Colusa County Biographies

HON. F. L. HATCH

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

            This distinguished soldier and jurist was born in Alabama, in 1822.  
He was brought up in the State of Mississippi.  At an early age he was sent to 
New Haven, Connecticut, where he received his education.  In 1841 he joined his 
father, who had now removed to Texas.  Judge Hatch bore an honorable part in the 
early struggles of Texan independence.  He was in the memorable Somerville 
campaign of 1843, which resulted in the terrible disaster at Mier, where Colonel 
Fisher�s command, some four hundred in number, was captured by the Mexican 
General Ampudia.  One out of every ten of these prisoners was afterwards shot, 
and the remainder of them taken to the city of Puebla, Mexico.  Judge Hatch�s 
company and three other companies (one of them being under the command of 
Colonel Jack Hayes, afterwards a resident of California) refused to join Fisher 
in his fool-hardy enterprise, and made their way back to Texas, after 
innumerable hardships.  On his return home, Judge Hatch was elected Colonel of 
his district by a unanimous vote of his people.  When Texas became a State in 
the Union, he was elected Major-General of the Middle Division, the State being 
then divided into three military departments.  This office he resigned after 
holding it several years, and emigrated to California.  In 1850 Judge Hatch was 
elected a member of the Texas Legislature.  At that time the secession or 
disunion feeling ran very high in that State.  General Sam Houston�s term in the 
National Senate was about to expire and this legislation was to choose his 
successor.  Judge Hatch was the Houston or Union candidate and was elected.  
Judge Hatch soon afterwards resigned his seat in the Texas Legislature, and, 
accompanied by his wife and family, set out for California, making the journey 
through Mexico.  He located first in Tuolumne County and engaged in mining.  He 
was not successful as a miner, and early in the spring of 1853, he settled in 
the city of Marysville, and resumed the practice of the law.  He at once took a 
high position at the bar, then justly considered one of the ablest in the State, 
and this position he maintained till he removed to Colusa, in 1870.  In 1857 he 
was elected District Attorney of Yuba County, and re-elected in 1859.  In 1863 
he was the Democratic nominee for District Judge, but was defeated, the district 
being largely Republican.  He removed with his family to Colusa, in 1870, and 
shortly afterwards a vacancy occurring in the office of County Judge, he was 
appointed to fill it, by Governor Haight.  At the first judicial election 
afterwards he was elected to the office for a full term.  At the expiration of 
his term of office, he declined to seek a re-election.  Upon the death of Judge 
Robinson, however, who succeeded him, he was appointed County Judge a second 
time by the governor of the State, and was afterwards again elected by the 
people for a full term of four years.  The Judge was an ardent supporter of the 
new constitution, and at the general election in 1879 he was elected Superior 
Judge of Colusa County by a large majority, but he was not destined to complete 
his term of office.  He died at Colusa, October 5, 1881.
 
�Colusa County� � by Justus H. Rogers � Orland, CA � 1891 � pp 390-391