(excerpts from Bill Wilson’s “Gold and Schemes and Unfulfilled Dreams”)
available only at the Placer County Museum Gift Shop
Judge James E. Prewett was never known as the “traveling judge,” but he should have been.
During his illustrious and extended law career, he held court in every county in California with the exception of Inyo and Del Norte counties.
Although he never was appointed to the state Appellate Court, he was called on frequently in the autumn of his life to review cases in both the Third and First Appellate Court districts. . . He did this while handling Superior Court cases in Placer County as the county’s only Superior Court Judge.
When he died on July 7, 1922, he had served 31 years as a Superior Court judge. . Judge Prewett had filed 50 court opinions during the last 30 days of his life.
Judge Prewett moved to Dutch Flat in 1879 to begin his law career in the county, and three years later he was elected district attorney. He served two terms and then formed a law partnership with W. C. Wallace, a Superior Court judge of Napa County who had moved to Auburn.
Judge Prewett, meanwhile, had moved his wife and two children to Ophir and Prewett opened up a thriving law business in Auburn. . . In 1890, he was elected on the Democratic ticket as Superior Court judge.
He was never strong and healthy, and he had moved to Placer County for a better climate for his ailments. But his health did not stop him from getting involved, physically and mentally. He rode a bicycle through Auburn and drove the first automobile in the city, a vehicle described in a local newspaper as a “high-wheeled, chain-propelled, grasshopper-like concern known as a Winton Three.” Judge Prewett later owned the best car available, often carrying loads of children to and from school.
. . .Judge Prewett’s familiarity with the classics and other publications made him one of the best-educated and informed persons in the state. He had an especially high retentive memory, and was known as a historian, an experienced chemist, a linguist and an able Latin scholar.
He could read and speak Spanish and French and could converse intelligently in Chinese. He also prepared a list of some 14,000 English words that often were mispronounced. . . .
When the new courthouse in Auburn was dedicated on July 4, 1894, he was the obvious choice to give the dedication address.
For some 15 years, Prewett was involved in a community-minded group known as the Monday Night Club. . . .at this forum, he was at his best. He was president of the club for seven years, and it was reported that more than 300 topics were debated by local citizens before the club disbanded.
. . .He never was known to eat a hearty meal during the last 20 years of his life. Biographers W. D. Lardner and M. J. Brock said he would eat the tip end of a chicken wing, have a small amount of gravy and drink a small glass of milk as his main meal.
When his personal physician advised him that surgery was the only possible recourse to save his life, he went under the knife and it was discovered that his stomach had atrophied . . .he did not recover from the operation.
. . .He always believed that his accomplishments were a result of genetic factors. He liked to recall that the Prewetts were descendants of the French Huguenots who fled from France to escape religious persecution. They arrived in the new World during the colonial days, and in following years, members of the family held state offices in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Missouri.
Prewett’s father, James came to California in an ox team wagon train in 1850. . . .he mined and later was elected Superior Court judge in Sonoma County.
His son William, married Mabel Lardner, and was a partner in a law firm with T. L. Chamberlain in Auburn. They had a daughter, Nellie. . .
CORRECTION: received from the great, great granddaughter of Judge James Prewett to the article above.
“Nell is the daughter of Judge Prewett (not of his son )” ED note: We appreciate being able to correct any historical errors.