Volney Erskine Howard (October 22, 1809 – May 14, 1889) was an American lawyer, statesman, and jurist.

Career

Volney Erskine Howard was born in Oxford County, Maine on October 22, 1809, to Richard Howard, a prosperous farmer. At the age of 22, Howard traveled to Mississippi to study law. He commenced law practice in

Brandon, Mississippi Brandon is a city in and the county seat of Rankin County, Mississippi, United States. It was incorporated on December 19, 1831. The population was 21,705 at the 2010 census. Brandon is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is l ...

. He was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1836; reporter of the supreme court of the State of Mississippi; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for election in 1840 to the Twenty-seventh Congress and editor of the ''Mississippian''. He moved to Texas during the Republic of Texas and Howard was appointed the first Attorney General of the State of Texas in 1846. He served in that role for only 6 months. He represented Texas's

District 2 District 2 may refer to: Places by country *II District, Turku, in Finland * District 2, Düsseldorf, Germany *District 2, Grand Bassa County, a district in Liberia *District 2, an electoral district of Malta *District 2, a police district of Mal ...

in the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

from 1849 to 1853. Appointed attorney to the Land Commission of California by President Franklin Pierce, Howard left Texas to move to California. He resigned after a few months to practice law in San Francisco. In 1856, he was appointed

Adjutant General An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer. France In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in staf ...

of California, following the resignation of

William T. Sherman William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

during the time of the

San Francisco Committee of Vigilance The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance was a vigilante group formed in 1851. The catalyst for its formation was the criminality of the Sydney Ducks gang. It was revived in 1856 in response to rampant crime and corruption in the municipal govern ...

. His attempt to oppose the Committee by force failed. Afterward, he moved to Sacramento in 1858 to practice law but decided to leave northern California because he had made too many enemies while battling the vigilantes in San Francisco. In 1861 he moved to Los Angeles, where he served two terms as District Attorney, from 1864 to 1867, and served as one of the first judges of the Los Angeles Superior Court beginning in 1879. His law firm included two of his lawyer sons, Charles Howard (killed in a gunfight with Daniel B. Nichols, son of a former mayor of Los Angeles, in 1869 in a saloon) and Frank H. Howard, who served as city attorney of Los Angeles. He served only one term on the bench, due to the ill health. He was nominated to a seat on the United States Supreme Court but declined because of failing health. Howard died in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...

and was buried at Fort Hill in Los Angeles, California, but was disinterred to an undisclosed location when the cemetery was eliminated.

Howard County, Texas Howard County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. At the 2020 census, its population was 34,860. Its county seat is Big Spring. The county was created in 1876 and organized in 1882. It is named for Volney E. Howard, a U.S. Con ...

was named in his honor.

References

External links

Column (approx. 2,000 words) on Howard as major-general in charge of state efforts to crush vigilantes' control of San Francisco in 1856
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Volney E. 1809 births 1889 deaths Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas Democratic Party members of the Mississippi House of Representatives Members of the Texas House of Representatives Texas Attorneys General District attorneys in California California local politicians California state court judges California Democrats History of Los Angeles 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American judges