Alameda County
Biographies
AMASA WRIGHT BISHOP
One of the old residents and prominent citizens of Oakland is the gentleman whose portrait appears in this work. Mr. Bishop was born at Wallingford, Rutland County, Vermont, August 18, 1832; was educated for the Bar, and at the age of twenty entered the law office of the Hon. David E. Nicholson. By the laws of Vermont, five years’ reading in the office of an attorney is necessary before admission to the Bar, and only then upon a certificate and affidavit of good character, and thorough examination. Mr. Bishop pursued his studies in the same office for five years, practicing in the mean time in the Courts of Justices of the Peace in his own and neighboring towns, and was always very successful in his practice. In 1857 he was examined, and admitted an attorney of the Rutland County Bar. Always predisposed to literature, during his studentship he wrote more or less for the press; and in 1857, in connection with a schoolmate and student in the same office, Philip H. Emerson (now, and for the past ten years United States District Judge of Utah Territory), he started a small paper, simply for amusement, called The Local Spy, which created no little stir in the staid community as each weekly issue made its appearance. The paper continued for more than a year, and until Mr. Bishop left for California, arriving in the Golden State early in 1859. He sought his fortune in the mines, as did nearly all new-comers at that time; but it did not require a great length of time to convince him, in the language of Leatherstocking that mining was not his “gift.” He returned to Marysville, and for some eight or nine months devoted himself to mercantile business, in the saddlery and harness store of John W. Moore, Esq., one of Marysville’s best citizens. Early in January, 1860, at the request of Mr. Moore, he went to Red Bluff, Tehama County, to take charge of the same business for his brother, C. A. Moore. While in Marysville he was a constant writer for the press, and after locating in Red Bluff, was a steady contributor to the Marysville Appeal, and also to the Red Bluff Beacon. At the solicitation of leading Republicans and anti-Le Compton Democrats, he gave up his position with Mr. Moore, and started the Semi-Weekly Independent at Red Bluff, the first paper issued oftener than once a week north of Marysville, and the first paper to take the dispatches – first, of the Pony Express across the Continent; afterwards the telegraphic dispatches. The first paper was issued August 14, 1860. In the fall of 1860 he was appointed Deputy District Attorney of Tehama County; and the District Attorney leaving the State soon after, he exercised that office until the next election. Tehama County at this time was one of the strongest of Democratic strongholds, only thirty-nine Republican votes having been polled in 1859. At the Presidential election in 1860, however, through the untiring labors of Mr. Bishop, and the influence of the Independent, this vote was increased to two hundred and forty-two for Abraham Lincoln, the balance of the vote being divided between the Douglass, Bell, and Breckinridge electors – the Douglass ticket receiving four hundred and ninety-seven votes; the Bell and Everett ticket two hundred and nineteen votes, and the balance going to the Breckinridge ticket. In the next year, 1861, Mr. Bishop accepted the nomination for District Attorney from the Republican Convention, and worked with so much energy and persistency, visiting nearly every voter in the county, that he beat the nominee of the combined Democracy – Breckinridge and Douglass – by seventy-six votes. In 1862 the Republican party carried the county, electing its full ticket. Such as the change in public sentiment, and the credit for that change was due, in a great measure, to the personal work of, and the paper edited and published by, Mr. Bishop. At the session of the Legislature of 1863-64, Mr. Bishop’s services were recognized, and he was chosen Assistant Secretary of the Senate by acclamation, and served during the session. The same year the Democratic paper, the Beacon, succumbed, was bought by Mr. Bishop, and merged in the Independent. In 1863, on the 7th day of November, Mr. Bishop married an estimable young lady of Red Bluff, Ellen M., the daughter of Captain E. G. Reed, the pioneer settler of the town, who located the town site, and built the first house, a hotel, at the steamer-landing. In 1865 Mr. Bishop sold his paper, and devoted his time to his profession, holding at the same time the office of Collector of Internal Revenue for the division including Tehama, Colusa, and Butte Counties. The people of Chico, learning that he had sold out his paper at Red Bluff, prevailed upon him to locate at Chico, and start a paper at that fast growing and prosperous town. He went to Chico in the fall of 1865, and started the Weekly Courant, editing the paper and practicing law up to May, 1869, when he again sold out his business, office, and dwelling, and moved to Oakland. In the summer he took a trip to his old home in Vermont, visiting many of the Eastern, Western, and Southwestern States. He returned in July of that year, and opened a law office in San Francisco. Never idle, always most happy when pressed with business, he could not sit down in idleness and wait for it to come to him; therefore, to fill up the time, he started the Masonic Mirror, which he edited and published for four years. In 1872 he was solicited by many prominent citizens of Oakland to purchase the Oakland Daily Transcript, and make it a stanch Republican journal. He listened to the advice and solicitations of friends, and, the old fascination seizing him, he bought the paper; and in building it up and placing it on a paying basis it cost him several thousand dollars – all he possessed, in fact – besides nearly breaking his constitution with severe labor, he doing the work of two and three men during the four years and a half he conducted the paper. In 1876 he sold his interest in the paper – having previously sold a half interest – and in the summer of 1877, received the appointment of Superintendent of Bonded Warehouses at the port of San Francisco, which position he held until July, 1880. At the election of 1880 Mr. Bishop was elected City Justice of the Peace of the city of Oakland, and was re-elected to the same office, without opposition, at the election of 1882, which position he now holds. Mr. Bishop has always been active in politics, but he has never stooped to deceived, or forfeit his integrity – ever holding that honesty should prevail in politics as well as in the business affairs of life. If he could not support a man, he was ever free to tell him so. If he does support a man, he does it with his whole might, mind, and soul. A friend he never forsakes, and if he has an enemy, it never troubles him nor disturbs his feelings. His motto has ever been, “Do ye unto others as ye would that others should do unto you.” It would be impossible for a man to be active in politics, publish a strict, terse, incisive party paper, and not make enemies; nevertheless, Mr. Bishop has probably as few enemies as any man in Oakland, for the reason that he always avoided personalities, dealing wholly with principles, and not with men. But when he combats what to his mind are false doctrines and political evils and heresies, his pen is as sharp and effective as a two-edged sword of Milan steel. His literary works are all of a high order. A California romance “Kentuck,” written by him while engaged in the arduous duties of editing the Daily Transcript, received the highest encomiums from the press throughout the Coast, as the best exposition of early California life ever given to the public – equal, and, as many asserted, superior to Bret Harte’s best. Few persons in California have a more extensive acquaintance than Mr. Bishop, and those who know him best, most appreciate his integrity of character, firmness of purpose, honesty of motives, and upright life; while all admit his ability as a terse and forcible writer; a man of general information, well read in the law, a conscientious Judge, and a useful citizen. Such is a condensed and imperfect sketch of a few incidents and points in the life and career of Amasa Wright Bishop, who for fourteen years has been a resident of the beautiful city of Oakland, and a citizen of Alameda County.
History of Alameda County, California…, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883
p. 849-851
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler