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Oscar Lovell Shafter
Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court
In office
January 2, 1864 – December 11, 1867
Appointed byDirect election
Preceded byElections under 1862 amendment to California constitution and 1863 enabling law
Succeeded byJoseph B. Crockett
Personal details
Born(1812-10-19)October 19, 1812
Athens, Vermont, U.S.
DiedJanuary 22, 1873(1873-01-22) (aged 60)
Florence, Italy
Spouse
Sarah Riddle
​
(m. 1841)​
RelationsJames McMillan Shafter, brother; William Rufus Shafter, nephew
Alma materWesleyan University (BA)
Harvard Law School
Signature

Oscar Lovell Shafter (October 19, 1812 – January 22, 1873) was an American attorney and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California from January 2, 1864, to December 11, 1867 with a legacy of expanding the California dairy industry.

Originally from Vermont he moved to California in 1854 and practiced law in San Francisco. In 1857, he and his brother James McMillan Shafter won a legal battle after which their client sold them the contested property of Point Reyes. They bought almost the entire peninsula for less than $85,000 and developed it as the leading dairy region in the entire West.

Early life and education

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Shafter was born in Athens, Vermont to Mary and William R. Shafter.[1] His father was an attorney, judge and member of the Vermont Legislature.[2][3] His grandfather, James Shafter, fought in the American Revolution, was one of the founders of the town of Athens in Vermont in 1779, and served in the Vermont Legislature for 20 years.[4] Shafter attended Wilbraham Wesleyan Academy in Massachusetts, and in 1834 graduated from Wesleyan University.[5] After graduation, he returned to Vermont and commenced reading law. He entered Harvard Law School and in 1836 graduated with a LL.B. He returned to Wilmington, Vermont, and entered into private practice for the next 18 years. He was elected to the state Legislature, and ran as the Free Soil Party and Liberty Party candidate for the United States House of Representatives, Senate, and Governor of Vermont.[5] While practicing in Wilmington, the prospective attorneys who studied under him included Charles N. Davenport.[6]

Career

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In 1854, at the invitation of a Vermont friend, Trevor Park, Shafter came to California and practiced law in San Francisco with Halleck, Peachy, Billings & Park. His brother, James McMillan Shafter, also attended Wesleyan University, and graduated from Yale Law School. Arriving in San Francisco in 1855, James joined his brother Oscar in forming the firm of Shafter, Shafter, Park and Heydenfeldt with Trevor Park and Solomon Heydenfeldt, who was the first elected Jewish member of the California Supreme Court, serving from 1852 to 1857.[7] Oscar was renowned as a real estate attorney and expert in quieting title.[7][8][9]

In 1857, a complex real estate litigation resulted in Shafter winning a victory for his client, Dr. Robert McMillan, of a large tract of land at Point Reyes in Marin County.[10][11] McMillan sold the 75,000 acre property at a discount to the Shafters, who paid roughly $85,000 for the parcel.[7] In turn, they leased land to dairy farmers who provided milk and butter to an ever-growing San Francisco and prospered.[12] The families of Oscar and James Shafter owned large portions of Point Reyes from 1857 to 1919, when the land was sold in parcels.[13]

In 1860, Shafter was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, but lost to Lecompton Democrat Milton Latham. In 1863, a constitutional amendment meant all of the seats of the Supreme Court of California were open for election.[14] In October 1863, Oscar Shafter was elected as a justice on the Republican Party ticket, and begin his term in January 1864.[15] The justices drew lots for term length and Shafter was assigned the long, 10-year term as an associate justice.[14][16][17] In December 1867, he resigned due to ill health.[17] Governor Henry Huntly Haight appointed Joseph B. Crockett to Shafter's seat.[16]

Shafter was again a candidate for U.S. Senate in the 1873 special and regular Senatorial elections, but lost to Democrat John S. Hager and Anti-Monopolist Newton Booth, respectively.

Seeking to recover his health, Shafter traveled to Europe in 1872. He died age 60 at Florence, Italy, on January 22, 1873.

Personal life

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Shafter married Sarah Riddle in Wilmington, Vermont, in 1840 and the couple had eleven children: ten daughters and one son. Four daughters and the son died at an early age, his son while he had moved to San Francisco in 1854 before his wife and two of their surviving daughters joined him in 1855.[18] His nephew was William Rufus Shafter, a general in the American Civil War and recipient of the Medal of Honor.[19]

