Frederick W. Henshaw

Henshaw was born in Ottawa, Illinois, to Sarah Edward Tyler (September 18, 1822 – August 30, 1894) and Edward Carrington Henshaw (c. 1821 – September 14, 1872), who was captain of Henshaw's Battery Light Artillery, or Ottawa Light Artillery, in the American Civil War.[1][2] Henshaw followed his brothers, Edward T. Henshaw and William G. Henshaw, to California and attended the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1879.[3][4][5] He began reading law, joining the bar in 1880.[6]

In 1883, Henshaw won election as Justice of the Peace, or Police Court judge, in Oakland, California at the age of 25.[5] In 1889, he was found in contempt of the Superior Court for not vacating the office of Police Judge to the next elected official, S. F. Daniels.[7]

In 1889, Henshaw was elected judge of the Alameda County Superior Court, and on January 5, 1890, began his term.[1] Having succeeded E. M. Gibson, Henshaw would serve four years on the superior court.[8] When he left for the Supreme Court, Governor Henry Markham appointed A. L. Frick to the vacant superior court seat.[9][10]

In December 1894, Henshaw successfully ran on the Republican ticket for election to the California Supreme Court for a 12-year term.[11][12][8] At the same election, Jackson Temple also won a 12-year term, and the two jurists replaced departing justices John J. De Haven and William F. Fitzgerald.[13] At the court, Chief Justice William H. Beatty assigned Henshaw to Department Two, along with Associate Justices William G. Lorigan and Henry A. Melvin.[14] On November 6, 1906, Henshaw was re-elected to another 12-year term.[15][16][8] With one year remaining of his second term, he announced his retirement from the high court.[8]

Henshaw weathered controversy in his time on the court. On May 14, 1908, the San Francisco Call newspaper published a group photo at a political convention including Henshaw and notorious politician Abe Ruef, implying Henshaw's familiarity made him part of the corrupt machine.[17] In 1911, California attorney William Denman proposed impeachment proceedings against Henshaw in relation to the procedures for signing an order of rehearing of the appeal of Abe Ruef.[18][19] In November 1918, Henshaw denied charges that he had accepted a bribe while still a justice to influence his vote in the estates and trust case of Nevada Senator James G. Fair.[20][21][22][23]

After stepping down from the bench, Henshaw pledged to work in Washington, D.C., as one of President Woodrow Wilson's business experts fixing government, or so-called "dollar-a-year" man, but there is no record he did so.[24] Instead, he re-entered private practice with the firm of Henshaw, Black & Goldberg in Oakland.[25]

On April 9, 1888, he married Grace Susan Tubbs in Oakland, California.[26][27] They had four sons: Tyler Tubbs Henshaw, who became an attorney,[28][29][30] Stanley Tubbs Henshaw,[31] Fritz Tubbs Henshaw, who worked with his uncle William G. Henshaw at Union Savings Bank,[32] and Stuart Tubbs Henshaw. On February 16, 1904, he remarried to Helen Walker Tay, who was previously married, in San Francisco, California.[33][34][35] On June 8, 1929, Henshaw died in San Francisco.[29][36][37]

• List of justices of the Supreme Court of California

• Frederick W. Henshaw. California Supreme Court Historical Society.
• Frederick W. Henshaw photo (c. 1915). California State Library, Calisphere.
• Opinions by Justice Henshaw. Courtlistener.com.
• Frederick W. Henshaw. Oakland, California, Local Wiki.
• "Past and Present Justices". California State Courts. Retrieved July 10, 2017.