View source for Volney Howard

{{short description|American lawyer, statesman, and jurist (1809–1889)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name =
|image = VolneyHoward.jpg
| state               = [[Texas]]
| district            = {{ushr|TX|2|2nd}}
| term_start          = March 4, 1849
| term_end            = March 3, 1853
| predecessor         = [[Timothy Pilsbury]]
| successor           = [[Peter Hansborough Bell]]
| birth_name          = Volney Erskine Howard
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1809|10|22}}
| birth_place         = [[Norridgewock, Maine]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1889|05|14|1809|10|22}}
| death_place         = [[Santa Monica, California]]
}}
'''Volney Erskine Howard''' (October 22, 1809 – May 14, 1889) was an American lawyer, [[politician|statesman]], and [[jurist]].

==Career==
Volney Erskine Howard was born in [[Norridgewock, Maine|Norridgewock]], Somerset County, Maine on October 22, 1809,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=HOWARD, Volney Erskine: 1809 – 1889 |url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/H000845 |access-date=14 February 2025 |website=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress}}</ref> to Richard Howard, a prosperous farmer. He attended [[Bloomfield Academy (Skowhegan, Maine)|Bloomfield Academy]], Skowhegan, Maine and Waterford College.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Kemp |first=L. W. |date=July 20, 2022 |title=Howard, Volney Erskine (1809–1889) |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/howard-volney-erskine |access-date=February 14, 2025 |website=Texas State Historical Association}}</ref> At the age of 22, Howard traveled to Mississippi to study law and he commenced law practice in [[Brandon, Mississippi]].<ref name=":0" /> He was a member of the [[Mississippi House of Representatives]] in 1836; reporter of the supreme court of the State of Mississippi; unsuccessful [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] candidate for election in 1840 to the Twenty-seventh Congress; and editor of the ''Mississippian,''<ref name=":0" /> a Democratic newspaper published at [[Vicksburg, Mississippi]].<ref name=":1" />

After his unsuccessful run in 1840, he moved to [[New Orleans]], practicing law there until December 1844, and then moved to [[San Antonio]] to serve in the [[Republic of Texas]].<ref name=":1" /> He was appointed the first Attorney General of the State of Texas in 1846 by Governor [[J. Pinckney Henderson]], but he declined the appointment.<ref name=":1" /> He represented Texas's [[United States House of Representatives, Texas District 2|District 2]] in the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. Congress]] from 1849 to 1853 but lost a third re-election bid to [[Peter Hansborough Bell]].<ref name=":1" />

Appointed attorney to the Land Commission of California by President [[Franklin Pierce]], Howard left Texas to move to California.<ref name=":1" /> He resigned after a few months to practice law in [[San Francisco]]. In 1856, he was appointed [[Adjutant General]] of California, following the resignation of [[William T. Sherman]] during the time of the [[San Francisco Committee of Vigilance]]. His attempt to oppose the Committee by force failed.

Afterward, he moved to [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]] in 1858<ref name=":1" /> to practice law but decided to leave northern California because he had made too many enemies while battling the vigilantes in San Francisco. In 1861 he moved to [[Los Angeles]], where he served as District Attorney from 1861 to 1870,<ref name=":1" /> and served as one of the first judges of the [[Los Angeles Superior Court]] beginning in 1879.<ref name=":0" /> He was a delegate to the [[California Constitutional Conventions|California constitutional convention]] in 1878–1879.<ref name=":1" /> His law firm included two of his lawyer sons, Charles Howard (killed in a gunfight with Daniel B. Nichols, son of a former mayor of Los Angeles, in 1869 in a saloon) and [[Frank H. Howard]], who served as city attorney of Los Angeles. He served only one term on the bench, due to the ill health. He was nominated to a seat on the [[United States Supreme Court]] but declined because of failing health.<ref name=":1" />

Howard died in [[Santa Monica, California]] on May 14, 1889 and was buried at Fort Hill Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web | url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=LAH18890515.2.14& | title=Los Angeles Herald 15 May 1889 — California Digital Newspaper Collection }}</ref> [[Howard County, Texas]] was named in his honor.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n161 162]}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.metnews.com/articles/2006/perspectives080106.htm Column (approx. 2,000 words) on Howard as major-general in charge of state efforts to crush vigilantes' control of San Francisco in 1856]{{CongBio|H000845}}
* {{Handbook of Texas|id=fho80|name=Volney Erskine Howard}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-legal}}
{{succession box | 
before='''New Position''' | 
title=[[Texas Attorney General]]| 
years=1846| 
after=[[John Woods Harris]]}}
{{s-par|us-hs}}
{{US House succession box
|  state=Texas
|  district=2
|  before=[[Timothy Pilsbury]]
|  after=[[Peter Hansborough Bell|Peter H. Bell]]
|  years=1849&ndash;1853
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Texas Attorney General}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Volney E.}}
[[Category:1809 births]]
[[Category:1889 deaths]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the Mississippi House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Members of the Texas House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Texas attorneys general]]
[[Category:District attorneys in California]]
[[Category:California local politicians]]
[[Category:California state court judges]]
[[Category:California Democrats]]
[[Category:History of Los Angeles]]
[[Category:19th-century California state court judges]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the Texas Legislature]]
[[Category:19th-century United States representatives]]