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Hon. Henry Edgerton, son of Edwin and Susan (Curtis) Edgerton.

Frances B. Brown, daughter of Smith and Chloe (Taylor) Brown.

Virginia Taylor

The following biography of Henry Edgerton is excerpted from History of the Bench and Bar of California (Oscar T. Shuck, ed.; Los Angeles, Cal:  The Commercial Printing House; 1901; pp. 571-572):

“HENRY EDGERTON.

Of all the men who attained distinction in California, Henry Edgerton stood, as an orator, next to E. D. Baker and Thomas Fitch.  He was a native of Vermont, born in 1830, and came to California in 1853.  He came with the law as his profession, and with an overmastering political ambition, which was not destined to be gratified in any great measure, but which really was a serious obstacle to his success at the bar.  Public attention was first attracted to him, and powerfully, by a brilliant and successful canvass he made for State senator in 1859, in the district comprising Napa, Solano and Yolo counties.  He was a Douglas Democrat, and the old Sacramento Union published stenographic reports of his speeches arraigning the Buchanan administration.  When the war broke out he was the chief speaker and debater in the senate on the Union side, Harry I. Thornton leading the opposition.

In the spring of 1863, just when the doors of the lower house of congress seemed about to open to him, Edgerton, who was always driven by a strange and vexed fate, turned from the prospect to aim at a higher mark, namely, the United States senate.  He went to Nevada territory, which was seeking admission as a state of the Union, and practiced law at Virginia City.  In the fall of that year a Constitutional convention having submitted an organic law, the people voted on the question of statehood.  The public sentiment of Nevada, as always since, with rare exceptions, was overwhelmingly Republican, and the judgment of that party had unanimously fixed upon John A. Collins and Henry Edgerton for the first United States senators from the new state, in the event of the adoption of the proposed constitution.  But the constitution was defeated, and thereafter it was to be said of Edgerton:  ‘The dirges of his hope the melancholy burden bore, of never, never more!’  In the following year the people voted in favor of statehood, congress passed the act of admission, while the country was in the throes of war, and Governor James W. Nye and William M. Stewart, who had succeeded Collins and Edgerton in their party’s preference, were sent to the Federal senate.  A year or two thereafter Edgerton moved back to California and made his home at Sacramento.  He continued to take an active part in politics, and in every Presidential and State campaign since that time he spoke for his party on the stump.  He was a pleasing speaker, very fond of the art, was happy in expression and was of commanding countenance and voice.  Yet he suffered by comparison with Baker or Fitch, his voice being less flexible and musical, his memory less reliable and his gesture lacking the grace of the masters named.  Moreover, he always betrayed too much consciousness of his surroundings, and public speaking was not with him the play it was with Baker and Fitch.  But, as already said, he suffered by comparison with them only.

Edgerton represented Sacramento in the State senate, in three consecutive sessions, closing with that of 1877-78.  To revert to his earlier senatorial record, contrasted with which his latter or second period of service was of minor interest, it must be stated as a truth of history that Edgerton supported the Parsons’ Bulkhead bill of 1860, which was hostile to San Francisco, and the veto of which by Governor Downey called forth a great popular demonstration of delight.

In one of his speeches in behalf of this measure, he uttered a philippic against George Gordon, which is preserved in the old Union files, and is perhaps the severest and most eloquent production of its kind ever spoken in our legislature.  Another specimen of his power in the same line was in his great anti-railroad speech, published in The Bulletin of August 18. 1873, and addressed to Robert Robinson, Edward Robinson and Judge S. W. Sanderson.

In 1861 Edgerton introduced the resolutions to expunge from the journal the resolutions of the legislature censuring Broderick and demanding his resignation.  His expunging resolutions were passed.  He and William Higby and Alexander Campbell were the counsel employed to prosecute Judge James H. Hardy, on his impeachment trial before the State senate in 1862.

The accused Judge was removed from office, and by act of the legislature the counsel named were paid $1,000 each.

A strict Republican, he was yet warmly attached personally to certain prominent Democratic leaders.  When Horace Smith, the lawyer, and brother-in-law of Judge Hardy, came to San Francisco on New Year's Day, 1861 and killed Newell, a printer, for alleged slander of Smith’s wife, it was owing to Edgerton’s efforts that Smith secured a change of venue to Placer county.  Judge Campbell of the Twelfth District Court denied a motion to change the venue, and Edgerton, at the instance of Smith’s friends, introduced a bill to effect the change they desired.  This bill passed, and Governor Downey, a Democrat, vetoed it. but it was passed again over the veto.

Edgerton voted with the Democrats on the organization of the evenly balanced State senate at the session of 1873-74.  He, for some reason not publicly explained, refused to vote for General George S. Evans, the Republican caucus nominee for President pro tem, but voted for William Irwin, Democrat, who was elected on the nineteenth ballot.  At the next session the Democrats had thirty out of forty senators. Edgerton led the Republican minority and voted with them for General Evans, who was again their candidate for President pro tem.

Two or three times in his last twenty years Edgerton took up his residence in San Francisco, but each stay was comparatively brief.

In the Presidential election of 1880. when the State went Democratic by a small majority, Edgerton was on the Republican electoral ticket.  He made an eloquent canvass and led his colleagues at the polls, and so was elected with five Democrats, defeating David S. Terry, whose name was largely scratched on the Democratic ticket.  The college cast five votes for Hancock and one (Edgerton) for Garfield.

He was again elected a Presidential elector, this time with all his party ticket, in 1884, and by the selection of the college, he personally conveyed the electoral vote of California to Washington.

We contributed the foregoing, substantially, to a San Francisco newspaper on the day after Edgerton’s death.  The Examiner had this in addition :

‘He ran in 1873 as a Dolly Varden candidate for State senator from Sacramento, and during the canvass had a bitter personal controversy with Grove L. Johnson, which is still remembered.  He was elected, and materially assisted in the election of Governor Booth, to the United States senate. For this he incurred the enmity of the railroad people, but the breach was afterwards patched up.  He represented Sacramento in the senate for two successive sessions, and was during that period one of the most brilliant members of that body.

He ran for congressman at large in the campaign of 1882, but was defeated. He had had congressional aspirations at other times. He has always cut a considerable figure in Republican politics, and as a stump-speaker was a great success.

In January, 1881, he was married to Miss Virginia Taylor, at the residence of W. W. Stow, 1013 Pine street.

For the past several years Mr. Edgerton has been a bird- of passage between this city and Sacramento.  He at one time practiced law here for a brief while, and contemplated opening an office here again.  By neglecting his Sacramento practice he came to lose nearly all he had.  He always lived beyond his means, and died without leaving any estate.

He was a man of very extensive literary attainments, and had a deep knowledge of the law.  He was a cultured man.  In figure he was tall, broad and powerful.  The only relative, besides his wife, who resides in this State, is Calvin Edgerton, one of the leading lawyers of Siskiyou.’

Edgerton died at San Francisco, November 3 [sic], 1887.  Let The Examiner tell the mournful ending of his life:

‘Henry Edgerton, whose oratory and prominence in politics have made his name well known throughout the State, passed away in a sad manner yesterday morning.  For several weeks Mr. Edgerton, who has long been recognized as one of the brilliant men in the legal profession, has been drinking heavily, and last Thursday he grew very sick, not having been feeling well for several days.  He had recently become connected with an attorney named Wirt in a lawsuit, and has been in the latter’s company for a week or more. Last Thursday he was in Wirt’s narrow office at 519 Montgomery street, and being ill then, Dr. Stout, who had been attending him, was called in. At 11 o’clock at night he seemed to be better, and Wirt and others who were in the room left him there on the sofa.  Being without a cent, he had lodged several nights lately in Wirt’s office.  At nine o’clock yesterday morning, when Wirt entered the room, he found Edgerton lying dead on the lounge.  Blood oozed from his ears and mouth and clotted on his face and hair.  A stroke of apoplexy had killed him.  The body was taken to Gray’s undertaking establishment.  When the blood was washed off one would have thought this talented being was merely sleeping, so calm and natural was his face.  The great high forehead, and large head, the firmly cut mouth and features, handsome in their strength, were indications that the dead man's fame had been won by his own worth.’

The following biography of Henry Edgerton is excerpted from Pen Portraits, Autobiography Of State Officers, Legislators, Prominent Business And Professional Men Of The Capital Of the State Of California (R. R. Parkinson, comp.; Sacramento City, Cal.; 1877-8.):

“Hon. Henry Edgerton.  [Sacramento County]

He is a native of Windsor, Vermont, and about 48 years of age.  He resides in Sacramento City, where he follows his profession as an Attorney and Counsellor-at-Law.  The wide-spread reputation of this gentlemen, both as a lawyer, and as and orator, is so extensively known, that the mere mention of his name is symbolic of that fine art which enchants vast auditories, and binds them to their seats, as with a magic spell.  It is not too much for us to say, and we do it without fear of disparagement to any one, that Mr. Edgerton is "the Demosthenes of California"--the master orator of the Pacific Slope.  On the "stump" as a campaign speaker, he has no superior in America; in fact, he is regarded by some, as the best political speaker in the American Union.  The bare announcement of his intent to address the people on the public issues of the day, is sufficient to crowd the halls and streets with the surging masses, to listen to his masterly orations, and for hours together he rivets the attention of his audience by his impassioned eloquence and sound logic, his perfect English, and his beautiful figures, working from them, as by an electric shock, spontaneous outbursts of applause and admiration.  His powers of invective are keen and cutting, and his sarcasm scathing and poignant, sufficient to cause its object to cry for "the rocks and mountains to fall upon them," and hide them from view.  As a legislator, he is equal to any emergency, being a superior tactician; and with hearty zeal and earnestness he devotes himself to the interests of his constituents.  It is generally conceded, that to his shrewdness and ability the election of Governor Booth to the United States Senate is largely due.  Mr. Edgerton is a Republican in politics, a prominent member of the party, and a gentleman whose public career is in the ascendancy.  We regard him as one of the coming man.  He came to California in 1853.”

At the time of the 1870 Federal Census, Henry Edgerton and his first wife, Frances, were recorded in the household of Robert Beck in Sacramento City (4th Ward), Sacramento County, California (dwelling #546; family #541).  They were enumerated as follows:

The following funeral notice for Henry Edgerton appeared in the Los Angeles Times on November 7, 1887:

“Edgerton’s Funeral – SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 6. – The funeral of Henry Edgerton, the prominent lawyer who was last week found dead in his office, was held today.  The funeral was quiet.  The body was temporarily interred in a vault in Laurel Hill Cemetery.”

Henry Edgerton was buried at the Sacramento City Cemetery in Sacramento, California; his gravestone bears the following inscription:

EDGERTON

HENRY EDGERTON

BORN IN

RUTLAND VT. 1830.

DIED

NOV. 4, 1887