Frank M. Pixley

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Frank M. Pixley (Frank Morrison Pixley) was an American journalist, lawyer, and politician in California. He served as the 8th Attorney General of California from 1862 to 1863 and was a Republican. He was born on January 31, 1825, in Westmoreland, New York, and died on August 13, 1895, in San Francisco.

Early life and move to California
Pixley grew up on a family farm and studied at a village academy and a Quaker school in Skaneateles, New York. He attended Hamilton College and studied law in Rochester, working in the law office of Smith, Rochester and Smith. In 1847 he moved to Michigan to practice law and then traveled to California during the Gold Rush, spending two winters mining on the Yuba River. In 1853 he married Amelia Van Reynegom, and they settled in the North Beach area of San Francisco.

Political career and Civil War reporting
In 1858 Pixley was elected to the California State Assembly representing San Francisco as a Republican. In 1861 he was elected Attorney General of California, serving with Governor Leland Stanford. He spent time in Washington, D.C., as a Civil War correspondent. When he could not obtain a War Department pass, he used his ally Senator John Conness’s pass to cover the war, even riding with troops to the front lines and visiting Ulysses S. Grant.

Later career and The Argonaut
Pixley ran for Congress in 1868 in California’s First District but lost to incumbent Samuel Beach Axtell. He briefly served as United States Attorney for the District of California in 1869. In 1877 he co-founded The Argonaut with Frederic Somers, a newspaper that became very influential in California politics. He was friends with former Governor John G. Downey, and helped introduce Downey to writer Yda Hillis Addis; their relationship ended when Downey proposed marriage and Downey’s sisters took him back to Ireland.

Views and public service
Pixley held anti-Chinese sentiments common at the time, opposing immigration of Chinese people and voting rights for them. In public life, he was appointed to the Golden Gate Park Commission in 1882, a trustee of the state Mining Bureau in 1888, and a member of the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove Commission in 1889. He died in 1895 at the age of 70 in San Francisco.

Legacy
The town of Pixley in Tulare County, California, is named after him. He helped promote the town through the Pixley Townsite Company, partnering with investors and advertising the land in The Argonaut. The first house in Pixley was built for Emma Pixley, the widow of Frank Pixley’s brother William.