John W. North
Encyclopedia
John Wesley North was a 19th century pioneer American statesman
of national reputation. He is the founder of the cities of Northfield, Minnesota
, and of Riverside
, California
, where John W. North High School
and the John W. North Water Treatment Plant are named after him. He also received a Presidential appointment to Nevada's highest court, the predecessor of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada
.
, Rensselaer County
, New York
, January 4, 1815. He started teaching school at the age of 15 and became a licensed lay preacher in 1833. He completed his post secondary education at Cazenovia Seminary
in New York and attended Wesleyan University
. He later studied law and was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1845.
His first wife was Emma Bacon (d. 1847). In 1848, he married Ann Hendrix Loomis.
He moved to the Minnesota Territory in 1849 where he continued to practice law. The first years in Minnesota
were spent at St. Anthony. In the fall of 1850, North was elected a member of the second Minnesota Territorial Legislature of the territory. He ran for reelection in the 1851 elections but was defeated. He was one of the founders of the Republican Party of Minnesota
in 1855. In 1857, he was a member of the Minnesota state Constitutional Convention. In 1860, he was a delegate to the Chicago
Republican Convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln
for the presidency
of the United States and was a member of the committee that went to Springfield
to notify Lincoln of his nomination.
In addition to his legislative career in Minnesota, North was influential in founding the University of Minnesota
, wrote the act which became the University's charter
and was treasurer of its board of regents (an appointed position) from 1851-60.
.
In the summer of 1855 North started work on the dam and a $4,000 saw mill which began sawing lumber about the first of December of that year.
North’s wife, Ann Loomis North, and three children aged four months to four years, joined him in Northfield in on January 3, 1856. A fourth child, son John Greenleaf North (b. October 11, 1856 in Saint Anthony, Minnesota
), was born later that year. The North's eventually had six children together.
The Norths founded many of the early societies in Northfield. A college-bred man, John was keenly interested in the organization of the Lyceum Society, which was formed October 1, 1856, and of which he was the first president. A number of the early Northfield settlers had known the Norths in Syracuse, New York
, including Ann's brother and sister-in-law, George (1835–1894) and Kate A. Loomis.
When John North suffered financial failure in the Panic of 1857
, his business interests were purchased in 1859 by his friend, Charles Augustus Wheaton
, who had moved to Northfield from Syracuse on the advice of the Norths after the death of Wheaton's first wife.
The connection of John North with the community he founded lasted only about six years and he left well before the historical event that brought the most notoriety to the town—the infamous attempt by the James-Younger Gang
to rob the First National Bank of Northfield in 1876.
appointed North to be the official surveyor of the new Territory of Nevada, and North moved to Virginia City
, Nevada
. The territorial surveyor was a sensitive position in a mining region such as Nevada’s Comstock Lode
, where the boundaries of mining claims were the constant subject of lawsuits. Lincoln may have counted on North to keep Nevada Territory loyal to the Union, and to bring Nevada in as a Republican
state, as he had Minnesota. North surveyed, invested in silver mining
properties, began building an ore-treatment mill he named the Minnesota Mill, and practiced law.
In early 1863, when Justice Gordon Mott's resignation from the Supreme Court of Nevada Territory was a certainty, Judge Horatio M. Jones recommended North for the vacancy. On August 20, 1863, President Lincoln
granted North a temporary presidential appointment to Nevada's highest court, the predecessor of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada
. Initially, North won praise both for his decisions and for removing the backlog of cases on his docket. He was also elected president of the 1863 constitutional convention (in Carson City) assigned to draft a proposed state constitution for Nevada. In both positions he clashed with William M. Stewart
, a prominent lawyer with political ambitions and large mining companies as clients. North’s rulings supported the "many-ledge" interpretation of mining law on the Comstock Lode, which favored the smaller mining companies over the larger companies that were Stewart’s clients.
Stewart accused North of accepting bribes from litigants. North denied the charge, and Stewart was forced to publicly recant, but Stewart continued to attack North’s honesty, and orchestrated a campaign against North in the Nevada newspapers allied with Stewart. Other newspapers supported North.
North resigned because of ill health after less than a year on the bench, but he sued Stewart for slander. North agreed to submit his suit to arbitration, and after hearing both sides, the court declared that Stewart had indeed slandered North, and that there was no evidence that North had engaged in corruption. Nevertheless, North left the Territory for California, and Stewart remained and became the U.S. Senator from the new state of Nevada.
, and then for a while to Tennessee
. There are reports that North, an abolitionist, was shunned in Tennessee after he talked a crowd out of lynching a black man. This precipitated a move in 1870 back to California where, in 1870, North founded the southern California town of Riverside along with associates—some from Minnesota—who joined him there.
In 1879, he and his family moved north to San Francisco
and joined a law firm. That year, North was nominated, but did not win, the Republican nomination to the California Supreme Court. In 1880, he became the general agent for the Washington Irrigated Colony, near Fresno, California
. He opened a law office in Fresno, built a house and started a farm in nearby small community of Oleander
. His wife did not join him in this move.
John North died in Fresno on February 22, 1890, and he was buried in Riverside's Evergreen Cemetery
.
Statesman
A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...
of national reputation. He is the founder of the cities of Northfield, Minnesota
Northfield, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 17,147 people, 4,909 households, and 3,210 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,452.2 people per square mile . There were 5,119 housing units at an average density of 732.1 per square mile...
, and of Riverside
Riverside, California
Riverside is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, and the county seat of the eponymous county. Named for its location beside the Santa Ana River, it is the largest city in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area of Southern California, 4th largest inland California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, where John W. North High School
John W. North High School
John W. North High School is a distinguished International Baccalaureate high school in Riverside, California, part of the Riverside Unified School District, and the home of the Huskies and the 1995 Division 4 CIF Football Champions. In 2006 and 2007 the North football team won back-to-back CIF...
and the John W. North Water Treatment Plant are named after him. He also received a Presidential appointment to Nevada's highest court, the predecessor of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada
United States District Court for the District of Nevada
The United States District Court for the District of Nevada is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Nevada. The court has locations in Las Vegas and Reno....
.
Early life and career
North was born at Sand LakeSand Lake, New York
Sand Lake is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the town had a population of 7,987. The Capital District Regional Planning Commission indicates it to be 8,336 as of September 2010. The town is in the south-central part of the county...
, Rensselaer County
Rensselaer County, New York
Rensselaer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 159,429. Its name is in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the land in the area. Its county seat is Troy...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, January 4, 1815. He started teaching school at the age of 15 and became a licensed lay preacher in 1833. He completed his post secondary education at Cazenovia Seminary
Cazenovia Seminary
Cazenovia Seminary was an academic seminary of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was located in Cazenovia, New York, U.S.A.. It was founded in 1825, at the instigation of George Peck and several other prominent clergymen in the area...
in New York and attended Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
. He later studied law and was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1845.
His first wife was Emma Bacon (d. 1847). In 1848, he married Ann Hendrix Loomis.
He moved to the Minnesota Territory in 1849 where he continued to practice law. The first years in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
were spent at St. Anthony. In the fall of 1850, North was elected a member of the second Minnesota Territorial Legislature of the territory. He ran for reelection in the 1851 elections but was defeated. He was one of the founders of the Republican Party of Minnesota
Republican Party of Minnesota
The Republican Party of Minnesota is the Minnesota branch of the United States Republican Party. Elected by the party’s state central committee in June 2009, its chairman is Tony Sutton, and its deputy-chairman is Michael Brodkorb.-Early history:...
in 1855. In 1857, he was a member of the Minnesota state Constitutional Convention. In 1860, he was a delegate to the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
Republican Convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
for the presidency
Presidency
The word presidency is often used to describe the administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation...
of the United States and was a member of the committee that went to Springfield
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the third and current capital of the US state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 117,400 , making it the sixth most populated city in the state and the second most populated Illinois city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area...
to notify Lincoln of his nomination.
In addition to his legislative career in Minnesota, North was influential in founding the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
, wrote the act which became the University's charter
Charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
and was treasurer of its board of regents (an appointed position) from 1851-60.
Founding Northfield, Minnesota
On August 17, 1855, North purchased 160 acres (64.7 ha) of land from three farmers: Daniel Kuykendahl, Daniel Turner, and Herman Jenkins. The entire tract of 320 acre (129.5 ha) was platted in the fall of 1855, and the plat of the Original Town, comprising most of what is now the First and Second wards and a small tract across the river south of the section line now marked by Fourth street, was filed in the office of the register of deeds March 7, 1856. The town was named Northfield, MinnesotaNorthfield, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 17,147 people, 4,909 households, and 3,210 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,452.2 people per square mile . There were 5,119 housing units at an average density of 732.1 per square mile...
.
In the summer of 1855 North started work on the dam and a $4,000 saw mill which began sawing lumber about the first of December of that year.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
), was born later that year. The North's eventually had six children together.
The Norths founded many of the early societies in Northfield. A college-bred man, John was keenly interested in the organization of the Lyceum Society, which was formed October 1, 1856, and of which he was the first president. A number of the early Northfield settlers had known the Norths in Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
, including Ann's brother and sister-in-law, George (1835–1894) and Kate A. Loomis.
When John North suffered financial failure in the Panic of 1857
Panic of 1857
The Panic of 1857 was a financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy. Indeed, because of the interconnectedness of the world economy by the time of the 1850s, the financial crisis which began in the autumn of 1857 was...
, his business interests were purchased in 1859 by his friend, Charles Augustus Wheaton
Charles Augustus Wheaton
Charles Augustus Wheaton was a businessman and major figure in the central New York state abolitionist movement and Underground Railroad, as well as other progressive causes...
, who had moved to Northfield from Syracuse on the advice of the Norths after the death of Wheaton's first wife.
The connection of John North with the community he founded lasted only about six years and he left well before the historical event that brought the most notoriety to the town—the infamous attempt by the James-Younger Gang
James-Younger gang
The James-Younger Gang was a notable 19th-century gang of American outlaws that included Jesse James.The gang was centered in the state of Missouri. Membership fluctuated from robbery to robbery, as the outlaws' raids were usually separated by many months...
to rob the First National Bank of Northfield in 1876.
Nevada Judiciary
In 1861 President Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
appointed North to be the official surveyor of the new Territory of Nevada, and North moved to Virginia City
Virginia City, Nevada
Virginia City is a census-designated place that is the county seat of Storey County, Nevada. It is part of the Reno–Sparks Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 855 at the 2010 Census.- History :...
, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
. The territorial surveyor was a sensitive position in a mining region such as Nevada’s Comstock Lode
Comstock Lode
The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. discovery of silver ore, located under what is now Virginia City, Nevada, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range. After the discovery was made public in 1859, prospectors rushed to the area and scrambled to stake their claims...
, where the boundaries of mining claims were the constant subject of lawsuits. Lincoln may have counted on North to keep Nevada Territory loyal to the Union, and to bring Nevada in as a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
state, as he had Minnesota. North surveyed, invested in silver mining
Silver mining
Silver mining refers to the resource extraction of the precious metal element silver by mining.-History:Silver has been known since ancient times. It is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, and slag heaps found in Asia Minor and on the islands of the Aegean Sea indicate that silver was being separated...
properties, began building an ore-treatment mill he named the Minnesota Mill, and practiced law.
In early 1863, when Justice Gordon Mott's resignation from the Supreme Court of Nevada Territory was a certainty, Judge Horatio M. Jones recommended North for the vacancy. On August 20, 1863, President Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
granted North a temporary presidential appointment to Nevada's highest court, the predecessor of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada
United States District Court for the District of Nevada
The United States District Court for the District of Nevada is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Nevada. The court has locations in Las Vegas and Reno....
. Initially, North won praise both for his decisions and for removing the backlog of cases on his docket. He was also elected president of the 1863 constitutional convention (in Carson City) assigned to draft a proposed state constitution for Nevada. In both positions he clashed with William M. Stewart
William M. Stewart
William Morris Stewart was an American lawyer and politician.-Biography:Stewart was born in Wayne County, New York. As a child he moved with his parents to Trumbull County, Ohio. As a young man he was a mathematics teacher in Ohio. In 1849 he began attending Yale University but left in 1850 to...
, a prominent lawyer with political ambitions and large mining companies as clients. North’s rulings supported the "many-ledge" interpretation of mining law on the Comstock Lode, which favored the smaller mining companies over the larger companies that were Stewart’s clients.
Stewart accused North of accepting bribes from litigants. North denied the charge, and Stewart was forced to publicly recant, but Stewart continued to attack North’s honesty, and orchestrated a campaign against North in the Nevada newspapers allied with Stewart. Other newspapers supported North.
North resigned because of ill health after less than a year on the bench, but he sued Stewart for slander. North agreed to submit his suit to arbitration, and after hearing both sides, the court declared that Stewart had indeed slandered North, and that there was no evidence that North had engaged in corruption. Nevertheless, North left the Territory for California, and Stewart remained and became the U.S. Senator from the new state of Nevada.
Founding Riverside, California
North and his family moved to the northern California town of Santa ClaraSanta Clara, California
Santa Clara , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the...
, and then for a while to Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
. There are reports that North, an abolitionist, was shunned in Tennessee after he talked a crowd out of lynching a black man. This precipitated a move in 1870 back to California where, in 1870, North founded the southern California town of Riverside along with associates—some from Minnesota—who joined him there.
In 1879, he and his family moved north to San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
and joined a law firm. That year, North was nominated, but did not win, the Republican nomination to the California Supreme Court. In 1880, he became the general agent for the Washington Irrigated Colony, near Fresno, California
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
. He opened a law office in Fresno, built a house and started a farm in nearby small community of Oleander
Oleander, California
Oleander is an unincorporated community in Fresno County, California. It is located south-southeast of downtown Fresno, at an elevation of 285 feet ....
. His wife did not join him in this move.
John North died in Fresno on February 22, 1890, and he was buried in Riverside's Evergreen Cemetery
Evergreen Cemetery (Riverside, California)
Evergreen Cemetery, or Evergreen Memorial Park is a cemetery in Riverside, California, United States. The first burial occurred in 1872, and the cemetery became the resting place of many historic figures of Riverside.-History:...
.