Mendocino County Biographies

Thomas Langley Carothers

Transcribed by: Pat Howard

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


	Whose portrait will be found in the pages of this 
work, is the son of James and Margaret Barnes Carothers, and was born at 
Carthage, Hancock county, Illinois, September 26, 1842. Crossed the plains with 
his father�s family in the spring of 1853. His father settled at Stony Point, 
Sonoma county, in the fall of 1853, where he remained until 1857; Thomas, in the 
meantime, attending the neighborhood school, and working on his father�s farm. 
In 1857 the family moved into Petaluma, where they resided until the spring of 
1859, Thomas attending the public schools of that place the while. In the spring 
of 1859 the family moved to Sacramento City, where Thomas attended the public 
schools until the fall of 1861. At the close of the regular term of the High 
school of Sacramento, in September, 1861, he entered the law office of Harrison 
& Estee, of that city, where he studied law until January 1862, when the family 
returned to Petaluma, on account of the flood then existing at Sacramento. On 
arriving at Petaluma, Thomas immediately entered, as a student, the law office 
of  the Hon. George Pearce, where he continued his studies until October 5, 
1863, when he was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of the State, he then 
being ten days over twenty-one years of age. He then began the practice of law 
in Petaluma where he remained until May, 1866, in the meantime filling the 
position of Deputy District Attorney of Sonoma county, for two years, under Hon. 
William Ross. In May, he removed to Ukiah City, Mendocino county, where he has 
practiced his profession ever since. In December of that year, he was married to 
Miss Lucy Peirson, daughter of the late Dr. E. M. and Harriett N. Dennis 
Peirson. Since his admission to the Supreme Court, he has been admitted as an 
attorney of the U. S. Circuit and District Courts at San Francisco. In 1867 he 
was appointed a Notary Public by Governor Low, which position he has held ever 
since. He has also been District Attorney of Mendocino county for two years, and 
has been for several years a U. S. Commissioner. He has been continuously a 
trustee of Ukiah City since its incorporation, and has during all that time also 
been President of the Board of Trustees. For several years he was the law 
partner of the Hon. R. McGarvey, now Superior Judge. He has acquired a large and 
lucrative law practice, and particularly as a criminal lawyer, he has attained 
fame. He has one child, M. Mack, born January 3, 1868.
 
SOURCE: History of Mendocino County, California - San Francisco, Cal. Alley, 
Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1880 Pp. 629, 630