San Francisco County Biographies

RAYMOND BENJAMIN

Raymond Benjamin is probably the outstanding authority on tax laws in the State of California today. This position is the result of many years of service in the attorney general’s department and as counsel for other departments of the state government. Mr. Benjamin is also nationally known as one of the chieftains of the republican party.

He is a native son, born at Vallejo, California, December 14, 1872, son of E. M. and Ruth S. (Mahon) Benjamin. His father is of English and his mother of Scotch-Irish descent. His mother was born in Pennsylvania. E. M. Benjamin, a native of New Jersey, came to California in 1851 by way of Cape Horn. He followed the trade of carpenter in San Francisco, and subsequently became personal representative to Admiral Farragut, who was commander of the Mare Island Navy Yard in the early days. Admiral Farragut owned considerable property in Vallejo, constructing many buildings there, Mr. Benjamin being his business manager and holding power of attorney in managing this property.

Raymond Benjamin was educated in public schools in California. His law studies carried on in the offices of Estee, Fitzgerald & Miller, a firm of distinguished men in the professional and public life of the state. John H. Miller, of this firm, was an eminent patent lawyer. Morris N. Estee was a jurist and twice candidate for governor on the republican ticket. William F. Fitzgerald became attorney general of California and later was elevated to the Supreme bench of the state.

Admitted to the California bar in May, 1893, Raymond Benjamin for five years practiced law in Vallejo, and then located at Napa. In 1902 he was elected and in 1906 reelected district attorney in Napa County. Resigning as district attorney in September, 1907, he was made chief deputy to the attorney general of California, a post he held until January 1, 1919, resigning to resume private practice. His offices are in the Chronicle Building at San Francisco. Since 1919 in addition to his private practice he has acted as attorney for the state insurance commissioner. He is also special counsel for the State of California in all tax matters and litigation, conducting all tax litigations, particularly cases involving the application of tax laws to corporations, railroads, banks, power companies and insurance companies. From 1911 to 1920 he also acted as legal advisor to the various state officers and district attorneys and the State Board of Equalization.

During the years he was in the office of the attorney general and also since that time he has drawn up many of the laws enacted and placed on the statute books of the state. He was author of the corporation license act law of California, the railroad regulation act of 1909, and also drew up the Panama-Pacific Exposition Commission Bill, the first Alien Land Law Bill of California, the Criminal Syndicalism Bill and the tax assessment act. Much of the tax litigation which he conducted was carried through the courts up to the Supreme Court of the United States, which finally sustained the tax system of California. The principal test case was known as the Pullman Company versus the state of California, and its decision sustained the collection of approximately $35,000,000 yearly by the state. During 1921-22 Mr. Benjamin was special assistant to the attorney general of the United States, resigning that position.

His record as a leader in the republican party has been hardly less noteworthy. He was elected chairman of the Republican State Central Committee in September, 1916, and in 1918 was elected chairman of both the Republican State Central Committee and the Executive Committee, being reelected chairman of these committees in 1920. In 1918-21 he served as regional director of the Republican National Committee, with jurisdiction over seven western states. During this time he was assistant to the national chairman, Will H. Hays. During the presidential, senatorial and congressional campaign of 1920 he was in charge of the western headquarters of the national committee, and had personal charge of the campaign of Samuel F. Shortridge for the United States Senate. At the time of the National Convention of 1920 Mr. Hays, the national chairman, had with him constantly as his personal staff Mr. Benjamin, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., L. L. Wadsworth, now assistant secretary of the treasury, and Ralph V. Sollitt, who was assistant chairman of the United States Shipping Board.

At the time of the World war Mr. Benjamin registered under the selective draft and was on finance committees during the war drives. He is a member of the San Francisco, California State and American Bar associations. He holds membership in the Elks lodge at Napa, and was grand exalted ruler of the Elks of the United States in 1914-15, and prior to that time for three years had been chairman of the judiciary committee of the national organization. While in that position he redrafted and rewrote many of the laws of the order and prepared an entirely new judicial code, which was enacted in 1913 and has never been changed. He compiled what was then designated and is still known as "The Law of the Elks," a compilation of the opinions and decisions of the highest judicial forums of the national order.

Mr. Benjamin is also a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, being a member of Islam Temple of the Mystic Shrine of San Francisco. He belongs to Napa Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West, the Bohemian Club of San Francisco, and the California Society Sons of the American Revolution. At the age of twenty-five Mr. Benjamin was rated as one of the finest violinists in the state, and did concert work, filling engagements up and down the coast. The violin has been a source of great pleasure to him for many years, and he plays it at home, his wife being his accompanist.

On May 27, 1902, at Napa, he married Miss Mildred Francis a native of that city. Her father, G. M. Francis, is the dean of the newspaper men of California, having owned and published the Napa Register for fifty-four years. He is one of the well loved men of his county, and has friendships all over the state. Mr. And Mrs. Benjamin have one daughter, Barbara, a graduate of Miss Burke’s School.

Source: "The San Francisco Bay Region"Vol. 3 page 346-350 by Bailey Millard. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc. 1924.

Robert H. Bennett (I) was born in the State of Maryland and the City of Baltimore on the 26th of July, 1826, and is the son of John and Elizabeth (Mills) Bennett, the family of the former having migrated from Pennsylvania, while the later was a member of an old and prominent family of Maryland.

Their son, Robert H. (I), grew to manhood in Maryland and was there given a good education. Soon after reaching his majority, or in January, 1849, he left Baltimore with a stock of hardware valued at $500, and six months later, or on July 21 of the same year, he arrived at San Francisco on the historic brig Jane Parker. That memorable six-months trip around Cape Horn, stirring as it was with sea allurements and storm dangers, in a rude old sailing vessel that traveled a very few miles an hour, or at times was totally becalmed, was never forgotten, and many tales incident to her voyage were related by Mr. Bennett.

After landing he pitched his tent on Montgomery Street, just north of California Street, and later opened his stock of hardware on Clay Street, just above Montgomery, and prospered greatly from the start. But he did not feel wholly at home in that land so destitute of women, so he returned to the East in 1851, and there married Matilda D. Norris, and soon afterward returned to the Golden State. His wife, who evidently could not go with him then, joined him the following year. They became the parents of five children, two whom are living; and Robert H. (II); Susan, who became the wife of N. A. Acher, a leading patent attorney of San Francisco.

Robert H. (I) served as captain of the famous Vigilance Committee of ‘56 but being absent from the state at the time, he had no part in the organization of ‘51. The Vigilance Committee was an organization established to maintain order in pioneer times before the courts and the code had begun to function properly. All persons were forced to yield to this committee. Gen. W.T. Sherman was here in the early ‘50s and submitted to the committee. He afterward said that this was the only time he ever surrendered. At one of the pioneer celebrations in the ‘80s General Sherman, at the Palace Hotel approached Mr. Bennett, called him by name and talked with him warmly, though they had not seen each other for over thirty years. They were old acquaintances and friends at the time the Vigilance Committee was the power that ruled San Francisco and vicinity and crushed the criminal gangs that were guilty of riots, plunder and murder.

As a business man Mr. Bennett was enterprising and successful from the start. Three times his establishment was destroyed by fire, and after the last, in December, 1851, he engaged in the grain business. He was a member of the Society of California Pioneers, as also is his son.

Robert H. (II) was born at Rincon Hill, San Francisco, on May 26, 1863, and was reared and educated in this state. In early manhood he became interested in trade development, and became associated with the wholesale grocers and other trade organizations as a trade economist, in which profession he is still engaged.

In 1895 he married Julia W. Conner, whose father was also a California pioneer, of whom see a sketch elsewhere in this volume. He was one of the editors of the Alta Californian, one of the historic newspapers of the state. Mrs. Conner was Julia Woodworth, whose family was also identified with early California history. To Robert H. (II) and Julia W. Bennett were born the following children: Katherine, Julia and Robert H. (III).

Source: "The San Francisco Bay Region"by Bailey Millard Vol. 3 page 90-91. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc. 1924.

EUGENE S. BERT, a prominent attorney of San Francisco, was born in this city February 13, 1866, and this has ever since been his home. After graduating at the State University and 1884, he studied law in Hastings College, a department of that university, and graduated there in June, 1887. Shortly afterward he was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court, and since by the Federal courts. He began his law studies over ten years ago, when he first became connected with the well-known firm of Gunnison & Booth. He inclines to make a practice since in civil suits his specialty. In criminal law he conducted the defense in the important case of Perazzo, charged with conspiracy to murder, and secured the acquittal of his client, in opposition to several prominent lawyers. In politics he is a settled Republican. Is president of the Mission Alconquins, a strong club that converted the old skating-rink on Mission Street into a "wigwam," and organized many stirring meetings for prominent speakers. He is a member of the Legislature; also a member of the Union League Club; of Mission Parlor, No. 38, N. S. G. W., of which he is Past President; one of the incorporators of the Mission Parlor Building Association, his parlor being first in the field of building operations; is also vice-president of the third of reading-room directors of the order; one of the directors of the Jacob Strahle Slate Company; a director of the Installment Home Association, which has a capital stock of $5,000,000; less Vice-Commander of the Grand Lodge of United Endowment Associates, and the youngest man, indeed, to hold any office in that association. He resigned that position on account of the pressure of business, and he organized the Nitesco Literary and Social Society in the mission, of which he was president for several terms; and in many of these relations he has received flattering testimonials, magnificent presents, etc., and has recently become a law partner of Hon. J. N. E. Wilson, under the firm name of Wilson & Bert.

Source: "The Bay of San Francisco" (and Its Cities And Their Suburbs) Vol 1. Lewis Publishing Company 1892. Page 452.