N Hamilton

Judge Noble Hamilton (1822-1903) was born in Indiana and served as a 2nd Lieutenant of the Indiana Volunteers in the Mexican War of 1846, rising to the rank of Major. In 1853 he was appointed Clerk of the United States Court for the District of Washington, but later that year moved to Alvarado (Alameda county), California where, with the District Attorney, he formed the law firm of Coombs and Hamilton. He moved to the county seat of San Leandro and in 1863 was appointed County Judge for Alameda County by Leland Stanford. He resigned as County Judge in 1867 and in 1872 moved with his family to Oakland, the new county seat after San Leandro's county courthouse was destroyed in an 1868 earthquake. Hamilton became a Superior Court Judge for Alameda County in 1882, two years after the Superior Court was established, serving until 1888 when he moved to San Francisco and opened a law office there.