office of James A. McDougall, who was three years his senior, and who was then Attorney General of the State, and who afterwards represented California in the upper house of Congress. He then went to Wisconsin, settling in a little town which bore the name of his native county, and, forming a partnership with John E. Holmes, then Lieutenant Governor, commenced the practice of law.

The old Whig party is dead only in name. Its principles are interwoven with the country's life. Daniel Webster and Henry Clay-these were the men whom Lorenzo Sawyer followed in politics. He had pitched his tent, however, in a locality not very congenial to Whig ideas. His industry, good habits and strong common sense showed that he was the right man, but he was not yet in the right place.

He built up a lucrative law practice for that locality but he was ambitious, and his chance for political preferment in that region was not flattering. So, when the cry of "Eureka!" echoed around the world, he was glad to respond. In July, 1850, he arrived in California, having crossed the plains with a company of young men from Wisconsin. It was a journey of seventy-two days—“ an unprecedently short trip" they called it. Mr. Sawyer sent to the Ohio Observer many incidents of this trip, and his articles were copied by several Western journals, furnishing valuable data to emigrants who followed him.

El Dorado! Beautiful name, most appropriate for a county of California. In that county Mr. Sawyer first rested after crossing the plains. Like Judge Bennett, immediately on his arrival he went to work in the mines to get a stake. Finding that his profession presented a golden opportunity, he went to Sacramento and commenced law practice. He soon removed to Nevada

City. His career there was comparatively short, but was cast in an eventful period, and the history of the bar of Nevada county, which was written by the Hon. A. A. Sargent, makes Lorenzo Sawyer one of the most prominent figures of that day. His library at first consisted of eleven volumes, brought from the Prairie State. His brief life at Nevada was broken by a visit to San Francisco, where he had decided to locate permanently. Disaster here came upon him. The honors this people had in store for him were unrevealed, and, being twice burned out of his office, he returned to his mountain town, where he was destined to win great local fame.

In 1852 he was counsel for the defense in one of the strangest criminal cases on record. A woman of the world, "Old Harriet," kept a saloon on Broad street. A mountain stream, Deer creek, dashed by in the rear of her house-right through the heart of the town. It was an early day, and she had a business which "paid." At the foot of the street there had been a bridge, which was the highway of communication between the two divisions of the settlement. On Little Deer Creek, a mile off, on the other side of the main creek, was the mining camp of Pat Berry, a prosperous miner. Right across the street from "Harriet's" there was, perhaps, the liveliest dancehouse to be found in "the mines." It was nightly visited by men of all conditions, who made night, and sometimes morning, "hideous" with their revelry. Among these festive arrivals were many who came from across the creek-from mining camps, here, there and everywhere.

During one rainy season a freshet broke down the bridge across the raging creek, but a tree was felled so as to afford a passage to footmen. At the time referred to the creek was a turbulent torrent, and went roaring and dashing and crashing through the town, cutting it in two, with only the fallen tree for a footway between the two sections. On one Saturday Pat Berry came to town. He had made money during the week, and brought it with him. Arrived in town he bought an entire new outfit of outer and underclothing. After dinner he went to the dance-house, and spent an hour. Then he crossed the street to "Old Harriet's." He was seen at the latter place at a late hour. But thereafter he was never seen alive.

A cry of "murder ! rang out upon the air that night, but not being repeated those whom it aroused gave it little thought.

But where was Pat Berry? His nude body was found in an eddy of the creek, about six miles below, a few days afterward. A trifling scratch was upon the abdomen, but on the forehead was a large, extravasated wound, which, according to medical testimony, must have been inflicted upon the victim while he was still alive. On the following day Harriet was accused of the crime of murder and arrested-also a stalwart Cornishman, her "fightingman," so-called. In those days gold dust, instead of stamped money, was the medium of exchange. Everybody who was in business kept a pair of scales

to weigh and determine the value of gold dust. Harriet had such a pair of scales; and there was a large iron weight used with it, which, the prosecution said, was the instrument of the death of Pat Berry.

