Shasta-Napa-Placer County CA Archives Biographies.....Shurtleff, Benjamin 1821 - 
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Author: Lewis Publishing Co.

  BENJAMIN SHURTLEFF, M. D.- Among the present representatives of the learned
professions identified with Napa is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch;
yet so widely is he known, especially in the upper half of the State, that a
much more than, passing notice of his career and of his antecedents becomes
valuable, and even essential, in a history of Northern California. From
manuscript and published records of undoubted authority, this genealogical and
biographical sketch has been for the most part compiled.

  Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff was born on the ancestral estate in Carver, Plymouth
County, Massachusetts, September 7, 1821, a son of Charles arid Hannah (Shaw)
Shurtleff. On both sides he is descended, without admixture, from old settlers
of New England, members of the first successful colony, that of Plymouth. The
name of Shurtleff has been found in old records of the Plymouth Colony, spelled
in various forms and therefore at times incorrectly—something which often occurs
when those doing clerical work write names from sound. The natural evolution of
the language may also have cut some figure. In some cases the name is quite
distorted by the spelling, and it appears indifferent places respectively as
Chyrecliff, Shiercliff, Shirtley, Shurtlef and Shurtleff.

  The founder of the family in this country was William Shurtleff, who was born
in England (probably in Yorkshire), about 1619. He landed in Plymouth,
Massachusetts, some time prior to 1635, a youth in his 'teens. He is on record
as having been enrolled for military duty there in 1643, and also as having been
married unto Elizabeth Lettice, October 18, 1655. While at Plymouth his estate
was at Strawberry Hill, near the Reed Pond, not far from the boundary line of
Kingston. He afterward moved to Marshfield, where his name is of record in 1664.
He died there June 23, 1666, being killed in a severe tempest by a stroke of
lightning. In the marriage record referred to his name is written Shirtley. He
is said to have written it with one final "f"—Shurtlef, —and one of his
grandsons added an "f," since which the name has been spelled, as now,
Shurtleff. It is so spelled on the tombstone, at Plymouth, of William Shurtleff,
the eldest son of the above first settler, who died in 1729.

  William and Elizabeth (Lettice) Shnrtleff had three sons, William, Thomas and
Abiel. The latter, born in June, 1666, at Marshfield, was married in January,
1693, to Lydia Barnes, a daughter of Jonathan and Elizabeth Barnes, of Plymouth,
who bore him seven sons and three daughters. Their son Benjamin (first), who was
born in 1710, was the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch.

  To supplement this genealogical record it will be necessary at this point to
turn back and refer to other of the original families of the old colony. Isaac
Allerton and his family came in the Mayflower to Plymouth, in 1620, among whom
was a daughter, Mary. She in due time was married to Thomas Cushman, who, at the
age of fourteen years, came in the ship Fortune, in 1621, with his father,
Robert Cushman. Among the children of Thomas and Mary (Allerton) Cushman was
Elkanah, who had a son named Josiah Cushman; and of the children of Josiah
Cushman was a daughter named Susannah Cushman, who was married to the aforesaid
Benjamin Shurtleff (first), and was the great-grand-mother of the subject of
this sketch.

  Thus it will be seen that by this union the veins of this branch of the
Shurtleff family received an affluent from a conspicuous source more remote in
the past than the point to which the family name can be traced. Isaac Allerton
and Robert Cushman were leading and historic characters in connection with the
Puritans, not only as regards their settlement in the "old colony" of Plymouth,
but in their native England and in their chosen exile of Amsterdam and Leyden.
They lived in the Elizabethan age. Thomas Cushman, son of Robert, was born in
1607, the year in which, according to Shakesperean commentators, "Antony and
Cleopatra" and "Timon of Athens" were written, and nine years before the death
of Shakespeare. Hence his father, Robert Cushman, was strictly a cotemporary
with Shakespeare Charlotte S. Cushman, mentioned because so widely known, and
who honored the stage more than any other woman America has produced, was a
descendant of these Cushmans.

