San Francisco County

Biographies

 

 

EDWARD AUGUSTUS BELCHER

 

EDWARD AUGUSTUS BELCHER, subject of the subjoined sketch, belongs to one of the oldest families of New England, being a descendant in the direct line (male) from Jonathan Belcher, sometime Colonial Governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and afterwards Colonial Governor of New Jersey, which office he held at the breaking out of the Revolution.  The late Rear Admiral Sir Edward Belcher, K.C.B., was from the same stirps.  According to the Heraldic Journal, 62, the New England History and General Register, Vol. XXVII, 244, and the Memorial History of Boston, Vol. II, 60, the coat of arms of the United States of America was taken from the coat of arms of the Belcher family, of which Jonathan was then the head in America.

            Samuel, father of Edward, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, from which place he early emigrated to Vermont, where, at Stockbridge, in the county of Windsor, Edward was born.  Edward finished his education at Putnam College, in the old home of his father, and in 1868, at the instance of his two brothers, Isaac Sawyer Belcher (afterwards and now of the Supreme Court of California) and William Caldwell Belcher, who were then associated in the practice of law at Marysville, California, under the style of Belcher & Belcher – he came to California, read law in their office and in 1876 was admitted to the bar.  In the following year he was appointed City Attorney of the city of Marysville; and while holding that office, acting under instructions from the City Council, he commenced the famous “anti-debris” actions, so-called, by which hydraulic mining on the Yuba river and its tributaries was eventually enjoined.  In 1884 he moved to San Francisco, at the bar of which city he has since practiced.

            Mr. Belcher has served in the National Guards, and in 1880 received a commission as aid-de-camp, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, on the staff of the Governor.

            In politics Mr. Belcher is a Republican.  One of the first to join the Dirigo Club after its organization in 1884 (of which body he was afterwards vice-president for several terms), he early saw the necessity for the formation of a strong Republican club into which could be gathered the foremost men of the party throughout the State; and accordingly, in 1887-8, assisted by Colonel W.H. Chamberlain and other members of the Dirigo Club, he organized the Union League Club of San Francisco, of which he became the first vice-president.

            In early years Mr. Belcher betrayed a strong penchant for music, as instanced by the “Dirigo March,” composed for the Dirigo Club in 1884, and many other pieces of local popularity.

            Mr. Belcher is a life member of the various Masonic bodies at Marysville, with which in former years he was prominently identified.

 

Transcribed by Terry Smith.

 

Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, page 16, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.

© 2005 Terry Smith.