Ralph C. Harrison
Introduction
Ralph Chandler Harrison (October 22, 1833 – July 18, 1918) was an American attorney and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California from December 20, 1890, to January 5, 1903.
Biography
On October 22, 1838, Harrison was born in Cornwall, Connecticut. He attended Wesleyan University, graduating with a B.A. in 1853. After graduation, he taught mathematics and ancient languages at Armenia Seminary, New York, from 1853 to 1856, and also obtained a M.A. degree at Wesleyan in 1856. In 1857, he was elected to the Connecticut Legislature. He then studied at Albany Law School, where he was awarded a LL.B. in 1859.
Harrison's law school classmate, David D. Colton, encouraged Harrison to move to California and in 1859 the two formed a law partnership in San Francisco. In 1868, Harrison joined with Yale Law School-trained attorney, John R. Jarboe, in the firm of Jarboe & Harrison.
In August 1890, Harrison won the nomination of the Republican Party for Supreme Court justice, and was elected to a 12-year term. In November 1902, Harrison sought a second term but lost the Republican nomination to Frank M. Angellotti.
In December 1903, Harrison was named a commissioner of the California Supreme Court, replacing John Haynes. In 1905, when the new Court of Appeal was established, Governor George Pardee named Harrison as the Presiding Justice of the First District.
After stepping down from the bench in 1908, he returned to private practice until his death on July 18, 1918, in San Francisco.
Bar and civic activities
Harrison was a member of the San Francisco Bar Association, and served as a trustee of the San Francisco Law Library. In January 1884, Harrison was elected a trustee of the California Academy of Sciences. In April 1896, he was named president of the board of the San Francisco Public Library. The Ralph Chandler Harrison Memorial Library in Carmel, California, is named in his honor.
Personal life
Harrison married twice. In July 1865, he married Juliet Lathrop Waite and they had two sons, both of whom became attorneys: Richard Chandler Harrison, who practiced with his father in the firm of Harrison & Harrison; and Robert Waite Harrison, an assistant district attorney. After her death in August 1890, Harrison married again in September 1892 to Ella Spencer Reid in Rye, New York, at the country mansion of her uncle, Whitelaw Reid, later ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Harrison was a member of the Bohemian Club.