  To resume the original thread, Benjamin (first) and Susannah (Cushman)
Shurtleff had a son, Benjamin (second), who was born in 1748, and who, being an
only son, inherited his father's estate in Carver, on which his life was spent.
His son, Charles, the father of our subject, was born there, October 20, 1790.
He was reared on his father's farm. Soon after his marriage to Hannah Shaw, he
removed to New Hampshire, and entered upon a mercantile career.

Abandoning this, he returned to Carver, Massachusetts, where he died at about
the age of fifty, being an exception in the Shurleff family, most of whom have
reached the Scriptural three-score years and ten, or more.

   The above is a mere genealogical outline,, necessary in introducing the
sketch of a pioneer of California, a descendant of some of the first settlers of
the Atlantic coast, and of necessity brief, though much of interest could be
written of members of the family, who have attained more than local destinction
in various walks of life, but especially in literary and professional pursuits.
Rev. William Shurtleff, a grandson of the first settler, was a graduate of
Harvard, about 173 years ago (1717), when such an education was alone a
distinction. Roswell Shurtleff was a graduate in 1799 and also a Professor of
Dartmouth College, during the period when Daniel Webster and his brother,
Ezekiel, were students there; and his reminiscences of the college life of these
famous alumni are published in one of the biographies of the great statesmen.
Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff, an eminent physician of Boston, a brother of the father
of our subject, was a founder of Shurtleff College, at Alton, Illinois, to an
extent which caused his surname to be given to the institution. His son, the
late Dr. N. B. Shurtleff, was Mayor of Boston two terms, and did much in aid of
the progress of the city, but is more distinguished for his exhaustive
genealogical and antiquarian, researches, and for the accuracy and value of his
writings on these topics.

  Our subject has had two uncles, five cousins and a brother who were regular
graduates in medicine—the latter the well-known Dr. G. A. Shurtleff, of
Stockton. This gentleman, who came to California in 1849, was a member of the
first and second city councils of Stockton, two years Recorder of San Joaquin
County, and became a Director of the State Insane Asylum at Stockton, in 1856,
and its Medical Superintendent in 1865, holding the position with signal ability
until admonished by failing health, brought on by overwork, to resign in 1883.
He was one of the Commissioners who located the Napa State Insane Asylum, and
was the author of the bill providing for it. He has been President of the State
Medical Society, and is Emeritus Professor of Mental Diseases and Medical
Jurisprudence in the University of California. He was for years a prominent
member of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions
for the Insane, and attended the meetings of the Association at Madison,
Wisconsin, in 1872, at Baltimore in 1873, at Philadelphia in 1880, and the
American Medical Association also in 1880, in New York city. He was elected, in
1876, as the sole delegate for the State of California to the International
Medical Congress. He was also the first President of the San Joaquin Society of
California Pioneers. Though now retired from practice, he stands to-day one of
the most honored and representative of the medical profession who ever lived in
California, and is one of the most favorably known men in the State, in or out
of the profession.

  Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff spent his boyhood days in Carver, Massachusetts, where
he attended the public schools to the age of fifteen years. He continued his
education at Pierce Academy, and when he was nineteen years old he began
teaching school during the winter seasons, attending the academy during the
intervals until he had completed the regular course. He first studied medicine
with his brother, Dr. G. A. Shurtleff, and afterward with the late Dr. Elisha
Huntington, of Lowell, Massachusetts. He also graduated at Harvard, in 1848,
meantime attending Fremont Medical School of Boston, and being in both a pupil
of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes.

  While at Harvard, in 1846, he heard Rufus Choate's celebrated speech in
defense of Albert J. Terrill, charged with the murder of Maria Bickford, and
considers the great advocate's address to the jury on that occusion the most
fascinating display of eloquence he ever witnessed. Reared in the county where
Daniel Webster resided, he occasionally heard him discuss the political issues
of those times. He often speaks of the great orator's celebrated Marshfield
speech, in the Taylor campaign of 1848, as one of rare eloquence and power.

