Frank M. Pixley

Frank Morrison Pixley (January 31, 1825 – August 13, 1895) was an American journalist, attorney, and politician.

Pixley was born in Westmoreland, Oneida County, New York. As a youth, he worked on the family farm and was first educated in the village academy, later at the Quaker school in Skaneateles (town), New York. He graduated from Hamilton College and studied law in Rochester, New York, he worked in the law office of Smith, Rochester and Smith. In 1847, he went to Michigan where he was admitted to practice law and qualified to appear before the state supreme court. Two years later he travelled to California during the Gold Rush, and spent two winters working mines on the Yuba River. He met and, in 1853, married Amelia Van Reynegom, daughter of Captain John and Margaret Van Reynegom, who had arrived to San Francisco in 1849 aboard her parent's ship the Linda. The Pixleys lived in the North Beach area of San Francisco.

On April 30, 1851, he became the city attorney of San Francisco. In 1858, although California was a Democratic state, Pixley was elected as a Republican to represent San Francisco in the State Assembly. In 1861, he was elected the 8th Attorney General of California. His term ended in 1863.

He traveled to Washington D.C. as a Civil War correspondent. However, he could not obtain a pass from Edwin Stanton who was the Secretary of War. At that he persuaded the United States Senator from California, John Conness, to let him use his congressional pass. With that he was able to spend three months in Civil War combat areas, and at one time riding his horse to the front line with the Second Connecticut Regiment. He visited Ulysses S. Grant in his headquarters. The General commented that Pixley had seen more warfare than many of his fighting men.

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