Ward McAllister Jr.

Ward McAllister Jr. (July 27, 1855 – March 31, 1908) was an American lawyer and judge.

Early life McAllister was born in Newport, Rhode Island, the son of Ward McAllister, a socialite famous for establishing The Four Hundred. His grandfather, Matthew Hall McAllister, was a Georgia politician who became the first and only judge to sit on the U.S. Circuit Court for the Districts of California.

McAllister graduated from Princeton University, then from Albany Law School in 1877. He was admitted to the New York bar that year, and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1880.

Legal career Ward McAllister Jr. joined his father at the firm McAllister & McAllister in San Francisco in 1881. In 1882, he became an assistant United States attorney for the Northern District of California. In December 1883, Judge Ogden Hoffman Jr. urged Senator John Miller to have McAllister nominated to be the first district judge for the Alaska Territory.

On July 15, 1884, Chester Arthur appointed McAllister to that position. He was sworn in on August 25, 1884. The situation McAllister encountered upon arrival in Sitka and Wrangell was chaotic. There was no prison nor money to feed prisoners.

McAllister worked for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company from 1886 through 1906, when he encountered significant health issues. He died on March 31, 1908, in San Rafael, California.