  His last year at school was the memorable one in which Marshall discovered
gold in California, and the news at once turned his thoughts in that direction.
When the early reports were verified by President Polk's message, he at once
determined to try his fortune on the faraway shores of the Pacific, and began
making preparations with that idea in view. Late in December, 1848, he secured
passage on the schooner Boston, then fitting out in the New England metropolis
for the trip to San Francisco, and while waiting for the departure of the vessel
he put in his time about the city. Learning through the newspapers that Choate
and Webster were to appear on opposite sides of the patent case of Marcy vs.
Sizer, he eagerly availed himself of the opportunity to witness these two giants
of the forensic arena arrayed against each other, and as a result enjoyed one of
the greatest treats of his life. Both were at their best, while every available
particle of the space allowed for spectators about the courtroom was crowded
with the representatives of the brain and the beauty of Boston. The scene was an
inspiring one, and the occasion worthy of its brilliant setting.

  Preparations being completed, the vessel made ready to depart with her
passengers on January 25, 1849, though on account of adverse weather the start
was not effected until two days later. Those who sailed with Dr. Shurtleff were
for the most part fine specimens of bright young manhood of New England, men of
nerve, adventurous and of more than ordinary capacity, as indeed were the great
majority of the pioneers who came to California before the proofs of
California's golden wealth were actually laid down before their eyes. Instead of
rounding Cape Horn, the vessel route of 1849, the schooner passed through the
Straits of Magellan, and without any unusually noteworthy incident, proceeding
on her way, casting anchor in the harbor of San Francisco July 6, 1849. That was
quite a noted day in the history of arrivals, as no less than five other vessels
of note also appeared in the harbor, namely, the ships Edward Everett and
Atilla, and the brig Forest of Boston, and the ships Mary Stewart and Taralinto
of New York. The Boston made the voyage in 160 days, which was more than an
average trip, as the California-bound fleet of 1849 could boast of only a few
fast sailers. The ship Gray Eagle, a Baltimore clipper, made the best record of
all the vessels of that year, having arrived in San Francisco from Philadelphia
on May 18, in 117 days. But the discovery of gold in California quickened the
spirit of commercial enterprise and created a demand for the fleetest ships that
mechanical skill and invention could devise. The Flying Cloud, built at East
Boston, in 1850, by Donald McKay, made the voyage in 1851 from New York to San
Francisco, a distance of 13,610 miles, in eighty-nine days and twenty-one hours.
In 1854 she made the same trip in eighty-nine days and eight hours, and on one
occasion making 374 miles in twenty-four hours. No other sailing vessel has ever
made the voyage from any Atlantic domestic port to San Francisco in less than
ninety days.

  Of course all on board had become more or less acquainted during the long
voyage, and Dr. Shurtleff recalls, among his fellow-passengers O. M. Craig, the
well-known Sonoma viticulturist and the late William Wallace, who was a member
of the San Francisco firm of Sisson & Wallace in after years. He and others
debarked from a boat at Clark's Point, and proceeded to town by a path which
followed an undulating course, sometimes twenty or thirty feet above the water,
and again only a foot or two over. Many of the passengers, however, landed from
boats about where Montgomery street now is, and spent a week looking about the
city, and becoming acquainted wtih prospects in mining districts. He was struck
with the novel appearance of San Francisco, which yet wore the old Mexican air,
and like everyone else he little thought that the place would grow back into the
hills, which it has, or that Knob Hill and similar sites would be crowded with
the places that stand there to-day; yet he felt that the city must be an
important commercial center, and a large one, too,—good places for investment in
reality but for the general uncertainty that hung about land tittles in those
days. The schooner Olivia, which had been with them in the passage through the
Straits of Magellan, arrived in San Francisco a few days before the Boston; and
as she was to proceed on up the river to Sacramento, our subject, who had been
on shore a week, took passage on her for the trip. This required about three
days' time, and the first night the vessel anchored at the junction of the San
Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers, where some ambitious person soon afterward
endeavored to start a settlement, which he encumbered with the high-sounding
title "New York of the Pacific." The Doctor will always remember that night,
when the mosquitoes made it so hot for him that he thought there was certainly
not more than one place warmer! On July 16, he landed at Sacramento, where he
saw a busy village of tents, among which he recollects seeing only two or three
wooden buildings.

