MEMORANDA.

DEATH OF HON. EDGAR W. HILLYER.

After the calling of the calendar at the opening of the November Term, 1882, of the Circuit Court for the District of Nevada, Sawyer, Circuit Judge, and Sabin, District Judge, being present, Hon. B. C. Whitman, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nevada, addressed the court as follows:

"May it please the court: I take the first appropriate time, since the adoption by the bar of Nevada of resolutions upon the death of the Hon. Edgar W. Hillyer, late Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, at the request of the bar, to present their resolutions, and move that they be spread upon the minutes of the court. My preface will be short, for there is little necessity to say much of one whom we all knew and loved so well. More than I could say in cold words beats in the hearts of all who hear.

"Judge Hillyer was born in 1831, in the town of Granville, State of Ohio; he was educated at its academy, and came to the State of California in 1852. He was, after a due course of preparation, admitted to the bar in Placer County in that State, in 1857. In the year 1861, he became a member of the California Assembly, but, thinking he could serve his country better in the field than in the legislative hall he resigned, and enlisted as a private in one of the first companies formed in California upon the inception of the rebellion; he was shortly made Lieutenant, and served

with his company at Benicia Barracks and other places in California until, by reason of his special aptitude therefor, he was transferred to the staff of General McDowell, as Judge Advocate and Lieutenant Colonel; which rank he held when he resigned in 1865. To his military duties he brought all the ardor of his disposition, and it was against the desire of his commanding officer and all his associates of the regular army, that he left military life. But at the close of the war he felt that his duty lay in another sphere. So long as he deemed his services of use to his country, they were hers. All who lived in California at the time of which I speak, will recognize the fact that it was eminently true of the Union forces in that State, that 'they also serve who only stand and wait.' For the wild scheme of secession which was ripe, when its fruition was suddenly blasted by the quick and energetic action of General Sumner, and the wilder idea of a Pacific Republic, of which California was to be the head, might, to say the least, have caused loss of life and property, had not the prompt enlistment of volunteers, and the sagacious management of the small regular force in the State, presented such a solid obstacle to each and every rebellious vagary, that it was folly to attempt to put in practical operation, what had full growth in theory.

"Judge Hillyer came to the State of Nevada immediately upon his resignation from the army and entered upon the active and prosperous practice of the law, with W. S. Wood, Esq., a member of this bar. He was soon elected District Attorney of Storey County, filling that arduous office to the entire satisfaction of the whole community. While he felt the full obligation of his official duty, his well-balanced mind also recognized the fact, that a prosecutor should never be a persecutor.

"Upon the sudden and sad death of Judge Alex. Baldwin in 1869, Mr. Hillyer was appointed to fill the vacancy thus caused, and he served until his untimely decease. While our resolutions are mainly directed to his official career, it may not be amiss to say here that he brought to his high position, and to it constantly devoted, an equable disposition, a well-trained mind, force of character, great industry,

and utter lack of prejudice. He presided with dignity, heard with patient intelligence, and decided, upon thorough investigation, with absolute impartiality. His Honor, the presiding Judge, well knew and appreciated his worth; and we all at the bar respected and honored him as a Judge, and loved him as a friend. To those who knew him intimately and socially, his character was most lovely: he was a most genial companion, full of fun as a child, but always within the bounds of accomplished gentlemanhood.

"While living in Virginia City he made the acquaintance and shortly afterward married his present widow, then Miss Sarah Graham. Four children were the fruit of the marriage, of whom three, a son and two daughters, survive to mourn the loss of a kind father. Happily married, placed to his satisfaction in an honorable office, Judge Hillyer led a useful and satisfactory life. A great student, he, in addition to his official work (never, in the slightest degree neglected), thoroughly studied and learned the French and German languages. A son of the soil, descended from a line of sturdy farmers, he delighted to cultivate the little homestead which he had purchased in the suburbs of Carson City. This work, or play, as you please to call it, with music, in which he was a considerable proficient, diversified and lightened his sterner duties; and so he was living, when an accident, apparently slight at the time of its reception, after months of cruel suffering caused his death. He came of a long-lived and robust ancestry; his grandfather died within four months of one hundred years, in the full possession of his faculties; his mother was murdered by some unknown person, supposed to be a tramp, when alone in her house, at the age of eighty, in perfect vigor, and his father now lives, hale and hardy, at the age of eighty-three. Any one would have predicted, as we all would have wished, a long life to our deceased friend. By one of those inexplicable decrees of Providence, he, the respected, the loved, the useful, the good, was taken. I saw him shortly before he died, as he lay on his bed of suffering. I thought he recognized me as he pressed my hand, and looked in my face with a piteous smile, as if he asked why? I stood mute. I stand mute now. May we all live so that at the

quickly coming supreme moment our life sheaf may be as full of garnered loveliness, goodness, and usefulness, as that our dead brother brought.

