North, J. W. (John W.)

John Wesley North (1815-1890) was a lawyer, politician, industrialist, and pioneer colonizer. He graduated from Wesleyan University and practiced law in New York (and later in Minnesota, Nevada and California). He was appointed surveyor general in 1861 and associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Nevada in 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln. He was instrumental in the settlement of Minneapolis (1849) and Northfield (1855), Minnesota, and Washoe City, Nevada (1861). He moved his family to Knoxville, Tennessee, to pursue business opportunities and social reform and later organized the Southern California Colony Association, settling the town of Riverside, California. He practiced law in San Francisco and later promoted the founding of Oleander, near Fresno, California, where he died in 1890.

From the description of Papers of John Wesley North, 1849-1947. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 122584827