  As soon as convenient, he proceeded to Beal's Bar, which is now in Placer
County, near the El Dorado line, and commenced mining, meeting with fair
success. Among those in the vicinity was a man from Oregon, who had come down in
1848, and had secured a claim of unusual richness. His location was then such a
fortunate one that he could take out two or three hundred dollars' worth of gold
in a few hours, and he thought the metal would soon become so plentiful that it
would not be worth scarcely anything. As a result, he had sold much of his dust
for coin at the rate of eight dollars an ounce, half what it was worth, and had
gambled his wealth away or ortherwise disposed of it with a lavish hand,
thinking he would have a good time while it was worth something, anyway. Now,
things had begun to change. His claim was not so good, new arrivals appeared
every day, and he saw that gold was not going to decline. He was terribly
despondent, and when asked by Dr. Shurtleff the reason of his downheartedness,
he related the facts above mentioned, saying he had thrown his gold away-when he
could get plenty of it, and now, when he realized its value he could not take
out more than $50 to $100 worth a day! He was truly an unfortunate man.

  After mining on his own account for a time the Doctor went to work for a
company, who were engaged at a point near the confluence of the American River
and its south fork, in digging a canal between those two streams. The dirt taken
out in constructing this canal, and winch was used in damming the river, was the
richest he ever saw, and fairly shined with the yellow metal. He received $16 a
day for his work, and while a few shovelfuls of the dirt taken out would have
paid his wages, the result of his enterprise when finished proved disappointing
to the promoter of the scheme, who had supposed that the bed of the river would
be almost lined with gold. Another party, above them, imbued with the same idea,
had made great preparation for celebrating the turning of the river, which they
had also undertaken at that point. Among the festivities planned was an
elaborate banquet, for which they procured all the delicacies known to the
mining camp, including even a supply of champaign purchased at great expense in
San Francisco. When the work was completed, and the water commenced to flow
through the new channel, they had their banquet and drank their champaign, but
an inspection of the river bottom in the morning showed only the barren rock as
the result of all their work, and the end of their dreams of wealth.

  While mining on the American, Dr. Shurtleff did not entirely neglect his
profession, which he practiced when occasion demanded. In the fall of 1849,
hearing the reports of rich discoveries in what is now Shasta County, he went up
to Reading Springs, (now called Shasta), where he arrived on the 21st of
October, and there resumed mining on Middle Creek, and he took up a good claim
in the bed of the creek. Among the miners on Rock Creek were two ministers of
the gospel from Oregon, who worked every day in the creek, including Sundays.
For this some of the miners called them to task, but in reply the preachers said
they had families at home to which they were anxious to return as soon as
possible, so that the ministers had the best of the argument, especially as most
of those who lay off on Sunday put in their weekly holiday at the gaming tables.

  The Doctor continued working in his claim, with an occasional bit of practice
until the November 2, 1849; but as the rains then commenced and the high water
drove him from his claim, he gave up mining. The rains caused quite an exodus
from the camps. Some of the emigrants, on their way up there, had laid in heavy
supplies of provisions, with a view of selling them after reaching their
destination; but when the weather changed in the fall, they wanted to get away,
and offered their supplies very cheap. The late R. J. Walsh, afterward widely
known as the extensive Colusa farmer and stock-raiser, who was at one time
President of the State Agricultural Society, was then a merchant at Reading
Springs; and while he was a far-seeing business man, he was the fortunate
possessor of considerable money as well, and he bought in the greater portion of
the staples offered. Flour, for instance, which was always of Chilean
manufacture, packed in hundred-pound sacks, was purchased by him at 20 to 25
cents per pound, while freights were 40 to 50 cents. When communication between
that point and Sacramento were shut off by the high waters of winter, prices
began to rise on all the necessaries of life, and it was not long until Walsh
was selling flour from $2 to $2.25. Miners would come in and buy a sack, and
Walsh would take $2.25 from their sack of dust, the transaction being treated on
both sides with as great nonchalance as would be the buying of a fifty-pound
sack of flour now. Other things sold proportionately high.

