Bellwood Chase Hawkins (1885-1955)

From the Modesto News-Herald, September 2, 1928.

  Modesto, California attorney Bellwood Chase Hawkins is the newest of several "-wood" suffix names that have been featured on the site, and despite a limited amount of sources mentioning him, was a leading figure at the Stanislaus County bar. A justice of the peace in Modesto in the late 1920s, Hawkins was subsequently named as police judge for that city, and after eight years in that post advanced to judge of the Superior Court of California, where he served for nearly two decades. 

  The son of Nicholas Andrew and Emma E. Hawkins, Bellwood Chase "B.C." Hawkins was born on September 21, 1885, in California. A distinguished figure in his own right, Nicholas Hawkins was a former member of the California state assembly, district attorney for San Benito County, and in 1908 took office as Superior Court Judge for Yolo County. A resident of Woodland, California during his youth, Bellwood Hawkins followed in his father's stead and began the study of law.  In 1905-06 Hawkins was a student at the University of California, and from 1906-07 undertook additional study at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

 Following further studies at Stanford University in 1907, Hawkins married in 1910 to Pearl Minniear (1889-1944), to who he was wed until her death. The couple would have one daughter, Myrne. After the death of his wife in 1944 Hawkins remarried to Aline Hardin, who would survive him upon his death in 1955. 

  Prior to joining his father and brother in the practice of law in Modesto in September 1917, Hawkins held the presidency of the Modesto Abstract and Title Co., which later underwent a name change to the Stanislaus Abstract and Escrow Co. After a decade of practice in Modesto Hawkins was appointed as a justice of the peace for that city in September 1928, and just a few days following that appointment was selected by the city council as police judge for the city. Hawkins' appointment to the bench was occasioned by the death of sitting judge W.H. Rice, and after serving out the remainder of Rice's term won a term of his own as judge in 1930.

   Bellwood Hawkins entered into the race for Superior Court Judge of Stanislaus County in 1936 and in November of that year defeated sitting judge L.J. Maddux. Hawkins' nineteen-year tenure on the bench saw him preside over several high profile trials in the county, including the 1953 trial of Henry Simpson, a Modesto carpenter who was convicted in August 1953 for inciting his 13-year son Clarence to shoot an kill the boy's mother Vivian. Simpson would subsequently be handed the death penalty for his role in the shooting, with that sentence being upheld by the state supreme court in October 1954.

  In addition to his judgeship, Hawkins was a leading club-man in Modesto, being a past master of the Stanislaus Masonic Lodge No. 206, an exalted ruler of the Modesto Elks Lodge, and was a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West. In March 1955 Hawkins took ill and was transported to a Modesto hospital, where on March 16th he died after having suffered "severe internal hemorrhages." He was survived by his wife and daughter and was interred at the Acacia Memorial Park in Modesto.

From the Oakdale Leader, March 17, 1955.

Narcissus Augustus Dorn (1852-1926)

Portrait courtesy of the www.nifty-gadgets.com webpage.

   Intriguingly named California jurist Narcissus Augustus Dorn sports one of the most eye-popping names I've stumbled across in quite some time, and hails from a state that, while large in size and population, has fielded only a small number of oddly named political figures--ten of whom have been profiled here over the past four years. A former district attorney of Monterey County California, Dorn went on to further public distinction in the early 1890s when he was elected as Superior Court Judge for Monterey County, serving on the bench for over a decade. Sadly I have no intriguing backstory as to how Dorn came to receive his unusual first name, but I'm fairly certain that he is the only American jurist ever to be named in honor of the Greek huntsman Narcissus, who, if you'll remember, drowned after falling in love with his image reflected in a pool of water. The name Narcissus would later give us the term narcissism, a fixation on one's looks and appearance.

   An Iowan by birth, Narcissus Augustus Dorn was born on May 27, 1852, in the burgeoning city of Council Bluffs, being the second-born child of Nicodemus Andrew Jackson Dorn (1829-1903) and his wife, the former Rebecca Ellen Walters (1833-1903). As the proud possessor of an unusual name, Nicodemus A.J. Dorn would bestow similar odd names on five of his eleven children, and in addition to Narcissus the Dorn family saw the births of Marcellus Americus (1857-1900), Nicodemus Andrew Jackson (died in childhood), Diodemus Socrates (1860-1913) and Effie Pacific (1873-1942). Truly a brood of interestingly named siblings!

