John Moore Currey (October 4, 1814 – December 18, 1912) was the eighth
Chief Justice of California
The Supreme Court of California is the Supreme court, highest and final court of appeals in the judiciary of California, courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly ...
, and candidate for
Governor of California
The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The Governor (United States), governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard.
Established in the Constit ...
in 1859.
Biography
John Currey was born in
Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is a County (United States), county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, bordering the Long Island Sound and the Byram River to its east and the Hudson River on its west. The c ...
, in 1814, and died in
Dixon, California
Dixon is a city in northeastern Solano County, California, Solano County, California, United States, located from the state capital, Sacramento, California, Sacramento. It has a Mediterranean climate, hot-summer mediterranean climate on the K� ...
, in 1912. He attended
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...
in Middletown, Connecticut (class of 1842).
Currey came to California in 1849, eventually settling down in
Benicia
Benicia ( , ) is a city in Solano County, California, located on the north bank of the Carquinez Strait in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It served as the capital of California for nearly thirteen months from 1853 to 1854. ...
, Solano County, California, where he established a successful law practice. Among his clients was Juan Manuel Vaca, owner of a large tract of land, a Mexican land grant near the present-day city that bears his name:
Vacaville, California
Vacaville is a city located in Solano County, California, United States. It is located from Sacramento, California, Sacramento and from San Francisco, it is on the edge of the Sacramento Valley in Northern California. The city was founded in ...
.
In 1850 and 1852,
Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853. He was the last president to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House, and the last to be neither a De ...
nominated him to be a district court judge in California, but both nominations were unsuccessful; the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
voted to reject the first nomination and took no action on the second.
In 1859 the Anti-Lecompton Democratic Party selected Currey as their candidate for Governor of California. The rival faction,
Lecompton Democrats, chose
Milton Latham
Milton Slocum Latham (May 23, 1827 – March 4, 1882) was an American politician, who served as the sixth governor of California and as a U.S. representative and U.S. senator. Latham holds the distinction of having the shortest governorship in C ...
as their candidate. The
Republican Party ran its first California gubernatorial candidate in 1859, businessman and railroad tycoon, and later Governor
Leland Stanford
Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824June 21, 1893) was an American attorney, industrialist, philanthropist, and Republican Party (United States), Republican Party politician from Watervliet, New York. He served as the eighth governor of Calif ...
. Despite the Democratic party split in California in the 1850s and the surge of the new Republican Party's candidate in the campaign, Latham won the election, garnering sixty percent of the vote.
After defeat in his run for governor, Currey would find other promising opportunities for office. In 1863, several vacancies on the Supreme Court occurred. The departed justices included the sixth Chief Justice
Stephen Johnson Field
Stephen Johnson Field (November 4, 1816 – April 9, 1899) was an American jurist. He was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from May 20, 1863, to December 1, 1897, the second longest tenure of any justice. Prior to this ap ...
, who was appointed by President
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
to the
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
, becoming the first Californian to serve on the high court.
In 1863, a constitutional amendment meant all of the seats of the
Supreme Court of California
The Supreme Court of California is the Supreme court, highest and final court of appeals in the judiciary of California, courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly ...
were open for election.
Running as a "union" party candidate at the height of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, Currey was elected to the
Supreme Court of California
The Supreme Court of California is the Supreme court, highest and final court of appeals in the judiciary of California, courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly ...
, taking his seat in January 1864. His term ended January 1, 1868. After serving as associate justice, Currey became Chief Justice on January 1, 1866, when
Silas Sanderson resigned, on the rule that the member of the court with the shortest remaining term serves. (He was defeated in his re-election bid, for the newly established ten-year term, by associate justice
Augustus Rhodes and was therefore succeeded as Chief Justice by
Lorenzo Sawyer).
Having served four years on the court, including two as chief justice, Currey lost the 1867 election to
Royal Sprague and retired to his home in San Francisco. When the
1906 San Francisco earthquake
At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...
and fire left him homeless he moved to his estate north of
Dixon in
Solano County
Solano County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 453,491. The county seat is Fairfield.
Solano County comprises the Vallejo–Fairfield metropolitan statistical area, which is a ...
, in the
Sacramento Valley
The Sacramento Valley is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies north of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the Sacramento River. It encompasses all or parts of ten Northern California ...
. With his sons, Montgomery Scott Currey and Robert John Currey, he lived out his last years there.
Personal life
In 1845, Currey married Cornelia Elizabeth Scott, who died April 20, 1877.
See also
*
List of justices of the Supreme Court of California
The Supreme Court of California is the highest judicial body in the state and sits at the apex of the judiciary of California. Its membership consists of the Chief Justice of California and six associate justices who are nominated by the Govern ...
*
Augustus Rhodes
*
Silas Sanderson
*
Lorenzo Sawyer
*
Oscar L. Shafter
References
External links
In Memoriam John Currey California Supreme Court Historical Society. Retrieved July 18, 2017.
California State Courts. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Currey, John
1814 births
1912 deaths
People from Westchester County, New York
People from Benicia, California
People from Dixon, California
Wesleyan University alumni
California Democrats
Chief justices of California
U.S. state supreme court judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law
Justices of the Supreme Court of California
19th-century American judges
19th-century American lawyers
Lawyers from San Francisco