San Bernardino County, CA, Biographies

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


JUDGE J. W. NORTH, 
 
the founder of the Riverside Colony, was one of the most prominent of members of 
the Southern California Colony Association. He was president of the association 
from its incorporation in 1870 until 1875, when the lands, water, etc., of the 
colony were sold to the Riverside Land and Irrigating Company.
        The Judge was a real pioneer, and was one of the first to establish his 
residence upon the then barren plains of the valley; as president and 
superintendent he surveyed the lands, laid out the city, projected and built the 
unsurpassed irrigation system. He built better than he realized; the selection 
of the lands of the colony, the untiring energy and sound business principles 
displayed in its management, resulted in a success hardly dreamed of by its most 
sanguine supporters. In any truthful history of this most successful colony 
association of the Pacific coast, the name of Judge North must ever stand 
pre-eminent.
        Judge North was born in Sand Lake, Rensselaer County, New York, January 
4, 1815; was educated at the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, 
graduating in 1841 with high honor. In his young manhood, and before entering 
the university, Judge North ardently espoused and advocated the anti-slavery or 
abolition doctrine, which were contrary to the sentiments of his parents and his 
church. While in college his earnest advocacy of the doctrines attracted the 
attention of the leaders of the Connecticut State Anti-Slavery Society, and 
after his graduation he was employed by them for more than two years as a 
lecturer in that State.    In 1843 he abandoned the lecture field and located in 
New York city, and there entered upon law studies in the office of John Jay, and 
later continued his studies in the office of Benedict & Boardman. Failing health 
compelled a suspension of his study, and he joined his father, who had 
established his residence in Preble, Cortland County, New York, and upon 
recovering his health entered the law office of Forbes & Sheldon, of Syracuse. 
Completing his studies he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the 
State, and there formed a partnership with Hon. Israel S. Spencer of that city. 
Judge North conducted a successful practice of his profession in Syracuse until 
1849; his health then failing, he moved to Minnesota and located at the village 
of St. Anthony (now the city of Minneapolis), establishing himself as an 
attorney at law, and from the very first took a leading and prominent part in 
the political and legislative affairs of the Territory. In 1850 he was elected 
to the Territorial Legislature, and during the session introduced and 
successfully managed the bill founding the Minnesota University. Six years 
afterward he located at Faribault, that State, purchasing an interest in the 
town site and conducting the business affairs of the projectors and proprietors 
of the city. At length he sold out his interests there and established the town 
of Northfield, building at that place saw and flour mills, dwelling-house, etc. 
In 1857 he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention that framed the 
constitution of Minnesota. He was the acknowledged leader of the Republicans and 
took a prominent part in the convention. Judge North was ever one of the leaders 
in public improvements and building up his section. In 1858 he was elected 
president of the Minneapolis & Cedar Valley Railroad Company, a company of which 
he was one of the original incorporators; twenty miles of the road was graded 
and put in operation that year under his able management. In 1860 he was chosen 
chairman of the Minnesota delegation to the Republican National Convention at 
Chicago that nominated Abraham Lincoln for President, and was a member of the 
committee that conveyed to Mr. Lincoln the notice of his nomination. He became 
personally acquainted with Mr. Lincoln and also Vice-President Hamlin, and was 
present at their inauguration in 1861. May 11, 1861, President Lincoln appointed 
Judge North United States Surveyor General of the Territory of Nevada. He held 
that office until it was discontinued, and the business merged with that of the 
Surveyor General's office at San Francisco. He then formed a law partnership 
with James F. Lewis (afterward Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nevada) and 
conducted a very successful practice until appointed by President Lincoln Judge 
of one of the Territorial districts and the Supreme Court of Nevada. His 
Territorial district embraced Virginia City, where all the richest and most 
valuable mines were in litigation. The Judge held his judicial position until 
the organization of the Nevada State Government, retiring from office upon the 
establishment of the Nevada State courts. During his term on the bench he was 
elected a member of the first Constitutional Convention of Nevada, and upon the 
organization of the convention was elected as its president, and presided over 
its deliberations.
        In the autumn of 1865 Judge North closed his business in Nevada and 
returned East, and the next year (1866) settled in Knoxville, Tennessee, where 
he engaged in the iron business, establishing foundries, machine shops, etc. He 
remained there until the spring of 1870, laboring under many disadvantages in 
conducting his business, for men of his prominent views were not popular in the 
South. Finally he conceived the idea of establishing a model colony in Southern 
California, and in March of that year issued his first circular from Knoxville, 
and in that spring he sold off his property and came to California. After 
spending months in examining the different localities, and meeting obstacles 
that would have daunted almost any other man, he finally selected the lands of 
the present Riverside colony and city. Hon. C. N. Felton, of San Francisco, 
furnished a large proportion of the money with which to purchase these lands and 
start the enterprise, and was for years its main financial backer; but the Judge 
was the soul, the life, the brains that established the enterprise on a footing 
and foundation that has led to ultimate success. Judge North remained as 
president and general superintendent of the association until 1875, and then 
established himself in the practice of his legal profession in Riverside, San 
Bernardino and San Francisco. He subsequently acquired property interests in 
Fresno, and became a resident of that place. In early life and young manhood he 
was deeply religious and an earnest supporter of the Methodist Church, in which 
his father was a minister. Doubting the infallibility, as a moral teacher, of. 
the church which supported human slavery in America, he left it; and, always 
having been a deep thinker on religious and ethical subjects, he found that he 
disagreed more and more with the beliefs of the Orthodox Christians, until he 
has finally come to think the agnosticism of Spencer and Tyndall as the more 
reasonable ground.
        Judge North was twice married. He first married, in 1845, Miss Emma 
Bacon, daughter of Nathaniel Bacon, of Middletown, Connecticut. She died in 
1847, leaving no children. His second marriage was in 1848, when he wedded Miss 
Ann H. Loomis, daughter of Dr. Geo. S. Loomis, of DeWitt, Onondaga County, New 
York. By this marriage there are six children living, namely: Emma B., George 
L., John G.. Charles L., Edward and Mary. Judge North died February 22, 1890, at 
Fresno. In accordance with his wish his remains were cremated at Los Angeles.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  487-489
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler