Elisha Williams McKinstry (April 10, 1824 – November 1, 1901) was a California jurist of the nineteenth century. He served as a justice of the

California Supreme Court The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sac ...

from 1874 to 1888.

Biography

McKinstry was born April 10, 1824, in

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. He moved to

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and in 1847 was admitted to the New York bar. In 1849, McKinstry came to California on the steamship ''Panama''. and was a member of the first

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representing Sacramento. In 1851, he opened a law practice in Napa, and was elected in 1852 as judge of the Seventh Judicial District Court for a term of six years, and in 1858 was re-elected. In August 1860, he visited

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, returning to California the following month. On November 13, 1862, he resigned from the district court. In January 1863, he moved to

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, and practiced law. In August 1863, during the

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, he was nominated for Lieutenant Governor by the Copperhead Democratic Party, but lost the election. Afterwards, he moved Nevada, where he practiced law and ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the

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. In October 1864, he attended the Copperhead Democratic convention held in

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. In October 1867, having returned to California, he was elected

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county judge for a term of four years, but before his term expired he was elected as an independent candidate as a judge of the 12th District Court. In October 1867, during the election, a Catholic priest accused McKinstry of leading the Aurora Vigilance Committee, a quasi-lynch mob, in 1863 in

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, and refusing to accommodate the request for last rites by four men who were condemned to hang. In September 1873, he was nominated by the People's Independent Party and elected on October 15, 1873, to the California Supreme Court, where he served from January 1874 to October 1, 1888. McKinstry filled the seat of former Chief Justice Royal Sprague, who died in office, and whose appointed successor, Isaac S. Belcher, did not run for election. In 1879, when adoption of a new

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required elections for all seats on the Supreme Court, McKinstry was nominated by both the Democratic Party and Workingman's Party and was re-elected. The newly elected judges drew lots to determine the length of term, and McKinstry drew an 11-year term. His notable cases include '' Lux v. Haggin'', holding

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prevailed in California. He resigned from the court on October 1, 1888. After stepping down from the bench, from 1888 to 1895 he was a professor of law at the

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in San Francisco. He also engaged in private practice with his son, James C. McKinstry, and later with John A. Stanly and H. W. Bradley in the firm of Stanly, McKinstry, Bradley & McKinstry. McKinstry died on November 1, 1901, in

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Honors and awards

On December 20, 1899, McKinstry delivered the oration to the Jubilee Celebration at

commemorating 50 years of statehood. Text of oration by Elisha W. McKinstry. McKinstry was awarded an honorary

LL.D. A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...

from the

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Clubs

McKinstry was president of the

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Personal life

On July 27, 1863, McKinstry was married to Annie L. Hedges at

Marysville, California Marysville is a city and the county seat of Yuba County, California, located in the Gold Country region of Northern California. As of the 2010 United States census, the population was 12,072, reflecting a decrease of 196 from the 12,268 counte ...

, and they had two sons and two daughters: Capt. Charles H. McKinstry, Laura L. McKinstry, James C. McKinstry, and Frances McKinstry.

References

Sources

* Jones, William Carey (1901)
Illustrated History of the University of California
p. 321

External links

Elisha W. McKinstry
California Supreme Court Historical Society. Retrieved July 24, 2017

California State Courts. Retrieved July 19, 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:McKinstry, Elisha W. 1824 births 1901 deaths Kenyon College alumni University of California College of the Law, San Francisco faculty Justices of the Supreme Court of California U.S. state supreme court judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law Democratic Party members of the California State Assembly 19th-century California state court judges 19th-century American lawyers Lawyers from Detroit Lawyers from San Francisco Copperheads (politics) 19th-century members of the California State Legislature