   When their son was less than a year old the Dorn family left Council Bluffs for California, eventually settling in Watsonville. They later resided in Visalia and Los Angeles before finally settling in Marysville, where Dorn engaged in work on the family farm. Due to his family's frequent moves, Narcissus Dorn's education was gained by:

"Attending such schools as the various localities could afford, or when work on the farm would permit of his attending them."

   Through diligent study and hard work, Narcissus Dorn became a teacher in the Santa Cruz and Monterey County areas. He married in October 1873 to Josephine McCusker (1854-1946), a daughter of a well-to-do Irish rancher. The couple would become parents to six children, listed as follows in order of birth: Mabel T. (born 1875), Narcissus (died in infancy in 1876), Daniel (1877- 1896), Carl (1879-1964), Ethel (born 1881), Elsie (1883-1905) and Marcella (1892-1949).
   Harboring ambitions to become a lawyer, Dorn began law studies in the office of San Jose Judge Lawrence Archer and in October 1874 was admitted to practice. Soon after establishing his law office in Salinas, California, Dorn's career as an attorney blossomed, so much so that just over a year after being admitted to practice he was elected as District Attorney of Salinas County. Just twenty-three years of age at the time of his election, Dorn served a two-year term as District Attorney, leaving office in 1877. In 1879 he was reelected to that office, and upon the conclusion of that term retired " with a record of which any young practitioner might be proud." In the early 1880s, he joined in a law partnership with William M.R. Parker in Salinas, California, their firm continuing until 1890.
   In 1890 Dorn's political profile received a significant boost when he was given the Republican nomination for Superior Court Judge of Monterey County. He would win that election and officially took his seat on the bench on January 1, 1891. Dorn won reelection in 1896 and served another six-year term on the Superior Court until January 1903, having been defeated for a third term the previous November by Democratic nominee Bradley Varnum Sargent Jr.

From the San Francisco Chronicle, December 12, 1902.

   In 1895 Dorn and his wife Josephine divorced after twenty-two years of marriage. Several years following his divorce he remarried in December 1902  to San Francisco native Sarah Jane de la Montanya (1861-1955). Described as "a woman of great wealth", Sarah de la Montanya was the daughter of William James de la Montanya (1819-1899), a prominent San Francisco-based businessman. Following their nuptials, the couple took a lengthy honeymoon through Europe, and after returning to the United States resided in San Francisco.

   Prior to his death Dorn maintained a law practice with his son Carl but is known to have "practiced very little" during his residency in San Francisco. Narcissus A. Dorn died in that city on July 1, 1926, at age 74. He was survived by his second wife Sarah and four of his children. He was later interred at the famed Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California. Sarah Dorn survived her husband by nearly three decades, and following her death at age 94 in 1955 was laid to rest at the same cemetery as her husband.

From the San Francisco Examiner, December 22, 1904.

Dummer Kiah Trask (1860-1914)

From Shuck's History of the Bench and Bar of California, 1901.

  Our judicial theme continues and the following write-up examines the life and career of a Judge named Dummer! An odd first name to give a child for sure, but this educator and practitioner of law certainly didn't let his odd name curb his ambitions, as he carved a distinguished career in California public life, holding a seat on the Superior Court of Los Angeles for nearly a decade. Dummer Kiah Trask was a native son of Ohio, born in Cincinnati on July 17, 1860, a son of Kiah Bailey and Mary Jane (Dunton) Trask. The Trask family are recorded by the Shuck's 1901 Bench and Bar of California as removing from Cincinnati to Lewiston, Maine when their son was about a year old, and as an adolescent "taught school at age seventeen" and attended school in Lincoln County, graduating from the Waterville Classical Institute in the class of 1881.

