Marin County CA Archives Biographies.....Mahon, Edward Barry 1833 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 6, 2007, 11:50 am

Author: Alley, Bowen & Co. Publishers (1880)

  Edward Barry Mahon. The subject of this sketch was born in the valley of the
Ottawa, on Grand river, in the Dominion of Canada, some sixty miles north of
Ogdensburg, New York, in the year 1833. He was the youngest son of one of the
pioneers of that settlement, which fact, perhaps, as much as his natural love of
books, tended to give his mind the literary turn and thirst for knowledge which
influenced him in the choice of a profession. He was fortunate in having the
advantage of excellent teachers, from whom he received a very thorough English
education, and afterwards from private tutors, there being no college in the
vicinity, some knowledge of Latin and French. At an early age, however, he was
thrown on his own resources, and at the age of sixteen or seventeen commenced
teaching school, in which he developed an aptitude and proficiency far in
advance of his years. His time, while out of the school-room, was devoted to
study. During the years he was teaching he learned quite as much, if not more,
than while himself a scholar. Among other things, he exhibited an early love for
the free institutions and laws of the United States, and was an advocate of
annexation of the Canadas to that government, a proposition which at that time
was often mooted. Meanwhile, a brother of his, Timothy J. Mahon, who for some
years had been a resident of the State of New York, on the first intelligence of
the gold discoveries in California, in company with several others from New
York, sailed from that city in 1849 and sought this western land of promise by
way of Cape Horn. These Argonauts, who, not less than the other adventurous
spirits who plodded their way across the plains, were really making history,
reached San Francisco, or Yerba Buena, after a comparatively uneventful voyage
of six months. A voyage to California at that time was considered by some as
indicating something of the same daring and resolution that animated Columbus
when he steered his bark out on the limitless ocean without a chart or port of
destination, and by others as Quixotic as a trip in search of the North pole.
Months lengthened into years before anything was heard of the adventurers, but
at last letters were received announcing their safe arrival in California, and
speaking in glowing terms of its climate and resources. Novelty has peculiar
charms for the young, and the younger brother lost no time in laying aside his
books and studies, excepting only so much of the study of geography as indicated
the relative situations of New York and San Francisco. He left New York in the
beginning of 1857, and his recollection of the very unlevel condition of the sea
off Cape Hatteras and of the solemn protest which his inner man made against
such actings and doings on the part of wind and waves, are still very vivid, if
not inspiring. The change from the snows of New York to the tropical green of
Jamaica was, if not a surprise, at least some recompense for all the wrongs
inflicted on him by old Neptune. The passage thence by way of the Panama
Railroad and the Pacific mail steamer to San Francisco was uneventful. One of
the small sloops then plying on the Bay of San Francisco served to convey him to
San Rafael, where he arrived in April, 1857. San Rafael then consisted of some
half dozen houses, the principal of which was the former ranch house of Don
Timoteo Murphy, afterwards owned by Timothy J. Mahon, brother of E. B. Mahon,
who was then one of the solid men among the pioneers of Marin county, a position
which, through its mutations of over thirty years,, he has always maintained. At
the season in which he arrived, the valley of San Rafael was spread before him
in all its native loveliness, the hills surrounding it, as well as the valley
itself, clad in a deep green, the Bay of San Francisco on the one side, ranges
of low hills with the lordly heights of Mount Tamalpais on the other, altogether
presented, as it still does, a very beautiful landscape. It was a place for
which nature had done much and art nothing. No fences met the eye in any
direction, and nothing but the steepness of some points in the hills prevented
the traveler from riding his horse to any point of the compass. The only road
leading to or from the village was the one towards Petaluma, and the sight of
any vehicle on that road was a rare occurrence. Horse-back was the universal
means of travel and trails led in every direction, and, indeed, in proportion to
the population there was at least as much traveling done then as now. Every man
was a caballero, and the proprietor of from one to a dozen mustangs and
sometimes half-breed American horses. The native Spanish-California population
predominated and the Spanish language was spoken by nearly everybody. And he was
not a little surprised as well as chagrined to hear his brother Timothy holding
an animated conversation with an acquaintance, which sounded to him like a
mixture of Hebrew, Greek and Choctaw languages. Within six or eight months,
however, with the aid of a stray volume of Ollendorf and a constant inquiry of
the names of things, he acquired a sufficient stock of Spanish nouns and
adjectives, with an occasional verb, to make himself understood. The Murphy
adobe ranch house was used as a Court House, and even at that early day cases
involving the title to thousands of acres and hundreds of thousands of dollars,
and embracing a wide range of civil and criminal jurisprudence, were argued and
tried within the walls of that old adobe. Some of the most eminent lawyers in
this State took part in these controversies. Judge E. W. McKinstry, now of the
Supreme Court, was District Judge for the territory embracing Marin county, and
James A. McDougal, afterwards United States Senator from California, James McM.
Shafter, Treanor W. Park, Oscar L. Shafter, Judge Solomon Heydenfeldt, C. M.
Bronson, afterwards Judge of the Supreme Court of Nevada, Solomon A. Sharp, W.
H. Patterson and many others occupied a great portion of their time and took a
leading part in the litigation there conducted. The first few years of E. B.
Mahon's time were spent in keeping store, for which he did not exhibit much
aptitude, and having resolved to become a lawyer, under the instruction and
advice of Hon. C. M. Bronson, he purchased some books and commenced with a
persistent determination that ordinary obstacles could not overcome to study the
elements of law. He afterwards entered the law office of Cook, Bronson &
Hittell, in San Francisco, as a law student. His studies here were interrupted
by a severe attack of small-pox, which nearly cost him his life. As soon as he
