Orville C. Pratt

Orville C. Pratt (April 24, 1819 – October 1891) was an American jurist and attorney. He served as the 2nd Associate Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court in the controversy over the Oregon Territory’s capital between Oregon City and Salem.

Early life

Pratt was born on April 24, 1819 in Ontario County, New York.Corning, Howard M. Dictionary of Oregon History. Binfords & Mort Publishing, 1956. In New York he attended the Army Academy at West Point from 1837 to 1839. He then studied law in Rochester, New York, earning admission to the state bar in 1841. Pratt then moved to Galena, Illinois and set up practice in 1843.Terry, John. Oregon's Trails - Oregon's first judge left record that was often injudicious. ''The Oregonian'', December 10, 2006.

Oregon

In 1849, Pratt moved to Oregon to assume the position of judge on the Oregon Supreme Court. When he arrived he was the lone justice, so he exercised all of the judiciary’s powers from April 1849 until William Strong arrived 18 months later.Clatsop County District Court Judges.
Oregon Judicial Department. Retrieved January 14, 2008. Pratt was appointed to the position by President Polk. Then in 1852 when Franklin Pierce became President Pratt was removed as judge, and when he was nominated to become chief justice of the Oregon court Stephen A. Douglas opposed the nomination and Pratt lost the nomination to George Henry Williams.

While in office Pratt was controversial, and was the judge during the controversial case of the Cayuse Five. He was known for traveling outside of the territory for his own personal gain, and took every opportunity to advance his personal, business, and political goals. During the dispute over the location of the capital in the territory, he took the minority position of choosing Salem, ultimately Congress would decide the matter in Salem’s favor in 1852. After leaving the court he was a judge of admiralty in Portland, Oregon in 1855 to 1856. He also practiced law with Alexander Campbell after failing to receiving a political office.Lansing, Ronald B. 2005. ''Nimrod: Courts, Claims, and Killing on the Oregon Frontier''. Pullman: Washington State University Press. p. 261. Pratt then tried to get the money from the Ewing Young estate, but ultimately the Oregon Territorial Legislature and the Oregon Supreme Court denied the payment of the funds.

Later years

In 1856, Pratt moved to San Francisco. There he owned the Rancho Aguas Frias and had a fortune estimated at over $1 million. In California, Pratt practiced law in a partnership with Alex Campbell before being elected as judge of the twelfth judicial district. While in that office, he ruled in favor of Charlotte L. Brown in her lawsuit against a San Francisco streetcar company after she was ejected for being African-American, helping to end what he termed the "barbaric practice" of racial segregation.Elaine Elinson and Stan Yogi, Wherever There’s a Fight: How Runaway Slaves, Suffragists, Immigrants, Strikers, and Poets Shaped Civil Liberties in California, Heyday Press, 2010, Chapter Four He was divorced in 1877, losing $750,000 ($15.5 million as measured in 2014 dollars) in the divorce settlement. His wife had discovered Pratt was having an affair, and in order to avoid prosecution for adultery he agreed to the large divorce settlement. He then married his former mistress, Eugenia Elizabeth Greene. Later in New York he was involved in a gambling issue where he refused to testify due to self incrimination issues. In 1886, the University of Oregon granted Pratt an honorary doctor of laws degree. Orville C. Pratt died in San Francisco in October 1891.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pratt, Orville C.
Justices of the Oregon Supreme Court
1819 births
1891 deaths
People from Ontario County, New York
United States Military Academy alumni
California state court judges
Lawyers from San Francisco
19th-century American judges
19th-century American lawyers