Walter Van Dyke

Walter Van Dyke (October 8, 1823 – December 25, 1905) was a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge and a justice of the California Supreme Court in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Biography Van Dyke was born on October 8, 1823, in Tyre, Seneca County, New York. He studied law in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1846 to 1848 and crossed the plains in 1849, remaining a short time in Los Angeles and then moving to Northern California. In 1853, he settled in Humboldt County, and was elected to the California State Assembly. He practiced law and was district attorney there in 1854. In 1861, he was elected to the California State Senate, serving in the 1862 and 1863 sessions, where he helped organize the state's Republican Party. From 1874 to 1877, Van Dyke was United States attorney for California, and was elected a delegate to the California Constitutional Convention in 1878.

In 1884, Van Dyke moved to Los Angeles, and practiced in the firm of Wells, Van Dyke & Lee. In 1888, he was elected a Los Angeles County Superior Court in Department Four, and in 1894 was reelected to a six-year term, serving until December 28, 1899. In June 1889, his name was unsuccessfully put forward to fill a vacancy on the California Supreme Court.

In November 1888, he ran for a seat as an associate justice of the California Supreme Court, and on January 4, 1899, he began a 12-year term after winning the election as a fusion candidate of the Silver Republican, Democratic, and Populist parties.

Van Dyke died on December 25, 1905, age 82, in his home at Fourth and Van Dyke avenues in East Oakland, California, after a brief illness identified as pneumonia. Funeral services were conducted at Mountain View Cemetery. His seat on the court was filled by the appointment of M. C. Sloss.

Clubs Van Dyke was a vice president and life member of the Society of California Pioneers.

Personal life On September 21, 1854, Van Dyke married Rowena Cooper in Humboldt County, California, and they had eight children. At his death, he was survived by his widow and five children: William M. Van Dyke, who was clerk of the court for the United States District Court for the Southern District of California; Henry S. Van Dyke, an attorney in Los Angeles; Dr. Edwin Cooper Van Dyke and Mrs. Franklin Bangs of San Francisco; and Caroline Van Dyke of Oakland.