Benjamin Ignatius Hayes

Benjamin Ignatius Hayes (February 14, 1815 – August 4, 1877) was an American pioneer who was the first judge of the district court that served Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernardino counties in California. His seminal rulings are still cited in that state's courts.

Personal

Hayes was born on February 14, 1815, in Baltimore, Maryland, and graduated from St. Mary's University in that city. Shortly after graduation, he relocated to Missouri, but in 1849 he "set out from Independence, Missouri, for California, riding one mule and leading another packed with supplies for the trip." He joined a train of pioneers and reached a Mormon settlement near San Bernardino, California, in January 1850. He stopped again at Mission San Gabriel and reached the "pueblo of Los Angeles" on February 3, looked around, went back to San Gabriel, sold his mules and returned to stay in the pueblo.

Two of his sisters moved to Los Angeles as well, including Helena, the mother of Fred Eaton.

Hayes was one of the men who helped bring the Sisters of Charity to Los Angeles to establish a hospital. The hospital was the forerunner to today's St. Vincent Medical Center.

Vocation Private practice In the 1840s Hayes began his practice of law in Independence, Missouri, and after arriving in Los Angeles he formed a law partnership with Jonathan R. Scott. He was a member of the Rangers, Los Angeles's first police force, all volunteers.

In 1852 he was elected first judge of the district court that served Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernardino counties; he was reelected in 1857. Hayes "journeyed over his district on horseback and later by carriage and the little steamer, Senator. Court he convened in whatever available structure there was."

Hayes held court in both English and Spanish; he recorded in his diary that he was able to read and write Spanish with competence but that he was not fluent in speaking it. He also found a problem with the lack of lawbooks. One biographer wrote that Hayes "courageously administered justice in the violent Fifties, when mob rule so frequently took matters under its own control." While he was county attorney in 1851[,] a disgruntled litigant on horseback fired at him from three feet away, but the bullet passed harmlessly through Hayes' hat.