   One of the noteworthy features not to he forgotten about many of these early
California mining camps was the large proportion of men of marked ability, from
the different pursuits in life, some being representatives even of the learned
professions, hut all on the same level as miners, store-keepers, etc., with no
distinction to be recognized by dress or the other usual signs. Perhaps at a
meeting held to discuss the rights in a disputed mining claim or other matter of
that nature, some quiet man who had never made any pretensions or given to his
associates any evidence of being more than the ordinary run of a miner, would
rise and address the assembly in a speech that would be a credit to the United
States Senate. To illustrate this characteristic it may here be related that
Harrison J. Shurtleff, a cousin of our subject, who had come out with him on the
Boston, came to the tent in which he and the Doctor lived, and announced to the
latter that there were some fellows in the lower part of the town, near the
creek, who made splendid peach pies. After that they occasionally visited the
pie camp, and patronized the proprietors, who found a ready sale for their pies
at $1.50 each. Years afterward the Doctor learned that the men who composed that
pie firm were the late Colonel Benjamin F. Washington, an influential Democratic
leader and editor of California, and Collector of the port of San Francisco
during Buchanan's administration; Vincent E. Geiger, another prominent editor,
and Indian agent at the Nomelachie reservation; and the late Colonel William S.
Long, subsequently one of the foremost leaders at the Sacramento bar. Geiger cut
the wood and packed it into camp; Long was salesman and washed the dishes, while
Washington made the pies. These men were Virginians, and could have known
nothing of such work previously, but they adapted themselves to circumstances,
and their pies were excellent, the only criticism of the Doctor, who had been
accustomed to the splendid cookery of New England, being that their upper and
lower crusts were a little too close together,—a fact explainable by the high
price of the dried Chili peaches used in making them.

  Soon after his arrival at Reading Springs, Dr. Slurtleff was elected to the
office of Alcalde, which, as Americanized, was one of almost unlimited power,
the incumbent being competent to try any kind of a case as Judge. An Orgonian
named Bowles, charged with murder, had a jury trial before him, the hearing
lasting two days. The counsel for the prosecution was Royal T. Sprague, late
Chief Justice of California, while the defense presented as its attorney W. R.
Harrison, a distant relative of the President, who later became the first County
Judge of Shasta County, and subsequently District Attorney in Tehama and also in
Lassen counties. The trial, despite the seriousness of the charge, was an
amusing one in some respects. Sprague, who had practiced in New York State and
afterward in Ohio, quoted from the statutes of those States in support of his
position, while Harrison relied upon the inspiration to be drawn from the codes
and reports of Indiana and Iowa, in which commonwealths he had in former time
resided. Judge Shurtleff, who could not have been supposed to be posted on the
laws and practice of those States, said that in order to arrive at correct
conclusions he wanted the statutes of Massachusetts. However, he was compelled
to rely upon his own judgment. Bowles was acquitted. He filled the post of
Alcalde satisfactorily to the residents of the district, until the summer of
1850, when he resigned. The records of the office were destroyed in the
conflagration of June 14, 1853, which laid Shasta in ashes.