   In the year following his graduation, Trask left Maine and resettled in San Joaquin County, California, where he taught school for a short time.  He became active in educational affairs in this area and served as principal of the Business College and Normal Institute in the city of Stockton. Trask was later a member of the San Joaquin County Board of Education for one year (1886-1887) and later occupied the same position on the Los Angeles Board of Education, serving from 1893-1894. He married in 1887 to Ida C. Folsom (1860-1922) and had four children Ida Mary (1889-1975), Dummer F. (died in infancy in 1891), Dorothy Trask Goodrich (birth date unknown) and Walter Folsom (1896-1919).

   In 1890 the Trask family moved to Los Angeles, and here Dummer established a law practice, having commenced studying in San Joaquin County. He was recorded as doing a "fine law business" throughout the 1890s and in 1898 was appointed by then Governor James Herbert Budd to a vacancy on the Superior Court of Los Angeles, succeeding Walter Van Dyke (1823-1905), who had been elected to the California Supreme Court. 

 From the History Bench and Bar of Southern California, 1909.

   Following his appointment Dummer Trask gained distinction on the bench, with the Bench and Bar of California noting that as a judge, Trask "showed much impartiality and industry, and brought such general ability to the discharge of his duties, that, at the general election of November 1900, although he was a Democrat and his party in a hopeless minority, was elected as his own successor for a full term of six years." 

   Following the 1900 election, Trask resumed his duties on the bench and in December 1905 was even talked of as a potential candidate for Governor of  California in the upcoming gubernatorial election. His potential candidacy was announced (to his great surprise) in a statement by Capt. George M. Cake at a California Tammany Club banquet on December 20, 1905, and within a day or two of Cake's speech advocating Trask's nomination the Los Angeles Herald had picked up on the story. In its December 22nd edition the Herald quoted Los Angeles attorney E.L. Hutchinson as stating:

"I don't know how we could do better than nominate Judge Trask for Governor of California. His has been the ripe experience that makes for capable officials and he is well qualified for the position. He would undoubtedly be elected  if given the nomination, as I believe he is one of the strongest and best known men in California."

   Despite being boosted for the post, Trask himself is reported as smiling and stating that he " certainly wouldn't refuse the office." The thought of a Trask gubernatorial candidacy appears to have been a "nine-day wonder", as nothing else could be found mentioning it after December of 1905. A few weeks after his gubernatorial dreams came to naught, Trask (while still serving on the bench) accepted the presidency of the Consolidated Realty Company, which had been "organized for the purchase of business property" in the city of Los Angeles. In the 1906 election, Trask refused to run for another term on the Superior Court and retired from service in January 1907, noting that he would recommence with his law practice in Los Angeles.

Dummer K. Trask (with fancy hat), pictured in the Nov. 19, 1906 Los Angeles Herald.

   After retiring from the bench Trask formed the law firm of D.K Trask and Co. and was also active in several non-political areas, being a longstanding member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge ( serving as Grand Chancellor in California in 1902-03), and in 1910 was elected as president of the Jefferson Club of Los Angeles. Trask also held a seat on the Los Angeles Police Commission, entering into that office in 1909. He continued to practice law in Los Angeles until being felled by a fatal stroke while "engaged in trying a lawsuit" in probate court on March 12, 1914. He was recorded in the San Bernardino County Sun as having "died without regaining consciousness" in almost identical circumstances as that of his younger brother Walter (1862-1911), a Los Angeles attorney who died of apoplexy while speaking at a Los Angeles club. 

   Following his death Dummer Trask was interred at the Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles, and was later memorialized in the Official Record of Proceedings of the Knights of Pythias Lodge in the accompanying passage:

"In the passing away of Dummer Kiah Trask we have impressed upon us the truth that ''life is confined within a space of a day''. Only fifty-three years, as time is measured, was his allotted stay on earth. Then came the summons; not unexpected, but still unwelcome, and now the places that knew him only to love him ''shall know him no more forever."

From the History of the Bench and Bar of California, 1912.

Oval Pirkey (1861-1923), Oval Sethal Hatler (1892-1956)

From Shuck's History of the Bench and Bar of California, 1901.

