John Currey
| John Currey | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 8th Chief Justice of California | |
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In office 1866–1868 |
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| Preceded by | Silas Sanderson |
| Succeeded by | Lorenzo Sawyer |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 4, 1814 Westchester County, New York |
| Died | December 18, 1912 (aged 98) Dixon, California |
| Political party | Democratic |
John Moore Currey (October 4, 1814 – December 18, 1912) was the eighth Chief Justice of California, and candidate for Governor of California in 1859.
Born in Westchester County, New York in 1814, John Currey died in Dixon, California in 1912. He attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut (class of 1842).
He came to California in 1849, eventually settling down in Benicia, Solano County, California where he established a successful law practice. Among his clients was Juan Manuel Vaca, owner of a large tract of land, a Mexican land grant near the present-day city that bears his name: Vacaville, California.
In 1850 and 1852, Millard Fillmore nominated him to be a district court judge in California, but both nominations were unsuccessful; the Senate voted to reject the first nomination and took no action on the second.
In 1859 the Anti-Lecompton Democratic Party selected Currey as their candidate for Governor of California. The rival faction at the time Lecompton Democrats chose Milton Latham as their candidate. The Republican Party ran its first California gubernatorial candidate in 1859, businessman and railroad tycoon, and later Governor Leland Stanford.
Despite the Democratic party split in California in the 1850s and the surge of new Republican Party's candidate in the campaign, Latham won the election garnering sixty percent of the vote.
Despite being defeated in his run for Governor, Currey would find other promising opportunities for office. In 1863 several vacancies on the Supreme Court opened the door those aspiring to serve on the state's highest court. The departed justices included the sixth Chief Justice Stephen Johnson Field who was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to the U.S. Supreme Court (becoming the first Californian serve on the high court).
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