  During the spring and summer of 1850, the Doctor was associated in mercantile
business with A. C. Brown, afterward County Judge of Amador County. From that
time until the latter part of 1851 he continued merchandising, in partnership
with Dr. Jesse R. Robinson, who was the first County Clerk of Shasta County, and
both meanwhile practiced their profession, to which our subject, after the last
mentioned date, devoted his entire attention. When Shasta County was organized
he was elected its first Treasurer, and later as a member of the Board of School
Trustees. With the late Chief Jnstice Sprague and the late Governor Isaac Roop,
of Susanville, he established the first public school in Northern California.
For ten years, by successive annual appointment from the Board of Supervisors,
he held the place of County Physician. He took a prominent part in the Whig
party organization, of the principles of which he had been since his early
manhood a warm supporter and an earnest advocate. He was a great admirer of
Henry Clay, and has always looked upon his first Presidential vote for that
immortal leader in 1844 as the proudest of his life. As long as the grand old
party held together as an organization, he remained under its banners, but when
the end came he united with the Democracy.

  In 1857 he was tendered the office of County Judge of Shasta County, by
Governor J. Neely Johnson, to fill the unexpired term, but declined the
appointment. In 1860 he supported Douglas for the Presidency, and in the
following year was elected to the State Senate from the district comprising
Shasta and Trinity counties, serving with credit in the two sessions of his
term, and adding largely to his already considerable prominence and popularity.
In 1863 as a war Democrat he received the opposition vote for the United States
Senate against John Conness. Shortly thereafter he severed his connection with
the Democracy, and in 1864 he supported Abraham Lincoln, in his second
presidential campaign. Since that time he has been an active and ardent worker
in the ranks and councils of the Republican party, and in 1872 was nominated by
the State Convention of that party for alternate Elector at Large.

  In 1874, after a residence of a quarter of a century in Shasta County, he
removed to Napa, where he has since been an honored resident. In May, 1876, he
was elected a member of the Board of City Trustees, and was re-elected in 1878,
serving both terms as president of that body. In 1878 also he was elected from
the Third Congressional District as one of the Delagates at Large to the State
Constitutional Convention, and in the sessions of that important body, which sat
from September 28, 1878, until March 3, 1879, he was one of the most prominent
figures and earnest workers. He took a leading part in the debates of the
convention, especially where he led the forces opposed to the incorporation in
the constitution of an age limit under which candidates should be ineligible for
office. His closing speech on that measure was a masterly and convincing effort,
and is here incorporated with an outline of the circumstances of its delivery:

  Previous sections having been disposed of, section 24 was taken up, which read
as follows: "No one shall be eligible to the office of the Justice of the
Supreme Court unless he be at least thirty-five years of age, and shall have
been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the State; and no one
shall be eligible to the office of the Supreme Court unless he be at least
thirty years of age, and shall have been admitted to practice before the Supreme
Court of the State." Dr. Shurtleff offered as a substitute the following: "No
one shall be eligible to the office of the Supreme Court, or of the office of
Judge of the Supreme Court, unless he shall have been admitted to practice in
the Supreme Court." He then addressed the convention in these words:

  "Mr. Chairman: That leaves it right where it is in the present constitution,
and requires no qualification as to age. I hope that the substitute will at
least have a fair support from the Committee on the Judiciary itself. I see
nothing in the history of this State that requires that there should be a
limitation upon the age of those who are to be eligible to judicial office. One
of the members of the Judiciary Committee, who, I am sorry to see, is now
absent, held the office of Chief Justice when he was only twenty-nine years of
age, at least of Justice, and he was made Chief Justice when thirty years old.
Another distinguished jurist of this State, long since passed away, Hugh Murray,
was called to the Supreme Bench at the early age of twenty-seven. Every lawyer
concedes that Hugh Murray was one of the most brilliant jurists of the State,
young as he was. Then, if we look further back and examine the history of other
States, and even the nation itself, we find that many of the best legal minds
have been promoted to important judicial positions when young. Levi Woodbury, of
New Hampshire, was Chief Justice of that State at the age of twenty-seven, and
was afterward made a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was a
man of signal ability, as evidenced in the various positions which he
subsequently held. His experience while on the bench of the Supreme Court of New
Hampshire was of much benefit to him and the people. James Iredell, of the State
of North Carolina, was called to the bench at the age of twenty-six. Hugh L.
White, of Tennessee, was made a Justice of the Supreme Court at the age of
twenty-eight. Stephen A. Douglas was a Judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois at
the age of twenty-eight. Young men, comparatively, have been promoted to the
bench of the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Story was appointed there
by President Madison when only thirty-two years of age.

