Stephen M. White

Stephen M. White
United States Senator from California
In office March 4, 1893 – March 4, 1899
Preceded by	Charles N. Felton
Succeeded by	Thomas R. Bard
18th Lieutenant Governor of California Acting
In office September 13, 1887 – January 8, 1891
Governor	Robert Waterman
Preceded by	Robert Waterman
Succeeded by	John B. Reddick
Member of the California Senate
In office 1887-1891
Personal details
Born	January 19, 1853 San Francisco, California
Died	February 21, 1901 (aged 48) Los Angeles, California
Political party	Democratic

Stephen Mallory White (January 19, 1853 – February 21, 1901) was an American politician and U.S. Senator from California.

Life

Born in San Francisco, Stephen White attended Santa Clara College and read law in the office of Charles Bruce Younger Sr. in Santa Cruz, California and was admitted to the bar in 1874. He came to Los Angeles to practice and served as the Los Angeles County District Attorney from 1882 to 1884. Before becoming district attorney in 1882, White was a charter member of the first Los Angeles County Bar Association. He was also a member of the California State Senate from 1887 to 1891, where he served as president pro tempore both sessions, and as Acting Lieutenant Governor (1887-1891), and later represented California for one term in the United States Senate from 1893 to 1899.

He undertook and won the Free Harbor Fight, a seven-year struggle to secure a deep-water harbor at San Pedro–forerunner to today’s Port of Los Angeles.^[1] He is also remembered as a criminal defense attorney. When he died in 1901 he was acclaimed in San Francisco and Los Angeles as the state’s “most brilliant genius,” as “perhaps the most eminent of the State’s native sons.” He was the first past-president of Native Sons of the Golden West, Ramona Parlor No. 109.

References

1. Queenan, Charles F. (May 10, 1992). "'Great Free Harbor Fight' : At Stake Was the Port Site for the Growing City of L.A.". Los Angeles Times.