James F. Watson

James Finley Watson (March 15, 1840 – June 12, 1897) was an American judge and politician in Oregon. A native of Iowa, he was the 25th Associate Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court serving from 1876 until 1878. Previously he served in the state legislature and later served as United States Attorney for the District of Oregon.

James F. Watson
25th Associate Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court
In office
1876–1878
Preceded byJohn Burnett
Succeeded byJames K. Kelly
Member of the Oregon Senate
Assumed office
1873-1877
Personal details
BornMarch 15, 1840
Dubuque, Iowa
DiedJune 12, 1897(1897-06-12) (aged 57)
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Isabella Flint,
Virginia Kinney

Early life

James Finley Watson was born on March 15, 1840, in Dubuque, Iowa, to James and Emily Watson.[1] In 1853, the family relocated to Douglas County in Oregon Territory. Watson then was educated in Eugene, Oregon at Columbia College before it closed after two major fires.[1] After attempting gold mining he would learn the law under Rufus Mallory in Roseburg, Oregon, with admittance to the legal bar in 1863.[1] He then served as a prosecutor for Oregon’s Second Judicial District from 1864 to 1872.[1]

Political career

In 1872, Watson was elected to the Oregon State Senate as a Republican from Douglas County.[2] He won re-election in 1874 to the same seat in the senate.[3] Next, in 1876 Watson won election to the Oregon Supreme Court to replace John Burnett.[4] His term ended in 1878 and he left the bench, however, his younger brother Edward B. Watson would join the court in 1880.[1][4]

In 1878, the circuit court functions of the Oregon Supreme Court were split off and a separate circuit court was created with the number of judges on the high court reduced from five to three.[1][4] The following year Watson was appointed to the circuit court where he won re-election in 1880 and served until 1882.[1]

Later life

In 1882, Watson was appointed by the United States President to the position of U.S. District Attorney for the District of Oregon.[1] He kept that position until 1886 when he returned to private practice in Portland, Oregon.[1] In 1883, he married his second wife, Virginia Kinney. He was previously married to Isabella Flint in 1872, and they had two children.[1] James Finley Watson died on June 12, 1897.[1]

gollark: It's when you put in HTML and the server then spits it out as part of the HTML page unescaped.
gollark: No.
gollark: Not to SQL injection, to XSS.
gollark: Of course, that's one box. As PHP is *quite bad*, the others won't be automatically protected, presumably, so there may be *some* vunerable boxes.
gollark: TJ09's not stupid. `<script>alert("hi")</script>` in a box won't actually run.

References
  1. Corning, Howard M. Dictionary of Oregon History. Binfords & Mort Publishing, 1956.
  2. Oregon Legislative Assembly (7th) 1872 Regular Session. Oregon Secretary of State. Retrieved January 11, 2008.
  3. Oregon Legislative Assembly (8th) 1874 Regular Session. Oregon Secretary of State. Retrieved January 11, 2008.
  4. Oregon Blue Book: Earliest Authorities in Oregon - Supreme Court Justices of Oregon. Oregon Secretary of State. Retrieved January 11, 2008.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.