Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies

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


JUDGE H. K. S. O'MELVENY 
 
was born in Todd County, Kentucky, March 5, 1823.  His father moved with his 
family a few years later to Monroe County, Illinois. Young O'Melveny in his 
boyhood had access to a fair library of good books, and he received his 
education at the log-cabin schools of that period, and at several excellent 
academies. Having commenced the study of law in his twentieth year with an elder 
brother, Edward, he was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court in 1846. In 
1849 he crossed the plains, on horseback, reaching Sacramento, August 4. Soon 
after he and Murray Morrison (since a district judge of Los Angeles County, and 
now deceased) formed a law partnership. Afterward, being seriously ill, 
O'Melveny went to Benicia. Here he practiced before Major Cooper, Judge of the 
First Instance under the Mexican regime (corresponding nearly to our justice of 
the peace). The exact jurisdiction of the court in that transition period was 
not defined; nor did either the court or the lawyers understand whether Spanish 
or American laws were to be administered; if the former, then they were unknown 
to both lawyers and judge. So the rule adopted was, to administer the laws of 
the United States in a Spanish or Mexican court. Judge Cooper had been longer in 
the country than the attorneys; therefore the question of jurisdiction was 
always left to his decision; and he reasoned: Every wrong has a remedy; if he 
had no jurisdiction, no other court had; and of necessity, therefore, he must 
have jurisdiction to try any cause that might come before him. As a result, he 
tried felonies, granted divorces, administered on estates, and even in one case 
acted as a court of admiralty, ordering the condemnation and sale of a libeled 
ship. Such were some of the anomalies incident to the change of government in 
California. In 1850 Judge O'Melveny returned East, where he remained till 1869. 
He continued to practice his profession and was also active in politics, and in 
intimate relations with Douglas, Lincoln and many other public men. He was 
elected circuit judge in 1857 and served four years. He came to Los Angeles in 
1869, and entered into partnership with Judge Brunson, and afterward with H. T. 
Hazard, now mayor of the city. In 1871 he became a member and president of the 
city council. In 1872 he was elected county judge; and in 1887 he was appointed 
superior judge. He married, in 1850, Miss A. W. Rose. They have four children: 
Edward H. and Henry W. O'Melveny, Mrs. Emma R. Safford and Miss Adele O'Melveny, 
all residing in this city.
 
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California �  Chicago, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1889   Page 583
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler