Charles Nelson Fox (March 9, 1829 – May 1, 1904) was an associate justice of the

Supreme Court of California The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...

from June 25, 1889, to January 7, 1895.

Early life

Born at Redford, Wayne County,

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

to Benjamin F. Fox, a farmer of English descent, Fox moved to

Ann Arbor Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), ...

at the age of fifteen to earn his own living, and to attend the newly opened Ann Arbor University. Due to a bout of illness, and unable to afford tuition, he took a job at a

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, and soon became an editor. He was elected city recorder of Ann Arbor, and acted as mayor of the city a portion of the term. He

read law Reading law was the method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship under the ...

in the office of Kingsley & Morgan and was admitted to the bar by the

Supreme Court of Michigan The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is Michigan's court of last resort and consists of seven justices. The Court is located in the Michigan Hall of Justice at 925 Ottawa Street in Lansing, the state c ...

in 1856.

Legal career

In August 1857, he moved to

San Mateo County San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, and the third most populated city following Daly ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, was admitted to the California bar in July 1858, and shortly thereafter was appointed to fill a vacancy in the office of the district attorney. He won successive elections to the office for five years, when he declined further election. He was retained by the Spring Valley Water Company to attend to their business in

, and succeeded in securing the legal rights and property without involvement in any lawsuits over a ten-year period. He then became a local attorney for the newly organized San Francisco and San Jose Railroad Company, securing their right of way through San Mateo County, and thereafter became president and attorney of the Western Pacific Railroad Company. He then moved from Redwood City to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and was appointed general attorney of the Spring Valley Water Company, and continued to act as one of its legal advisers for nearly forty years. Fox declined several overtures to accept judicial and other positions, but ran for a seat as a Republican in the first session of the legislature held under the 1879 Constitution of California. He was made chairman of the judiciary committee and used his position to keep bad laws out of the statutes, reportedly causing the postponement of a thousand bills. Very few bills that he opposed ultimately passed, and every one that was passed against his opposition on the ground that it conflicted with the constitution, was eventually pronounced unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court. In September 1880, he resigned from the Assembly to serve as an elector for presidential candidate

James A. Garfield James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death six months latertwo months after he was shot by an assassin. A lawyer and Civil War gene ...

at the Republican national convention. Fox remained active in civic activities in Oakland. In June 1877, he helped organize a free reading room in the city. In February 1878, he was a founder of the Oakland Law Library. In March 1879, he was elected to the Oakland Board of Education, and served as its president. In 1881, Fox was selected as general counsel for the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company. In June 1889, Governor Robert Waterman appointed Fox as an associate justice of the California Supreme Court, following the resignation of Justice

Jackson Temple Jackson Temple (August 11, 1827 – December 25, 1902) was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California. He served three separate terms on the court between 1870 and 1902. Early life and education Temple was born in the town of Heath ...

. Fox served on the court to the end of the next year. He authored one of the most noted opinions of the term in ''Jessup's Case'', establishing a rule by which an

illegitimate child Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as ''b ...

can become legitimized. After leaving the court, he was a member of the law firm of Campbell, Fox & Campbell, then with the firm of Fox, Kellogg & King. This firm became Fox, Kellogg & Gray until 1895, when it became the firm of Fox & Gray. He was working up until the day before his final illness, leaving his office on April 26, 1904, at about 5 p.m., and being stricken with

paralysis Paralysis (also known as plegia) is a loss of motor function in one or more muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory damage. In the United States, roughly 1 in 50 ...

at about 5 a.m. the following morning.

Clubs

Fox became a member of the Odd Fellows at the age of 21, and was active and influential in that organization throughout his life, serving as grand master for the state of California in 1867-68, grand patriarch in 1868-69, and representative to the grand lodge of the United States in 1869-70. He was the first president of the Odd Fellows' home founded under his administration, acting in that capacity from 1893 to 1898. In October 1869, he was elected an officer of the Sons and Daughters of Temperance.

Personal life

Fox had married Celestia M. Fox in Michigan, but she died in

Redwood City, California Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a ...

, on January 29, 1859. On January 1, 1860, he remarried to Lucy Taylor in San Mateo, California. In June 1864, after her death, he remarried to Mary Schwartz Rice, a native of France, who came to California in 1857 and lost her first husband soon after her arrival. He had eight children, but only two survived him: Mrs. Mary Gray and Miss Ida Frances Fox. His two brothers, Benjamin F. and George W. Fox, an attorney, and two sisters also lived in California.

References

External links