Shafter kept a journal which describes the natural environment, social customs and living conditions of the California pioneers.[citation needed]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Johnson, J. Edward (1963). History of the California Supreme Court: The Justices 1850-1900, vol 1 (PDF). San Francisco, CA: Bender Moss Co. pp. 101–103. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 27, 2016. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  2. ^ House, Vermont. General Assembly (1846). Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Vermont. p. 240. List of justices of the peace: William R. Shafter, Townshend, Vermont.
  3. ^ Acts and Laws Passed by the Legislature of the State of Vermont. J. Padock & A. Spooner, printers to the General Assembly. 1857. p. 166. Retrieved July 18, 2017. Act No. 128, to pay William R. Shafter the sum of $15.02, "being the expense of an inquest held by him."
  4. ^ Wyman, Lora M. (1963). History of Athens Vermont. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Edwards Brothers. pp. 2–3.
  5. ^ a b Wilmington, Vermont. Times Press. 1900. p. 21. Retrieved July 18, 2017. William R. Shafter vermont. Biography of Oscar L. Shafter.
  6. ^ Child, Hamilton (1884). Gazetteer and Business Directory of Windham County, Vt., 1724-1884. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Journal. pp. 138–139 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ a b c Tippin, Brenda L. (May 2016). "History Lesson: Past and Present: Pt. Reyes Morgan Horse Ranch" (PDF). National Park Service. p. 27. Retrieved July 18, 2017. Senior partner Oscar Lovell Shafter was, at that time, considered the foremost title lawyer in California
  8. ^ "Our Sacramento Correspondence". Daily Alta California. Vol. 10, no. 62. California Digital Newspaper Collection. March 4, 1858. p. 1. Retrieved July 18, 2017. Tenth. --To allow and order paid out of the General Fund to O. L. Shafter, James Shafter and Solomon Heydenfeldt, as a law firm, for the defense of suits brought against the Tax Collector of the city and county of San Francisco...a sum not exceeding $1,000.
  9. ^ "Collection of Taxes". Daily Alta California. Vol. 10, no. 2. California Digital Newspaper Collection. January 3, 1858. p. 2. Retrieved July 18, 2017. We are informed that all the official acts of Mr. Patch as Tax Collector have been done under the advice of Mr. O. L. Shafter, his legal adviser, who has been retained by the State, as well as the city and county, to defend the suits brought against him.
  10. ^ Kyle, Douglas E. (2002). Historic Spots in California: Fifth Edition. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press. p. 192. ISBN 0804778175. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
  11. ^ "Point Reyes Station, California: 1857-1919: The Shafter Empire". SeeCalifornia.com. Retrieved July 18, 2017.
  12. ^ Pranka, Carol A. (Spring 2014). Good as Gold: The Marin-Sonoma Artisan Cheese Cluster (Ph.D. dissertation). University of California, Berkeley. p. 20. Retrieved December 7, 2022. soon after a group of San Francisco lawyers, led by brothers Oscar and James Shafter and son-in-law Charles Webb Howard, acquired much of the land in the Point Reyes area
  13. ^ "Big Marin Estate Sold to Operator". Healdsburg Tribune. No. 27. California Digital Newspaper Collection. December 4, 1929. p. 1. Retrieved July 19, 2017. The sale was made by Mrs. Julia Shafter Hamilton, daughter of the late Judge James McMillan Shafter, who bought the tract in 1876.
  14. ^ a b "The Supreme Court". San Francisco Call. Library of Congress, Chronicling America. June 22, 1895. p. 5. Retrieved July 18, 2017. Under the constitutional provision, on October 21, 1863, Oscar L. Shafter, Lorenzo Sawyer, Silas W. Sanderson, John Curry and A. L. Rhodes were elected Supreme Court Justices. The new court organized January 2, 1864, and in accordance with law, the Judges drew lots to determine the tenure of their official terms, with the following result: Shafter drew for ten years, Rhodes for eight. Sawyer for six, Curry for four and Sanderson for two.
  15. ^ "State Government, Judicial Department, Supreme Court". Sacramento Daily Union. Vol. 26, no. 3988. California Digital Newspaper Collection. January 1, 1864. p. 1. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  16. ^ a b McClain, Charles J. (2010). "Book review: Oscar T. Shuck, ed., History of the Bench and Bar of California: Being Biographies of Many Remarkable Men, a Store of Humorous and Pathetic Recollections, Accounts of Important Legislation and Extraordinary Cases". Cal. Legal History. 5: 399–422, 414–415.
  17. ^ a b Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1890). History of California: 1860-1890. History Company. pp. 235–236. Oscar L. Shafter harvard law school.
  18. ^ Wyman, Lora M. (1963). History of Athens Vermont. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Edwards Brothers. p. 151. m. 1840 Sarah Riddle. 1 ch. 10 dau. 1 son. 4 dau. and the s. d. in early childhood. See poem 'Lament' by O. L. Shafter, Part III, Chap. 2. Rem. to Calif. via Cape Horn 1854 leaving his family in Wilmington, Vt. until a year later. In 1855, his wife and daughters Emma and Mary joined him in San Francisco where they made their permanent home.
  19. ^ Forbes, Charles Spooner; Cummings, Charles R. (1897). The Vermonter: The State Magazine, Volumes 3-6. C.S. Forbes. p. 271. Retrieved July 18, 2017. An uncle of the general, the late Oscar L. Shafter...became a judge of the (California) Supreme Court.
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Party political offices
Preceded by Free Soil nominee for Governor of Vermont
1848 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court
1864–1867 		Succeeded by
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