Lorenzo Sawyer

Lorenzo Sawyer was an American lawyer and judge who was appointed the Supreme Court of California in 1860 and served as Chief Justice of California from 186870. He served as a circuit judge for the U.S. Circuit Courts for the Ninth Circuit beginning in 1870 and later served as the first judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from June 1891 until his death.

Sawyer was born on a farm in Le Roy, New York, the eldest of six children. He worked on the farm during the summer and attended the district school in winter. At the age of fifteen he attended, for a short time, a high school at Watertown, called the Black River Institute, where he became interested in the law. In 1837, having reached the age of seventeen, he went out on his own to pursue a course of study preparatory to commencing the study of law. The next eight years were devoted to preparation for the bar, at first in New York and afterward in Ohio. To support himself during this period, he taught in the district schools, and afterward in academies and as a tutor in college.

Source: Wikipedia