   Certainly, one of the funniest named jurists ever to be elected to office in the United States, Judge Oval Pirkey of California held a seat on the Superior Court of Glenn County during the early years of the 20th century. He was born in Alexandria, Tennessee on February 22, 1861, and inherited his odd name courtesy of his father, also named Oval Pirkey. Pirkey sR. (1833-1912) was a prominent figure in educational circles, being a professor at the Christian University in Canton, Missouri, and former president of both the Lawrence College in Tennessee and the Abingdon College in Illinois. He married in 1859 to Sallie McClelland and later had several children, of which Oval Pirkey II was the second born. Young Oval attended college at the Christian University in Canton, Missouri, and graduated from here in the class of 1883. 
  Pirkey embarked upon a career in law after the completion of his schooling and was admitted to the Washington Territorial Bar in 1885. He later moved to California to continue his law practice and married here in 1900 to Marion Moore Rice (1871-1948), and the couple is recorded as having at least one son, Oval Jr. (1901-1986) who was later involved in vaudeville. In 1898 Pirkey won election to the Superior Court of Glenn County, California, and took his seat on the bench in 1899. 
  His service on the court lasted only a few years (1899-1905) but was not without controversy. In 1903 Pirkey became the judge in the case of Swan vs. Talbot in Willows, California. During the trial proceedings, attorneys for the defense leveled charges of bias against Judge Pirkey, which he vehemently denied. Pirkey went as far as to file affidavits denying all of the charges, as did attorneys for the plaintiff, who noted that Judge Pirkey had never appeared biased or had shown favoritism during past cases. An article on the brouhaha concerning the trial appeared in the June 6, 1903 edition of the San Francisco Call and is shown below.

   In the 1904 election season, Pirkey was defeated for re-election to the Superior Court, losing to Democratic candidate William Finch by a vote of 875 to 623. Following his loss, Pirkey removed to Washington and resided there for the remainder of his life. Although a resident of Washington, notice is given as to his practicing law in Portland, Oregon, and serving as city librarian in Vancouver, Washington, later being succeeded in that office by his wife Marion. Pirkey died at the St. Joseph's Hospital in Vancouver County on August 29, 1923, at age 62 and was later buried at the Blaine Cemetery in Blaine, Whatcom County, Washington. Marion Rice Pirkey survived her husband by many years, dying in Washington in 1948 at age 77. A burial location for her is unknown at this time.

Judge Oval Pirkey, from the Glenn County Superior Court website.

From the Havre Daily News, October 29, 1951.

  Longtime Havre, Montana resident Oval Sethal Hatler is another "Oval" who ran for public office, in his case serving multiple terms as mayor of Havre. A yardmaster for the Great Northern Railway and a former Havre city alderman, Hatler died in office in 1956 after undoing an operation at a Seattle, Washington hospital. The son of Leonard Pendleton and Lydia Jane (Elsea) Hatler, Oval Sethal Hatler was born in Moberly, Missouri on February 17, 1892.

  Hatler removed with his family to Havre, Montana in 1902 and in 1907 began work with the Great Northern Railway, in the road and freight service. By 1913 he had worked his way to the post of switchman and in 1924 succeeded to the post of yardmaster, which he would continue to hold during his tenure as mayor. In June 1915 Hatler married Mary Garnet Dry (1894-1995), and the couple's near four-decade marriage saw the births of six children, Caleb (1914-1967), Jeanette (1915-2001), Francis Oval (1917-2008), Mary Louise (birthdate unknown), Carol Lynn (birthdate unknown) and Kenneth (1924-1990).

   Oval S. Hatler first entered Havre politics late in his life, winning election to the Havre city council in 1947. He was reelected in 1949 and became president of the council in 1950 in the wake of the resignation of Mayor Harry Soderberg. With Soderberg's resignation, Hatler became acting mayor of Havre, and in 1951 was elected to a term in his own right, garnering 1, 173 votes in the April 3rd city election. In total Hatler would serve three terms as mayor (1950-56) and during this time the city built new sewer and water lines and "lights were added to the newly developed south and west sections of the city".

  In early 1956 Hatler traveled to Seattle, Washington to undergo an unspecified operation and on March 9, 1956, died in that city while recuperating. He was later returned to Havre for burial at the Highland Cemetery. Hatler was survived by all his children and his wife Garnet, who lived to become a centenarian, dying shortly before her 101st birthday on August 8, 1995.