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Subject: [CASANFRA] JIC Bio of F. M. Colvin
Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 16:53:09 EDT

These are Biographies from the below named book, all relating to San
Francisco before 1915. Although it states Journalism in California, many different
professions are included. Their lives are interesting to note as to how they
helped shape San Francisco through the early years.



JOURNALISM IN CALIFORNIA

BY JOHN P. YOUNG

Pacific Coast and Exposition Biographies

CHRONICLE PUBLISHING COMPANY
San Francisco, California
1915
Page 227

Great Men and Great Men's Achievements
Form the Background for
California's Progress
Page 249
Francis M. Colvin

All the world admires a self-made man. The one who fights his way alone
against adversity in hewing out a career has certain attributes not found in the
individual places. And there are attributes, which have much to do with our
civilization.
Had Francis Marion Colvin, San Francisco attorney, been over chary in his
youth of soiling his hands with work or of burning the midnight oil over some
volume of learning-this story probably would not be told. But he was not, so
long as he gained the end he sought.
Francis M. Colvin was born March 21, 1870, on a farm in Oswego County,
New York, son of John C. Colvin and Susan B. (Wallace) Colvin. The winter
months found him at school and the summer months he spent helping his father till
the farm. Time that might have been passed in play he employed in clearing
land and plowing, and hauling tan-back and railroad ties with an ox team. Thus
he learned when still a mere boy, what it meant to work for what he received.
At times he "hired out" as farm hand to neighbors. The job always was tough,
the pay always slight; but what pennies he could spare went for books, which
he read with avidity.
How hard earned was Mr. Colvin's money may be illustrated by a story.
One winter there was an unusually heavy snowfall and the snow banked up five or
six feet deep on the schoolhouse and outbuildings. Fearing it would cause
damage the school trustees employed young Colvin to shovel it off. The work was
difficult, the climbing dangerous; but the boy accomplished it satisfactorily,
whereupon he received-twenty-five cents. And to collect the money he had to
walk twelve miles through the snow for an order from the school clerk, return
it to the trustees for their signatures, take it back to the clerk to be
signed by him, and then present it to the school treasurer for payment!
Then thirteen years old Mr. Colvin left home to make his own way. He
continued attending school and working at odd jobs, by which he managed to
support himself. At fifteen-he began a course at Leonardsville Academy,
Leonardsville, New York, working his way through in three years. He specialized
pedagogy, and after passing the examinations was, at the age of eighteen, a licensed
schoolteacher. His first school was at East Winfield, New York, where he
taught a year, then removed to Nebraska and taught there another year. The Far West
attracted him and he went to Western Washington, where he taought eight years
more.
Mr. Colvin was essentially of that sturdy type of schoolmaster who sets
an example of the right as well as of conduct before his pupils. During the
vacation period he worked the harder. One year he donned overalls and secured a
place as laborer on the grading of the C.B.&Q. Railroad in Nebraska. Another
he labored in a brickyard; again he lived the rough life of the logging camp;
and still again he pushed a wheelbarrow on the grade of the Seattle, Lake
Shore & Eastern Railroad. In Washington he successfully handled real estate and
insurance as a sideline and one year, between school seasons, pursued the same
work in San Francisco.
Where there is a determination to succeed, there usually is a way. Mr.
Colvin found it by taking up two Government claims of 320 acres, one a
homestead. The latter was in the midst of a dense forest four miles from the nearest
neighbor and in order to perfect his title Mr. Colvin was obliged to build a
cabin and live there. He broke a trail through virtually primeval woods and
spent upward of six years in this sylvan retreat. There was where the plucky
schoolmaster really learned the value of good books as companions. Caring his
books into the woods on his back he delved into them, gaining a thorough
knowledge of general literature. St the same time he became an expert woodsman and
horseman.
Abandoning teaching in 1898, Mr. Colvin traveled for a year selling
furniture. His spare moments he had spent studying law. In 1899 he became a
student in the office of John W. James Anaconda, Montana, working in the copper
mills to pay his way. Subsequently he attended Northern Indiana University,,
graduated and entered the law department of Yale, which awarded him his LL.B. in
June, 1905. After several months of special study he was admitted to the bar
in California in 1906 and has since practiced law in San Francisco with
ever-increasing success.

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