recovered, however, he returned to his studies at San Rafael with undiminished
ardor, and in 1863 passed a very creditable examination before the Supreme Court
of the State of California, at Sacramento, and obtained his license. He was
afterwards admitted to practice in the United States District and Circuit
courts. He has always since his arrival in this State been identified with the
county of Marin, and has been a resident of that county all of that time, except
while pursuing his studies in San Francisco. He was elected County Treasurer of
Marin county for two successive terms of two years each, and afterwards was
elected District Attorney of that county for one term, which offices he filled
with unremitting care and unswerving fidelity. As a lawyer he is laborious,
thorough and faithful, and displays a clear head and a logical mind; his
practice, both in the District Court and Supreme Court, has been, considering
the field open to him, both varied and eminently successful. Some of his briefs
in the Supreme Court of this State won him high encomiums from the justices of
that court for learning, soundness and ability. To the extent of his means he
has been always ready to assist in any public improvement. In 1865 he assisted
in the enterprise of building a turnpike road from San Rafael to connect with
the steam ferry to San Francisco at San Quentin, and afterwards in the San
Rafael and San Quentin Railroad between those points. In 1871 the old adobe
Court House was no longer adequate to the requirements of the county. Several
ineffectual attempts had at different times been made to remove the county seat
from San Rafael, a majority of the people however preferred its present
location. To supply this want, and also to put an end to this agitation, it was
finally resolved to build a new Court House; accordingly, E. B. Mahon. who was
then District Attorney, prepared a bill which he, seconded by the Hon. J. B.
Rice, then the representative for Marin county in the Assembly, got passed by
the Legislature in January, 1872, providing for the building of a new Court
House. He had the pleasure of seeing the present solid and substantial Court
House erected in San Rafael within the same year, a structure, which, for beauty
of design, durability, and cheapness in the cost of construction, compares
favorably with any Court House in the State of equal cost. When the North
Pacific Coast Railroad Co. was organized for the purpose of connecting San
Francisco with the coast counties lying to the north, the northern and southern
portions of Marin county were so much disconnected by natural barriers of hills
and the almost entire absence of direct communication by public roads, that
persons traveling from Tomales, to reach San Rafael, the county seat, had to go
by way of Petaluma and traverse a considerable part of Sonoma county. This
railroad company proposed to the supervisors of Marin to run their railroad so
as to connect San Rafael with Tomales by rail, and asked for a subsidy. The
measure was very popular, and Mr. Mahon, as well as the great majority of the
Marin county people, favored it, but when the matter was brought before the
supervisors for the purpose of ordering an election and designating the route
and termini of the railroad in Marin county, and, remembering the fate of the
city of Stockton, that she was, as the phrase goes, "left out in the cold" by
the Central Pacific Railroad Company, we appeared before the Board and succeeded
after very serious opposition in having the order so framed and the subsidy
granted on such terms as to compel the company to run its line of railroad to
and into the town of San Rafael and thence to Tomales. This point being at
length firmly established, he and the citizens of the county generally gave
their approval to the granting of the subsidy. The road was accordingly built by
the company, and afterwards, having leased the San Rafael and San Quentin
Railroad and bought out a steam ferry thence to San Francisco, an uninterrupted
line of transit and travel was established from San Francisco to and through the
entire county of Marin; and to the establishment of this line much of the growth
and prosperity of San Rafael is due. This railroad was also after its
organization engaged in a great deal of litigation, in nearly all of which Mr.
Mahon has been engaged. As to the town of San Rafael he can hardly be censured
for the strong attachment he always manifests for it. It may be said to have
"grown with his growth and strengthened with his strength;" he has seen it grow
from a little hamlet of half a dozen houses to a handsome town of some three
thousand inhabitants; its valley occupied by pretty cottage houses and its
hillsides covered with lordly mansions; its churches filled with worshipers and
its schools with promising children. The California mustang with his silla and
riata has given place to the ponderous locomotive with its long train of
passenger cars; the little sloop for passage to San Francisco has given place to
the commodious and elegant steamer; and the trail over the mountains has been
replaced by the wide and well traveled wagon road. Many of the faces that first
met his gaze here twenty-three years ago still meet and return his friendly
glance; many too have passed away, but the green valley encircled in the living
embrace of its parent hills as if to shelter it from the rude touch of the
northern blast, still looks out on the placid waters of the bay - the same
charming San Rafael. On the 8th of October, 1867, he married his present amiable
wife, and it would be difficult to find a couple more devoted to each other.

Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA;
INCLUDING ITS
Geography, Geology, Topography and Climatography;
TOGETHER WITH
A Full and Particular Record of the Mexican Grants; Its Early History and
Settlement, Compiled from the most Authentic Sources; Names of Original Spanish
and American Pioneers;

A Full Record of its Organization; A Complete Political History, including a
Tabular Statement of Office-holders since the Formation of the County;

Separate Histories of Bolinas, Nicasio, Novato, Point Reyes, San Antonio, San
Rafael, Saucelito, and Tomales Townships;

Incidents of Pioneer Life, and Biographical Sketches of its Early and Prominent
Settlers and Representative Men;
ALSO
An Historical Sketch of the State of California,
In which is embodied the Raising of the Bear Flag

ILLUSTRATED.
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 
ALLEY, BOWEN & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1880.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/marin/bios/mahon881gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/

File size: 13.7 Kb