James Wilfred McKinley (April 24, 1857 – May 11, 1918) was city attorney of Los Angeles, California, and a judge of the Superior Court in that state as well as a regent of the University of California.

Personal

McKinley was born on April 24, 1857, in

New Castle, Pennsylvania New Castle is a city in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lawrence County. It is northwest of Pittsburgh, and near the Pennsylvania–Ohio border, just southeast of Youngstown, Ohio. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, ...

, to Samuel McKinley and Harriet Newell Simpson McKinley. He was educated in a New Castle public school, and he attended the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

(1876–77) and the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

(1877–79), where he was graduated with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree. He came to California in 1883."Death Summons Former Judge"
''Los Angeles Times'', May 12, 1918, page II-10Los Angeles Public Library reference file, with sources as noted there
/ref> He was married to Lillian Elder on October 7, 1886, and they had a son, James W. McKinley Jr. The older McKinley was a member of the Jonathan Club, the University Club, the Masons and the Knights Templar. He was also a member of the Sunset Club and the

Union League The Union Leagues were quasi-secretive men’s clubs established separately, starting in 1862, and continuing throughout the Civil War (1861–1865). The oldest Union League of America council member, an organization originally called "The Leag ...

clubs of Los Angeles and of San Francisco. McKinley died of a

paralytic stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop function ...

in his home, 508 West Adams Street, on May 11, 1918. A funeral service at

St. John's Church St. John's Church, Church of St. John, or variants, thereof, (Saint John or St. John usually refers to John the Baptist, but also, sometimes, to John the Apostle or John the Evangelist) may refer to the following churches, former churches or other ...

drew hundreds of attendees.

Interment Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

was at Inglewood Cemetery."Many at Funeral of Judge J.W. M'Kinley"
''Los Angeles Times'', May 14, 1918, page II-5

Vocation

In 1881 he was admitted to the bar in New Castle, and two years later he came to California and formed a law partnership with J.F. Hutton. After Hutton's death, McKinley became a partner with W.T. Williams. McKinley was elected

city attorney A city attorney is a position in city and municipal government in the United States. The city attorney is the attorney representing the municipality. Unlike a district attorney or public defender, who usually handles criminal cases, a city att ...

in 1884, was reelected in 1886 and served until 1888.''Chronological Record of Los Angeles City Officials 1850–1938'', Municipal Reference Library, March 1938, reprinted 1946 In 1889 he was appointed judge in the Superior Court and then was elected to the post, serving until January 1897. As an attorney, he represented the Southern Pacific Railroad and the

Pacific Electric Railway The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...

. He was on the board of directors of the Commercial National Bank and the Market and Produce Bank. McKinley went into politics and was chairman of the California delegation to the

1904 Republican National Convention The 1904 Republican National Convention was held in the Chicago Coliseum, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, on June 21 to June 23, 1904. The popular President Theodore Roosevelt had easily ensured himself of the nomination; a threat had come fro ...

, and he was chairman of the California Republican Convention of 1906. In 1903 he was appointed a

regent of the University of California The Regents of the University of California (also referred to as the Board of Regents to distinguish the board from the corporation it governs of the same name) is the governing board of the University of California (UC), a state university sy ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McKinley, James Wilfred 1857 births 1918 deaths People from New Castle, Pennsylvania Los Angeles City Attorneys California Republicans University of Michigan alumni 19th-century American lawyers