Bio-Sawyers
SURNAMES: HAMILTON, PERCY, WESPHAL,
A distinguished pioneer, eminent in the public and intellectual life in
which he has so long and so actively participated, is John Evan
Richards, Judge of the District Court of Appeals of the First District,
who resides at 338 South Tenth Street, San Jose, near which city he was
born on July 7, 1856. His father, Richard Evan Richards, was born
in Llangollen, Wales, while his mother, Mary Hamilton before her
marriage, was a native of Ballykelly, County Derry, Ireland, The
father emigrated to the United Stated in the early thirties and
followed the trade of an engraver in the State of New York. In 1849,
drawn by the worldwide movement toward the California gold-fields, he
came to California by way of Cape Horn and engaged in mining on the
south fork of the American River, where he mined successfully for about
two years. In 1851, however, he removed to Santa Clara County and
settled near Edenvale. There he purchased a ranch, which he
devoted to the raising of stock and grain. Mary Hamilton who had
broken away from the narrow environment of her native village and came
to the United States in 1837, had also followed the golden lure and
come to California in 1852 by way of Panama, settling in the Santa
Clara Valley. In 1854 Richard Richards and Mary Hamilton were
married and in 1856 the subject of this sketch was born. Seven
years later Richard Richards purchased a ranch at Berryessa, to which
the family moved, and there in 1867 he died, from congestion of the
lungs. His widow and only son continued to reside at Berryessa
for the next several years during which the boy gained his early
training in the public school.
Judge Richards recalls with the fondest memories his days at the
Redwood schoolhouse at
Berryessa. He
used, for example, Wilson's Fifth Reader, issued in 1864, and even now,
when the Judge wishes inspiration for a public address, he takes down
his boyhood copy of this once famous school classic, and cons over some
of the sketches, many of which he learned by heart.
In 1869, Mrs. Richards and her son went to Ireland, by way of the
transcontinental railroad, on a visit to her childhood home. It
took seven days to cross the continent by rail and an equal time was
required for the ocean passage to Liverpool. The trip held
in store many wonderful experiences for the California country lad who
had never before ridden on a railroad train or ocean liner. Every
day on land and sea was a new marvel to his eager eye and
retentive memory and he still relates with zest the incidents of that
early experience.
Arriving in the north of Ireland with his mother, they remained there
for a years, during which time the boy attended the same school, taught
by the self-same pedagogue to which his mother had gone in her
childhood. Master Brewster was the Irish schoolmaster's name; he
had taught there for more than fifty years; and the thoroughness of the
instruction imparted is still recalled with grateful
recollection. They youth was much impressed with the simple yet
sturdy habitudes of the Scotch-Irish people, whose lives were
occupied in the growing and marketing of their products and in
otherwise discharging the plain, everyday duties of their rather
insular existence. Some forty years afterward a correspondence
sprang up between Judge Richards and a cousin, who still lives in the
region, and the well-read Judge marvels at her letters, which with no
other basis than that exceptional early training, are wells of English
undefiled. At the end of a year, however, the mode of life in
this old and easy-going country began to pall upon them and Mrs.
Richards and son decided to return to California. Upon reaching
home they took up their residence in San Jose, and there the youth
attended the old high school of San Jose which then stood upon the site
of the present Horace Mann school, remaining in that institution two
years. in 1872 he matriculated at the University of the
Pacific where he took up the classical course, and from which he was
graduated in 1877 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then
went to Ann Arbor, Mich., entering the law School of the University of
Michigan; and in 1879 graduated from that university with the degree of
Bachelor of Laws. Returning to California, he was admitted to
proactive in the Supreme County, and soon became actively interested in
the social, educational and political life of the community in which he
lived. In addition to the duties of his growing practice he
became chief editorial writer on the "Mercury" with the idea of thereby
perfecting his literary style. He also lectured upon economics,
history, rhetoric and law in the University of the Pacific, and he also
early became a lecturer upon varied subjects and a writer of very
acceptable verse. In 1895, Mr. Richards opened an office in San
Francisco "Call."
In 1907 he was appointed Judge of the Superior Court of Santa Clara
County, to succeed Judge A. L. Rhodes, in which position he served six
years, when he was appointed by Governor Johnson to the position of
Associate Justice for the District Court of Appeals for the First
District. Since then, Judge Richards has been twice re-elected to
the eminent position which ne now holds. In 1918, he served a
years as Justice pro tem of the Supreme Court, during the illness of
one of the members, and since that time he has been several times
recalled to that court for a like service. In state and national
affairs Judge Richards is a life-long Republican, but in local affairs
he has never permitted politics to interfere with his support of the
best measures and the best men.
At San Jose on November 23, 1891, Judge Richards was married to Miss
Mary Wallace Wesphal, a native of San Francisco, where she was born in
1858, the daughter of John T. and Marcy (Percy) Westphal.
Her father was at one time County Clerk for San Francisco, while the
Percys are of Scotch-English extraction, sprung from the Percys of
Northumberland. Miss Wesphal attended the schools of Santa Clara
County, and afterwards became an instructor in the public school in the
vicinity. She has always been, and still is active in the women's
social, religious and education movements in the community. She
is one of the earliest and most devoted members of the Monday
Club. She has also been treasurer of the Pratt Home for many
years, and is an active member of the Woman's Guild of the Trinity
Episcopal Church, and was its president for a number of years.
Two children blessed this happy union of Judge and Mrs. Richards, John
Percy Richards, who is in business in San Francisco, and Donald Wallace
Richards who is an attorney at law, with offices in San Jose.
Judge Richards is a member of Golden Gate Lodge No. 30 of the Masonic
order, in San Francisco. He is also a member of the Observatory
Parlor of the Native Sons, and Modoc Tirbe of Red Men of San Francisco;
and he is also an active member of the Society of California Pioneers.
Judge and Mrs. Richards live in a quaint old home on South 10th Street,
built in 1862 by
J. H. Flickinger, and
in the beautiful gardin of which are still to be seen some of the trees
which the latter planted in that years. Forty-one yeasr later,
the Judge bought the place, and he has lived there ever since. There is
a great cherry tree on the place, the larges in the region; the trun
measuring thirty inces in diameter, and the limbs spreading more than
fifty feet. In 1918 this tree bore a thousand pounds of lucions
cherries. The Judge also has a ranch of seven acres in the
foothills six miles east of San Jose, mainly devoted to an orchard, but
the grounds about the house are given over to the cultivation of wild
flowers, upon which Mrs. Richards is an uthority and is often called to
deliver talks upon in different parts of the state. The garden is
really glorious during most seasons of the years, due to the
interesting effort on the part of its owners to assemble every
available species of California wild-flower life. Both Judge and
Mrs. Richards are sincere and earnest students, fond of reading and
lovers of books; and not a month passes but what some valuable work in
classics in science, in philosophy, in poetry or in general literate is
added to thier large and valuable library.