  "Therefore I think it unwise to make this limitation. Nobody claims that young
men have been raised to exalted judicial positions to the detriment of public
interest. I believe in giving the young men a chance. Martin Van Buren, when a
little boy playing marbles and flying his kite in the streets of Kinderhook,
told his comrades he was going to be President of the United States. The fire of
his youthful ambition never quenched. His education completed, he rose quickly
to the position of State Senator, then became Attorney General of the State of
New York; then Senator in Congress. He was then appointed Secretary of State by
President Jackson, and then Minister to England. He was then elected
Vice-president, and finally reached the goal of his ambition and became
President of the United States. Though opposed to his school of politics, I
glory—what American does not glory?— in the success of the ambitious boy of
Kinderhook. It is due to the boys, the young and rising men of California, that
the paths of honor shall be left open to them, and 1 shall not consent, for one,
to placing anything in their way."

  This pithy, brilliant and logical speech won the applause of the convention,
and carried the cause of that speaker, who thus gained an important point of
advantage for the young men of California.

  Another debate in which Dr. Shurtleff took a prominent part in this
convention, was that of representation in the Legislature. In opposition to
those who favored a large increase in the number of legislators, he took the
ground that a small and compact body would be the more effective one, instancing
the well-governed State of New York, where State Senators represent
constituencies larger than Congressional districts. This view prevailed, and the
provisions of the old constitution in regard thereto remained in force.

  In March, 1880, Dr. Shurtleff was appointed, by Governor Perkins, as one of
the trustees of the State Asylum for the Insane at Napa, and has been ever since
president of the board, and a hearty advocate of the policy which has already
given the institution wide prestige. The incumbency of this position caused his
declension of the nomination of the Presidental Elector tendered him by the
Republican State Convention of 1884, as he feared his State office might
interfere with his eligibility, and an elector then be lost to his party.

  Dr. Shurtleff's career in this State proves him to have been possessed of much
more than the ordinary capacity and public spirit as from the first he has taken
a leading part in the affairs of his adopted State, and been one of her
prominent figures since the pioneer days. As a professional man he has ranked
with the ablest, and as a politician he has moved upon the highest plane, always
actuated by the purest and broadest of motives. As a citizen lie is honored and
respected far and wide, and loved and esteemed by those who know him best.
Having conserved his strength and physical resources in his young manhood, when
the temptations of the gaining tables caused so many of his comrades to fritter
away their youth and health by the light of the midnight candle, he is yet, at
this writing, in the full possession of his strength and faculties, reaping the
dividends on his early investments of self-denial. Thus it is that he has been
in active practice of his profession constantly since 1849, besides attending to
his manifold public duties, and he stands to-day as one of the half-dozen
pioneer practitioners yet engaged in their profession. He is a life member of
the Society of California Pioneers.

  In his domestic relations he has been happy, and is the head of an interesting
family. On a visit to New England, he was married February 21, 1853, to Miss Ann
M. Griffith, a native of Wareham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. They have
three children, all born in Shasta, viz.: George C., who was born April 7, 1854,
educated at Oakland High School, and is now with the great hardware firm of
Baker & Hamilton, San Francisco; Charles A., born April 4,1857, a graduate of
Hastings Law School, and now a member of the legal firm of Whitworth &
Shurtleff, No.120 Sutter street, San Francisco; and Benjamin E., born April 21,
1867, a student in the Medical Department, University of California.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California.

Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast
from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with
Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of
Prominent Citizens of To-day.

"A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendents." – Macauley.

CHICAGO
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1891.




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