John F. Godfrey
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__NOTOC__ John Franklin Godfrey (1839–1885) was a sailor, a soldier and officer in the U.S. Civil War, a city attorney of Los Angeles, California, and an attorney in private practice who, among other activities, represented people arrested for operating businesses on Sundays.


Personal

Godfrey was born in 1839 in
Bangor, Maine Bangor ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's List of municipalities in Maine, third-most populous city, behind Portland, Maine, Portland ...
, the son of John Godfrey a Central Maine lawyer. Young Godfrey attended Bangor High School. He settled in Los Angeles in 1874, purchased a house on Adams Street in the southwestern part of the city and began cultivating oranges. Godfrey married twice, his first wife dying in Los Angeles, and two years later he married again. Godfrey was credited with saving the life of Henry Hunt, who faced a lynch mob in Los Angeles after he was put into jail and accused of murdering George W. Gillis, a popular
deputy sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is commonly ...
.
Col. Godfrey, seeing that the man could only be saved from lawless violence by a ruse, addressed the crowd and made a pretense of endorsing the proposed lynching. But he added that ... there was a way in which the crowd could give a better proof of its sympathy with the murdered man's family. who had been left in destitute circumstances. This was to make a contribution of money to the widow. ... But many in the crowd, though anxious to take a hand in the hanging, did not feel sympathetic enough to give anything, and began to disperse the minute the hat started on its rounds."Anecdote of Col. Godfrey," ''Los Angeles Times,'' July 8, 1885, page 1
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He died suddenly on June 29, 1885, leaving a wife and four or five children. A memorial service attracted nearly every lawyer in the city, and burial took place in the family plot."Col. John F. Godfrey," ''Los Angeles Times,'' June 30, 1885, page 1
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Vocation


Sailing and sheepherding

Instead of attending college, Godfrey became a
merchant sailor Maritime transport (or ocean transport) or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people (passengers or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by watercraft has been widely used throughout recorded history, as it provi ...
at about age 15 at first against the wishes of his parents, "but with their final consent that he might try the life for a year." He shipped on the ''Young Eagle'' to
New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
and
Liverpool, England Liverpool is a port city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population of (in ), Liverpool is the administrative, c ...
, thence on the ''Northland'' to New Orleans and Texas. In another ship he sailed as far as
Buenos Ayres Buenos Ayres is a village in Trinidad and Tobago. It is located in southwestern Trinidad, north of Erin and southeast of Point Fortin. Buenos Ayres is the hometown of the calypsonian Cro Cro. The Erin Savannas, one of the last remaining natu ...
in
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
. Having pursued sailing for two years he left ship there and became a
sheepherder A shepherd is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations; it exists in many parts of the globe, and it is an important part of pastoralist animal husbandry. Because th ...
. Eventually, "in partnership with several other Americans—his brother among the number," he secured the
leasehold A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a Lease, lessee or a tenant has rights of real property by some form of title (property), title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold right ...
of a large estate and "the proprietorship of a band of sheep.""John F. Godfrey: Brief Biographical Sketch of His Career," ''Los Angeles Times,'' July 4, 1885, page 6
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Military

At the outbreak of the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
in 1861, Godfrey returned to the United States and at age 21 he enlisted as a
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in the First Maine Cavalry, but in two weeks he had secured an appointment as a
first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a se ...
in the First Maine Battery, Light Artillery. In August 1862, Godfrey received an order from General Butler in New Orleans detaching him from the battery and giving him permission to raise a company of cavalry in the city. He applied for a captaincy of one of them, and received the order to raise the company (Company C, 1st Louisiana Cavalry, US). As Captain of Company C, Godfrey, had participated in a large number of expeditions, skirmishes and battles against the Confederates in Louisiana, including the Siege of Port Hudson (May 23 - July 9, 1863), and the Battle of Clinton (June 3, 1863). By 1864 he had been promoted bo lieutenant colonel with the Second Maine Cavalry. He resigned from the Army in summer of that year because of ill health. After the war, Godfrey enlisted as a
scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom ** Scouts BSA, sect ...
for a government expedition into
Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota/ Lakota: ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translati ...
country, under the command of James A. Sawyers. It was written that Godfrey, pursued by Indians and in search of help for besieged companions, once "walked 150 miles in three days and three nights, never halting for a moment's rest or sleep" and subsisting "on a chunk of raw bacon."


Civilian

In 1866 Godfrey left Montana, worked in laboring jobs in
Austin, Nevada Austin is an unincorporated small town in, and former county seat of, Lander County, Nevada, United States. In 2020, the census-designated place of Austin had a population of 167. It is located on the western slopes of the Toiyabe Range at an ...
;
Marysville, California Marysville is a city and the county seat of Yuba County, California, located in the Gold Country region of Northern California. As of the 2010 United States census, the population was 12,072, reflecting a decrease of 196 from the 12,268 counte ...
, and San Francisco, then went back to Maine to
read law Reading law was the primary 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 un ...
in his father's office in Bangor and become a lawyer. One of his clients was the Total Wreck Mining Company, which was seeking a patent. He traveled to Washington, D.C., in a successful urging of this claim, and returned with J.M. Requa of New York, the company president. In December 1876 Godfrey was elected Los Angeles city attorney on the People's
ticket Ticket or tickets may refer to: Slips of paper * Lottery ticket * Parking ticket, a ticket confirming that the parking fee was paid (and the time of the parking start) * Toll ticket, a slip of paper used to indicate where vehicles entered a to ...
, and in 1878 he was reelected on the Workingman's ticket. In 1880 he received a nomination for Congress as a candidate of the Greenback-Labor Party but lost the election. In 1882 he was selected as a delegate to the state convention of the Greenbackers in San Francisco. Godfrey and Stephen M. White represented a group of defendants who in 1882 were prosecuted for having violated the Sunday closing laws that had been in effect in Los Angeles for the preceding nineteen years. Answering a prosecution against saloonkeeper Jacob Phillipi, who had "knowingly and willfully" kept his business open on Sunday, Godfrey argued that the law was being enforced only against "one class" of business, that of
saloons Saloon may refer to: Buildings and businesses * One of the bars in a traditional British pub * An alternative name for a bar (establishment) * Western saloon, a historical style of American bar * The Saloon, a bar and music venue in San Francis ...
, and he compared the prosecution to that of the burning of witches in Salem, Massachusetts. The jury was unable to return a verdict, seven for conviction and five for acquittal, and it was dismissed."The Sunday Law," ''Los Angeles Times,'' March 25, 1882, page 2
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References and notes


External links


John Franklin Godfrey archive
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The Historic New Orleans Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Godfrey, John F. Lawyers from Bangor, Maine People from West Adams, Los Angeles 1839 births 1885 deaths American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law Los Angeles city attorneys 19th-century American lawyers Workingmen's Party of California people