On the trial of the woman and her fellow, John R. McConnell, a bright but eccentric and erratic leader of our bar, who died in Colorado in 1879, prosecuted, and Lorenzo Sawyer defended. Justice John Anderson, brother of one of the earliest and ablest of California lawyers, and who, thirty years later was a Justice of the Peace in the same old town, heard the preliminary examination of the case. This consumed two or three days. It was established by the prosecution that Berry had money upon his person when he visited Nevada City on that fatal night. His movements were traced; the time and manner of the recovery of his body were shown; that the wound on his head was given in life was made clear, and it was also proved that this wound was inflicted with a round, blunt weapon.

The theory of the prosecution was that Berry had been murdered for his money in the brothel of Harriet by the latter and her "friend," then stripped of his clothing, which, as stated, was all new, and thrown into the convenient creek at the rear of the house.

Against so plausible a theory Lorenzo Sawyer had to contend. It is to be regretted, from a strictly legal standpoint, that Justice Anderson did not decide this case as it was at first submitted to him. It is to be regretted that the highest tribunal of our country had not been called upon to pass on this very case. It would have furnished a fine test of the certainty of human judg

It would be decidedly interesting to know what would have been the issue of that trial, if the evidence mentioned below had not been elicited.

Judge Sawyer's theory for the defense was that Berry had started about midnight from the woman's house for home; that he was heavy with alcohol when he set forth upon his dark, homeward journey; that in crossing the creek he fell off the narrow log; and that, in falling, his head struck upon a rock-there were plenty of rocks in that vicinity—and thence received the wound from which he died some minutes later, thus accounting for the extravasation of blood. The missing clothes were a puzzler, but the counsel sought to account for their absence by invoking certain principles of natural philosophy as to the action of the roaring torrent of water, rocks, trees, etc., in the bed of the stream.

Justice John Anderson, did not know what to do with the case as submitted to him. He took it under advisement for a week.

It so happened, that, during the week, at midday in view of several witnesses, two men started across the creek aforesaid—to walk the famous log in company. In the middle of. the riotous stream one of them pitched off. He was never seen alive. His companion and others for this was in the daytime-ran down the banks of the creek, and, some miles below, found his

dead body in the very same eddy in which Pat Berry's body had been found a few days before. An extravasated wound was found upon the head, just like that which was on the head of Pat Berry. There were no other wounds on the body, but all the clothes were stripped off except the undershirt, which, turned inside out, and drawn over his head, was clasped around the wrist, and held by a single button.

This last mishap coming to Judge Sawyer's knowledge, he moved the court to reopen the case. It was so ordered, and new evidence of the circumstances just related being submitted, the defendants were discharged.

When informed of the circumstances of the second death, "Harriet" lifted her hands and eyes towards heaven and in tones and manner intensely tragic, but with manifest sincerity, exclaimed: "God himself has interposed to save an innocent woman!"

There was tried, in 1851, at Rough and Ready, Nevada county, before E. W. Roberts, Justice of the Peace (since a County Judge and State Senator) a case which involved the possession of a mining claim on Industry Bar, valued at $100,000. It was the case of the period. The parties to the suit were many and prominent, and fully supplied with the sinews of war. Lorenzo Sawyer was leading counsel for the plaintiffs. It was agreed that the hotel bill, wines, cigars, tobacco, etc., for both sides, should go into the bill of costs in the case, and be paid by the losing party. After a three days' trial the jury disagreed. A second trial, lasting ten days, resulted in a victory for Judge Sawyer's clients. The bill of costs, recovered against and paid by the defendants, was $1,992. The hotel bills were probably twice as much more.

Among Judge Sawyer's leading cases are Taylor vs. Hargous (4 Cal., 268), and Eddy vs. Simpson (3 Cal., 251). These cases are "leading," not only in the sense that they are important, but that they first established, in this State, the principles therein laid down. In Eddy vs. Simpson, the plaintiffs sued to recover damages for interference with their water rights. One Artemas Rogers was the heavy man of the defendants. He was a very active, positive character, and anticipating the suit, he visited Sawyer at his office to retain him. Sawyer had prevailed against Artemas in a hot legal conflict a few months before, and he remembered it. He now wanted his help. Having stated his case, he asked:

'Can you win it ?"

"I don't think I can," said Sawyer.

By —, sir; you are not the man for me, then," exclaimed Rogers. "I don't think I am," said Sawyer, quietly.

Rogers then narrated a chapter from his experience in Sawyer's native State. He said he had once consulted a lawyer in an important cause in that State, who did not think he could win. He thereupon declined to retain him, employed another lawyer, who thought he could win, and he did.