Born on a farm near Chico, California,
on Halloween, 1868, the son of John Jackson Waste
and Mary Catherine McIntosh, William Harrison Waste was destined
to be the third native Californian to become Chief Justice. His father and his Kentucky-born
mother were pioneer immigrants. The
father, scouting for his party, rode a Kentucky thoroughbred
all the way to California, arriving in 1851. He remained at Sutter's
Fort for a short time before settling at Princeton, Colusa County,
where he raised cattle. Later he moved his family to the farm
where Waste was born.
His mother died six weeks after William's
birth. In accordance with the deathbed request of his mother,
Waste was taken to live with his Uncle John and Aunt Mary Helphinstine
in Chico.
His "Uncle Johnnie" was
like a father to Waste until the uncle's death in Los Angeles
in 1885. His Aunt Mary lived with Waste in the family home until
her death in 1910, by which time she had seen her foster son
serving as a judge of the Superior Court for five years.
Waste received his elementary education in the small one-room
school near his Chico home. One source described it as the proverbial
"little red schoolhouse." Waste himself attributed
his first desire for knowledge to the New England school-mistress,
"Aunty Blake", who taught him in elementary school.
In 1882, when Waste was about thirteen,
his father died. After a short time Waste and his foster parents
moved to Los Angeles. Waste walked to school from his ranch home
in the open country near Pico and Figueroa Streets.
Upon completing grammar school, Waste
entered the "old" Los Angeles High School, which had
some attributes now normal to universities as many of the students
moved from other towns to attend. This school was famous for
its spirit. The annual alumni ball, sponsored by the alumni association,
was organized the year before Waste moved to Los Angeles and
was one of the biggest social events of the town. In 1887, after
Waste's graduation, Los Angeles High School's football team that
beat the local college teams began to play and beat the University
of Southern California.
|
Panoramic map of Los Angeles, published in 1894.
Click on the map to see a
much larger version. |
Waste was interested in law at this
early date. When not in class because of split school sessions,
he and his high school friends frequently watched the proceedings
in Los Angeles courtrooms. The boys had their favorite trial
lawyers, much as many boys today have sports heroes. Returning
at the age of nineteen to northern California in September, 1887,
Waste, encouraged by an influential high school teacher, entered
the University of California at Berkeley, graduating with the
now rare degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in 1891. At this time
Waste lived with his Aunt Mary in a duplex on Durant Avenue.
Promptly entering Hastings College of Law, he graduated with
an L.L. B. degree in the spring of 1894.
Shortly thereafter he was admitted to the bar at the age of
twenty-five.
|
Legal History Sidebar |
|
William Harrison Waste has the distinction
of being the first member of the State Bar of California. The
State Bar of California website has the story. Please see:
"The
Distinction Of Being No. 1" |
Continue
to part 2 |
