Alameda County
Biographies
HON. MORTIMER SMITH.
Hon. Mortimer Smith, judge of the police court of Oakland, adds to his comprehensive knowledge of the law in the performance of his judicial duties a thorough familiarity with the forces and conditions which foster crime. He has made an extensive study of the many social evils that come under his notice and has in this way founded upon experience and knowledge a practically invaluable work of public service.
Pennsylvania numbers him among her native sons, his birth having occurred in Venango county, that state, June 9, 1872. His parents came west in 1876, taking up their residence in Oakland, where Judge Smith has remained continuously since that time. He acquired his preliminary education in the public schools of this city and after he had decided upon a legal career began the study of law in the office of his father, James Hume Smith, one of Oakland's foremost attorneys. He showed a strong natural aptitude for the profession and passed a creditable examination, being admitted to the bar August 7, 1894.
As a general practitioner he handled a number of important cases with exceptional skill, and it was his high rating as a rising young lawyer which led to his being offered the nomination on the republican ticket for the office of judge of the police court, to which he was elected in 1898, at the age of twenty-six, and in which he has served by re-election since that time. He is probably the youngest man who was ever entrusted with the duties of this responsible position, and during the period of his service he has discharged these duties in an unusually intelligent and far-sighted manner, making a special study of criminal law and of the conditions which foster the evils which every day come to his notice. He fully appreciates the fact that our present social evils present a problem which has not yet been solved by the leading minds of the country, but in his administration of justice and in his bench decisions he has conscientiously sought to give every one a square deal and absolute justice according to the law.
Judge Smith is well known in fraternal circles, being past president of Oakland Aerie, No. 7, F. O. E.; past master of Oak Leaf Lodge, No. 35, A. O. U. W.; a member of Oakland Camp, No. 94, W. O. W.; Bay View Lodge, No. 401, A. F. & A. M.; Oakland Consistory, No. 2, Scottish Rite of Free Masonry; Aahmes Temple of the Mystic Shrine; Oakland Pyramid, No. 2, A. E. O. S.; Oakland Lodge, No. 171, B. P. O. E., and No. 324, Loyal Order of Moose. He also holds membership in the Nile Club. He is a representative and valued citizen of Oakland and is without doubt one of the most popular and able men connected with the municipal government.
Past & Present of Alameda County, California – Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914
p. 454
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
JOHN W. BANKHEAD.
John W. Bankhead is a successful business man of Oakland, being engaged in contracting. He was born in St. Louis, Sierra county, California, March 9, 1857, and is a son of Malcolm and Jane (Brown) Bankhead. The father was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1823 and educated there. Coming to America in his early manhood, he settled in Cape Breton, where he remained for a year, and then removed to Boston, Massachusetts, where he completed his apprenticeship at the blacksmith's trade, continuing in that city for two years. At the end of that time he went to Maryland, working as a blacksmith for one year, and then went to West Virginia, in which state he resided until 1850. In that year he took up his residence in Missouri, where he followed the blacksmith's trade for one year, and then came to California, settling in Sierra county. There he mined until 1857, and from that year until 1863 followed the same occupation in Janesville, California, coming at the end of that time to Oakland and working as a machinist until 1865. He then turned his attention to the furniture business, and also acted as an auctioneer, being the first to take up that line of work in Oakland. He participated in the commercial and business life of his city until his death, in 1875. Politically he was a republican and fraternally a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while he also belonged to the St. Andrew and Caledonian Clubs. His marriage to Miss Jane Brown took place in Maryland, and to them were born ten children.
John W. Bankhead attended the public and high schools until fifteen years of age and then went to Virginia City, where he mined for two years. At the end of that time he went to Oakland with his father and for two years worked in association with him in business. Subsequent to that time he engaged in house moving and contracting, but in 1889 turned his attention to well boring, although he continued as a contractor. He is now engaged in well boring exclusively and is very successful, deriving a gratifying income from his occupation. For a quarter of a century he has now been engaged in this business and has put in the majority of the deep wells, soundings and elevator holes, of all of which he keeps correct data, to show the different strata passed through.
He bored the well of the Oakland Gas, Light & Heat Company, which is a sixteen inch well and produces between four hundred and fifty and seven hundred gallons per minute. He bored a twelve-inch well for the California Door Company—one of the best wells in Oakland—producing four thousand and eighty gallons an hour. He also put in several wells for the Pacific States Refineries, each between two hundred and three hundred feet deep and producing from three hundred to seven hundred gallons a minute. He bored a sixteen-inch well for the Young Men's Christian Association, which is two hundred and seventy-four feet deep; also a sixteen-inch well at the Providence Hospital, which supplies the hospital plentifully with pure, fresh, cold water. At the new home of the Little Sisters of the Poor, on East Fourteenth street, he bored a large well to a depth of three hundred feet, producing between three and four thousand gallons an hour. He put in a well for Jake Pantosky at the free market that is two hundred and ninety feet deep, and in this he passed through the most remarkable strata of gravel that he has encountered in any of the Oakland wells. This well supplies the free market as well as the surrounding property. Mr. Bankhead has also put down most of the large wells for the various laundries in Oakland. The Excelsior has a sixteen-inch well, which gives it ten thousand gallons an hour and is almost four hundred feet deep; the Crystal Laundry has a well two hundred and thirty feet in depth, producing between seven and ten thousand gallons an hour, and the Yosemite Laundry has a sixteen-inch well almost two hundred feet deep. The largest hand-bored well in the city of Oakland is at Tenth and Webster streets, which Mr. Bankhead put down for Mr. Tutt. It is only twenty-four inches in diameter and eighty-four feet in depth and supplies about twenty-four flats. He also put down two large wells in the new Kahn store and one large, deep well in the handsome new building of the First Trust & Savings Bank at Sixteenth and San Pablo streets. Another remarkable well put down by Mr. Bankhead is that of the Yosemite Bottling Company at First and Myrtle streets and a centrifugal pump is used, which is quite unusual.
For most of the large buildings, subways, etc., he has put in soundings and elevator holes, having just finished the elevator hole for the Campanile at the University of California. He also put in the soundings for the main steel bridge of the Northwestern Pacific and all of the elevator holes for the Von Emon Elevator Company that have been sunk in Oakland. He is trustworthy and always to be relied upon to fulfill any contract to the letter and, therefore, enjoys a high reputation which has secured him many important deals.
On October 19, 1878, Mr. Bankhead married Miss Carrie Ann Moskiman, the ceremony taking place in Oakland. To them were born five children: Mrs. F. W. Wetmore, of Oakland; Mathew B., who is an iron molder and a member of the Masonic lodge; Robert O., who is also an iron molder and a member of the Masonic lodge and the Native Sons; Minnie, a graduate of the high school; and Harold, who is attending the public schools.
Politically Mr. Bankhead is a republican, but he has never been active along party lines. He is interested in the growth of the city and ever ready to bear his share in promoting advancement and development. He was the first grand treasurer of the Native Sons of California, holds a life membership in the Caledonian Club, which he won by excelling in athletics, and also belongs to the Rotary Club. He has many friends in these organizations and among the business men of the city and is trusted by all because of his high principles.
Past & Present of Alameda County, California – Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914
p. 455
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler