Walter Van Dyke

Walter Van Dyke (1823–1905) was a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge and a justice of the California Supreme Court in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Van Dyke was born on October 8, 1823, in Tyre, Seneca County, New York. He studied law in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1846 to 1848 and crossed the plains in 1849, remaining a short time in Los Angeles and then moving to Northern California. He settled in Humboldt County in 1853 and was district attorney there in 1854. He practiced law and edited the Humboldt Times until 1863, then moved to San Francisco. He was United States attorney for California from 1874 to 1877 and was elected a delegate to the California Constitutional Convention in 1878.[1]

Van Dyke moved to Los Angeles in 1884 and was a Superior Court judge there from 1888 to 1895. He was elected a justice of the California Supreme Court in 1893 as a candidate of the Republican, Democratic and Populist parties for a term ending in 1910.[1]

The justice died on December 25, 1905, in his home at Fourth and Van Dyke avenues in East Oakland, California, after a brief illness identified as pneumonia. He was 82. Funeral services were conducted at Mountain View Cemetery by the Oakland Masonic Lodge and the Reverend J.K. McLean. He was survived by his widow and five children, William M. and Henry S. Van Dyke of Los Angeles; Dr. R.C. Van Dyke and Mrs. Franklin Bangs of San Francisco and Caroline Van Dyke of Oakland.[1][2]

References and notes

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Supreme Judge Van Dyke Is Dead," San Francisco Chronicle, December 26, 1905, page 14
  2. ↑ "Honor Memory of Late Justice Van Dyke," San Francisco Chronicle, December 28, 1905, page 10, page 10