Colusa County
Biographies
EUGENE A. BRIDGFORD
Hon. Eugene A. Bridgford was born in Monroe County, Missouri, on January 26, 1849. He was the son of Jeff. Bridgford, a sturdy farmer of that county. Here Eugene received a common-school education, applying himself assiduously to his books. Aspiring for higher branches of study than the county school afforded, he was sent to Van Renassaler Academy, and completed its course. To properly round off and give a more practical equipment to his stock of learning, he received a thorough business education at Bryant & Stratton’s College, at Quincy, Illinois. Thus prepared for the active duties of life, he, at the age of twenty years, went to Buffalo, New York, and engaged in the commission and live-stock business.
But he looked westward now for a heart, if not for a home, and, in the fall of 1870, came to California, where he was to meet and wed Miss Laura V. Withers, for whom he had formed an attachment in Missouri, and who had preceded him to California, accompanying her parents some two years previous. The union looked forward to by the young couple was consummated in Colusa County October 18, 1870. It had been Mr. Bridgford’s original design to return to Buffalo with his bride, and continue in business there, but he soon found himself so unconsciously charmed by the climate and so attracted by the productiveness and rapid development of this part of California that he relinquished all desire to return East, and located permanently in Colusa County.
Having rented a place a short distance west of Willows, he engaged in farming. At the end of one year and a half his place changed owners, and, disposing of his lease to its new proprietor, he came to Colusa, where he engaged in the stock business. He also opened a market, bought and sold stock, and conducted the outside business, for two years and a half, when, disposing of it, the current of his life underwent a marked change.
His tastes and inclinations had always manifested a decided yearning for the study and practice of the law, but the opportunities to engage therein had kept aloof, and now the way opened to realize his ambition. For this purpose, in 1875, he took up the study of law in the office of Ex-Attorney General A. L. Hart, who was then practicing at the bar in Colusa. Aided by a logical mind and by dint of laborious study, he had so mastered the fundamental principles of his chosen profession as to pass a highly creditable examination, and was admitted to practice in the spring of 1877. His application to study, his almost intuitive grasping of intricate points, his patience and zeal, clearly evinced that his adaptability eminently fitted his new vocation. These qualities had early attracted the attention of his preceptor, General Hart, and the public were not slow to recognize both his ability as a lawyer and his integrity as a man, and five years later, in 1882, he was promoted, by a flattering call of his friends and neighbors, to the post of Judge of the Superior Court of Colusa County, for the unexpired term caused by the death of Judge Hatch. In 1884 Judge Bridgford was re-elected to the same position by a popular endorsement that was most gratifying. This term, now rapidly approaching completion, will make him again his own successor, for he was again nominated by the Democratic party in April, 1890, and was in August indorsed by the Republican convention, and was re-elected without an opposing vote in the entire county.
During his terms of office, Judge Bridgford has decided many important cases. In a number of these cases he has been called upon to adjudicate vital questions of law, some of them so novel in their procedure or in their legal aspects that no State precedent could be found for their application or elucidation, and which, consequently, left him no other light or reliance than his own reasoning powers, always accompanying a stern desire to do equal and exact justice as he saw it, yet out of the multitude of cases carried up from his court on appeal, the almost exceptional honor has been his to have had but three decisions in civil case, and one in a criminal case, reversed.
Besides his labors on the bench, Judge Bridgford takes the deepest interest in the improvement of live-stock and the promotion of the fruit industry. On the outskirts of the town of Colusa, he owns a farm of one hundred and thirty-one acres, twenty acres of which are in fruit and in a careful state of cultivation. Besides his homestead, he is joint owner with J. C. Bedell in a large grain farm of two thousand acres. An enterprising, public-spirited citizen, he finds time and gives of his means to aid any meritorious enterprise for the advancement of his county, and for this reason he has been selected President of the Colusa County Horticultural Society and of the Colusa Canning, Drying and Packing Company.
At his home, Judge Bridgford is most hospitable and entertaining. Here, surrounded by his good wife and children, of whom he hath a “quiver full,” his hours of domestic comfort pass most pleasantly. His children are: Miss Neva, aged seventeen, and who will graduate from Mills Seminary this present year, Harry V., Leone, Zelia, Chester A. and Horace W.
“Colusa County” – by Justus H. Rogers – Orland, CA – 1891 – pp 395-397