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May it please the court, I offer the resolutions of the bar, and ask an order that they be spread upon the minutes of the court."

The Circuit Judge, on behalf of the court, responded as follows:

"The resolutions of the bar, and the observations of its distinguished representative, in presenting them to the court, express, in fitting terms, the high estimation in which our late associate on this bench was held; and the profound sense of the great loss, which, not only the bar and the bench, but the community at large, have sustained by his decease. In the sentiments expressed we fully sympathize and concur. No one can more keenly appreciate the extent of the loss than myself. For more than twelve years, we sat together on this bench, and jointly labored in the great work of administering justice; and in those labors, I never found our late brother wanting in any of the qualities that contribute to make a laborious, painstaking, conscientious, impartial, intelligent, and, in all respects, a worthy, useful, and efficient judge. Although firm in his convictions, when, after careful investigation, he had reached a satisfactory conclusion, his mind was singularly free from prejudice. He was ever ready to hear and fairly consider argument, and to, promptly, and, cheerfully, retrace his steps, if he found himself in error. His mind was analytical, logical, and acute; and in the council chamber, he, always, afforded valuable aid in the investigation and final correct solution of the many highly important and difficult questions presented to us for adjudication. His logical and appreciative mind rarely failed to lead him to correct results. Upon his utter impartiality and his unswerving integrity I always felt that I could rely with unquestioning confidence. In his domestic and social life, he was a model of urbanity and excellence— in all particulars an agreeable and instructive companion. His loss in all his accustomed walks, and all his relations in life, cannot fail to be deeply felt and deplored.

"The resolutions of the bar will be spread on the minutes of the court, and the court will now adjourn for the day out of respect for the memory of our deceased brother."

RESOLUTIONS.

Resolved, That the practitioners before the Circuit Court of the United States, for the Ninth Circuit, State of Nevada, do express in this public manner their deep sorrow at the death of the Honorable Edgar W. Hillyer, late Judge of the District Court of the United States for the District of Nevada; and thus testify their high esteem for his character and services, and their affection for his memory. Called to the bench in the very prime of life, he gave promise of a long and useful career thereon. To the universal grief of all who knew him this hope was blasted by the sad accident, which, ultimately, after months of suffering, caused his death at the comparatively early age of fifty years.

· Resolved, That the qualities and powers displayed by Judge Hillyer in his judicial life, entitle him to an honorable rank among the magistrates by whom the courts of the United States have been adorned, and their jurisprudence wrought out and perfected. Called frequently to sit in this court, and in conjunction with its presiding judge, and alone to act in cases of great importance and varied interests, frequently involving new questions, or the adaptation of old principles and rules to new conditions, he invariably showed a clear and accurate knowledge of the fundamental reasons, which should govern in the several departments of the law. His mind was naturally strong, comprehensive, and impartial, and his unwearying industry, and untiring research, always kept him from the development of individual idiosyncrasy, and in the safe path of approved precedent. To try a case before him, was to know, that all the law which illustrated it, would be well considered and digested before decision. At the same time there was nothing narrow in his opinions, he was eminently catholic and broad; and with him justice and law went hand in hand. There were no dark corrers in his heart. Urbane, but firm, as a judge, respecting his own dignity, he never trenched upon the rights of the bar. To its members his bearing was always cordial and familiar; but never so as to involve any loss of respect for himself, or the court; and such was their affection for him, that they mourn his death as the death of a near and dear friend. Those who knew him best, loved him most. There never was a more genial companion in private and social intercourse; he had all the buoyancy of a child, tempered by the refinement of an accomplished gentleman. A cordial companion, disinterested friend, dutiful son, kind and indulgent father, tender husband, wise and impartial judge, useful citizen, the sheaf of his life's labor is full of all that is lovely, pure, and noble.

PEACE AND FAREWELL.

Resolved, That the Court be requested to enter these resolutions upon its records, and that a copy be transmitted, by its clerk, to the family of our deceased judge and brother, as an assurance of our sympathy with them in their grievous affliction.