California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


 JUDGE CHARLES L. CLAFLIN, of Bakersfield, Kern county. Cal., attorney, and former superior 
judge of Modoc county, was born in Lebanon, Van Buren county, Iowa, August 17, 1858. and is 
a son of Ira and Hannah (Richardson) Claflin, both of whom were natives of Addison county, AT. 
Both parents were reared, educated and finally married in Vermont, but in 1836 removed to 
Van Buren county, Iowa, where Ira Claflin found abundant opportunity for the practice of his 
profession as surveyor and civil engineer. That territory was then wild and the inhabitants 
widely scattered. He purchased at public auction a tract of land which he set about to improve, 
developing a fine farm, upon which he lived until his death at the age of eighty-three years. His 
widow, now ninety years of age, still occupies the old home in Van Buren county. Ira Claflin 
became a man of prominence and influence in his Iowa home, serving as surveyor of Van Buren 
county for twenty years, and was also employed extensively by the federal government in 
surveying public land in Iowa and Wisconsin. Until six weeks before his death he continued in 
active life, retaining full possession of the faculties which rendered his career broad and 
successful. For many years he was identified with the Masons and the Odd Fellows. He was a 
man of public spirit, and at all times exhibited an unselfish desire to do all in his power to bring 
the raw western territory in which he lived up to a high state of development. 

Ira Claflin was a son of Nathan Claflin, a native of Massachusetts, who married a representative 
of the ancient New England family of Shelby. He was of Scotch descent, the family having been 
founded in America in 1660 by Robert Mackclothlan, who came from Scotland direct to 
Massachusetts. Representatives of this family have since become prominently identified with 
commercial, industrial and financial affairs throughout the country, especially in the eastern 
states. 

At the age of fifteen years Charles L. Claflin left his home in Iowa and visited a sister residing in 
California. Returning home a year later to complete his education, he entered Troy (Iowa) 
Academy, going from that institution to the Southern Iowa Normal School at Bloomfield, from 
which he was graduated. At the age of nineteen years he began teaching in the public schools 
of Iowa, in the meantime taking up the study of the law. In 1880 he came to California, locating 
in Modoc county, where he was admitted to the bar in 1881. The following year he was elected 
district attorney of Modoc county, as the nominee of the Republican party, and served in that 
office two years. From 1884 to 1890 he remained in private practice in that coun ty. In the latter 
year he was nominated for judge of the superior court of Modoc county by the Republican 
party, and though the county was overwhelmingly Democratic he was elected by a large 
majority, occupying the bench for a term of six years to the eminent satisfaction of all 
interested. Upon his retirement from this post he removed, in 1897, to Los Angeles, but soon 
afterward was compelled to abandon the delightful home he had established in that city, owing 
to a .severe attack of asthma. For the following year he practiced in Modoc county, and then 
went to Susanville, where he remained until December, 1900, since which time he has 
maintained an office in Bakersfield, where his professional labors have been rewarded with a 
rare measure of success. He is the attorney for and one of the directors in the Pacific Smelting 
Works, an industry which is contemplating making Kern its headquarters. Fraternally he is 
identified with the Masons. May 8, 1884, he was united in marriage with Nellie Welsh, a native 
of Nevada county, Cal. They are the parents of six children, namely : Harlan W. and Charles 
Leland, Jr., who are students in the Bakersfield high school, and Anita E., George Elwood, Harry 
L. and Teddie, students in the lower grades. 

Judge Claflin is a strong and forceful man, gifted with keen insight into human nature and 
current events, and impressing all with his sincerity and courageous convictions. During the 
years of his residence in California he has made a marked impress upon the trend of public 
events, his striking personality and breadth of mind winning for him the confidence of all 
classes of intelligent men, and giving him a place among the leaders in public thought and 
action. Thoroughly grounded in the principles of the law, he has evidenced rare capabilities in 
the application of these principles to the causes intrusted to his care, and the success which has 
attended his practice has caused him to become recognized, by the profession and the laity, as 
a leader of the bar of southern California.