San Bernardino County
Biographies
WILLIAM A. HARRIS,
attorney-at-law and a member of the firm of Harris & Gregg,
was born in 1854, in Tennessee. He was educated in the schools of that
State; studied law in Memphis with Colonel George Gautt and W. W. McDowell, both
distinguished members of the Tennessee bar, and was admitted to practice at the
remarkably early age of nineteen. On attaining his majority, after two years of
practice in his own State, he came to California, and located in San Bernardino
in 1875, and
has practiced his profession here ever since, excepting two years spent in
Leadville, Colorado, where he combined mining and law practice. In 1877 he
was elected District Attorney of San Bernardino County and served with
distinction. Soon after coming here he formed a law partnership with Hon. John
W. Satterwhite, which continued some years; afterward he was associated with C.
W. Allen several years, and in 1886 the present partnership was formed with Hon.
F. W. Gregg, who had recently been on the bench in Arizona.
The firm of Harris & Gregg is one of the strongest in legal attainments and ability in Southern California; and their law practice, among the largest and most lucrative in San Bernardino County, is steadily growing. Mr. Harris is noted among his brethren at the bar for his forensic eloquence, and as a successful trial lawyer before a jury. He has been professionally connected with some of the most celebrated cases tried in this part of the State. Of this class was the Marlette case,—the People versus Mattie Pennman,—the defendant having killed Alfred Sullivan, a dancing teacher, in San Bernardino. The homicide and the trial created great interest and excitement in the community, and was widely published and discussed by the newspapers. Mr. Harris was the attorney for the defense. The woman was acquitted by an exceptionally intelligent jury against a strong public sentiment. Harris and Gregg were also attorneys for defense in a noted mining case—Doe versus Oro Grande Mining Company—tried in the winter of 1888–'89, forty-six days being consumed in the trial. The amount involved was $330,000, claimed by the plaintiff; the verdict was for $25,000. On appeal the case was reversed by the Supreme Court, and a complete victory gained by defendants. The firm of Harris & Gregg was retained, in 1889, by the San Bernardino Board of Trade in the case brought by that organization before the Inter-State Commerce Commission charging the Transcontinental Railroad Association with unlawful discrimination against San Bernardino. A number of the most eminent lawyers of the East were retained by the association as opposing counsel. This case is of national importance, as establishing a precedent. In 1886 Mr. Harris was presented by the United States Government, under authority of an act of Congress, with an elegant gold medal, elaborately embellished and appropriately inscribed, as a reward for life-saving from the Pacific ocean during that year. The medal bears the date of August 2, 1886. It is highly prized by its owner as a memento.
Mr. Harris has taken an active and efficient part in local politics, and is one of the most eloquent Democratic stump speakers in Southern California. In spite of the pressure of professional labor, he has given considerable thought to the importance of the fruit productions of San Bernardino County, and has delivered public addresses on that subject on several occasions. He married an Ohio lady, Miss Nettie Allen, in San Bernardino. He is a member of the State and County Bar Associations.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 561-562
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
REUBEN J. ANDERSON
was born in Smithfield, Madison County, New York; he passed
his youth and early manhood like most boys, and in the spring of 1853 came by
water to California. He landed at San Francisco May 5, 1853, and followed mining
for three years. He subsequently purchased 160 acres of land five miles from San
José, and here
farmed for two years. He then sold out and bought a place a mile west of
Haywards, and remained on it until 1856, when he removed to San Bernardino
County. He bought land near town, on which he kept stock. In the winter of 1862
he lost heavily by the high waters which flooded the district. In 1870 he bought
seventy-eight acres where he now lives, two and one-half miles east of San
Bernardino. After being washed out, however, in 1862, he followed teaming in
Arizona, Utah, Montana and Idaho, for a period of ten years. He lived for
several years in San Bernardino, where he owned several lots and was a partner
in a large saw-mill, which was destroyed by fire in 1872. In March, 1861, he
married Miss Louisa Button, daughter of M. E. Button, one of the pioneers of
this county, by whom he had one child: Mariette. His wife died in 1868, and Mr.
Anderson was again married October 4, 1869, to Miss Lizzie Mathis, a native of
Iowa. She died August 4, 1871, and on May 2, 1872, Mr. Anderson married her
sister, Elvira Mathis, who was born at Payson, Utah, a daughter of John and
Sarah Ann (Dawdle) Mathis, natives of Lawrence County, Alabama. By this latter
marriage he has six children, four boys and two girls: Francis Marion, Annie
Louise, William Wesley, Clarence James, Ernest Ingersoll and Lizzie.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 562
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler