Existing comment:
Judge Oliver S. Witherby:
The portrait of Oliver S. Witherby was located in the Presiding Department of the Superior Court. It is the oldest and one of the most important historical possessions of the San Diego County Bench.
Witherby was born February 19, 1815 in Ohio. A graduate of Miami University, he entered the practice of law in 1840. Wounded as an officer of the Mexican-American War, he returned to Ohio as a newspaper man and Prosecuting Attorney. In 1848, Witherby settled in San Diego.
The "Father of San Diego Jurisprudence," Witherby was San Diego's first American lawyer, its first representative to the California Constitutional Assembly in Monterey and was appointed the first District Court Judge in San Diego in 1850.
After three years of Judicial service, Witherby departed from the bench to thereafter continue his distinguished career in San Diego as a lawyer, collector customs, public administrator, county supervisor, bank president, businessman, rancher and real estate investor. Judge Witherby died December 19, 18967, having served 48 of his 56 year legal career in San Diego.
The portrait of Witherby was painted by Dr. William A. Winder (circa 1870) and thereafter displayed in the various departments of the Supreme Court until 1959 when the aging 1892 courthouse was demolished. The portrait, then in a state of progressive deterioration, was stored at the County Law Library until 1980 when the Balboa Art Conservation, by a court order, Center was commissioned to restore the painting.
Donations from the San Diego County Bar Foundation, Law Library Justice Foundation,and the San Diego Trial Lawyers Association financed the restoration process.
In December 1992, by a court order, the portrait of Witherby was put on permanent exhibition in the museum of the First San Diego Courthouse, in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. |