View source for William Cary Van Fleet

William Cary Van Fleet (March 24, 1852 – September 3, 1923) was a prominent figure in California’s legal and political landscape. Born in Maumee, Ohio, he moved to California and pursued a career in law, reading under H.O. Beatty and becoming a lawyer in 1873. He held various positions including Assistant District Attorney of Sacramento County (1878–1879), California State Assemblyman (1881–1882), Director of California State Prisons (1883–1884), and Judge of the Superior Court of California (1884–1892). In 1894, he was appointed Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court by Governor Henry Markham, serving until 1899. After losing his bid for re-election in 1898, he practiced law with Mastic, Belcher, Van Fleet & Mastick.

In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, where he served until his death in 1923. Personally, Van Fleet married Mary Isabella Carey in 1877; they had a son, Ransom, before her death in 1878. He remarried Lizzie Eldridge Crocker in 1887, sister of Henry Crocker and niece of Charles and Edwin Crocker, with whom he had four children: Alan, William, Clark, and Julia. His judicial career spanned over three decades, significantly impacting California’s legal framework both at the state and federal levels.