The Valley of Heart's Delight
FRANKLIN HICHBORN
Controversial Journalist
The Franklin Hichborn Papers on file at the Online Archives of California
SURNAMES: REVERE, HUNT, HOULTON
Rated as among the leading controversial journalists of the Pacific
Slope, most successfully active in reform movements and legislation
affecting the welfare of the entire Golden State, Franklin Hichborn has
become also a national figure, wielding an influence for political and
social betterment effective far beyond the confines of California.
He was born at Eureka, Cal., on October 7, 1869, the son of John
Edwin Hichborn, a descendant of Thomas Hichborn, who landed in Boston
about 1640. Thomas Hichborn, was the grandfather of Deborah
Hichborn, a native of Boston, who was the mother of Paul Revere, of
midnight ride fame. Robert Hichborn, Deborah's brother, was Franklin
Hichborn's Revolutionary
ancestor, his great-great-grandfather. He was militant in the
Revolution, and fought at Bunker Hill. He was a member of the Boston
committee of Safety, and was commissioned first lieutenant in Jonathan
Stoddard's company, Henry Bromfield's regiment, of the Massachusetts
militia. After the Revolution, Robert Hichborn moved to Maine with his
family, and established the first shipbuilding plant at Stockton
springs, Maine. Franklin Hichborn's ancestors were thus among the first
pioneers of Massachusetts and Maine, as his father was one of the early
pioneers in California. John Edwin Hichborn, his father, married
Frances Hunt and came around the Horn in 1852, when he was seven months
on the way, landing at San Francisco in the fall of that year. Later he
went to Humboldt county, where he built the first wharf on the Eureka
waterfront, and established the first produce business in the country.
Franklin Hichborn attended both Santa Clara College and Stanford
University, studying at the latter institution during 1892-94. Santa
Clara College eventually, in 1903, conferred upon him the honorary
degree of Master of Arts. From 1894-97, he was the publisher of the San
Jose Letter; in 1897-98 he was the city editor of the Fresno Expositor;
in 1899 he edited the Winnemucca, Nevada, Silver State; for a year,
beginning with 1900, he published the San Jose Spectator; from 1902 to
1904 he edited the San Jose Herald from 1904 to 1906 he was news editor
of the Sacramento Union; and from 1906 to 1919 he was active as both a
writer and a lecturer on political and economic subjects, while from
1915 to 1917 he published the Legislative Bulletin at Sacramento.
As a lineal descendant of some of the best American families, Franklin
Hichborn's voice and pen have ever been at the service of justice,
truth and right, and he has conducted several state-wide publicity
campaigns of great value in their salutary effect under initiative
provisions and the state constitution, to restore race-track gambling
in California. In 1913, his historic work, "The System, as Uncovered by
the San Francisco Graft Prosecution," did a great deal toward cleaning
in up San Francisco. In 1914 he brought about the ratification of the
"red-light" abatement act, and as late as 1920 he published an
effective brochure on "Red Morals," in which he discussed the social
evil in Europe and America. He has become one of the most conscientious
and ablest advocates of national prohibition and defenders of the
eighteenth amendment, and his power to handle this difficult theme
against other able and differing advocates is shown in his reply to
Father Jerome Sixtus Ricard, the famous astronomer
Other publications of Mr. Hichborn are the "Stories of the California
Legislature"--4 volumes, 1909, 1911, 1913, 1915, "The Social Evil in
California as a Political Problem," and "The Parochial School vs. The
Melting Pot," and just what value these fruits of the number of
critical reviews from sources worthy of national consideration. Francis
J. Heney, who conducted the San Francisco graft prosecution, said;
"I have read "The System' with deep interest. It is the only accurate
and complete account of the San Francisco graft prosecutions which has
ever been published in any form. Mr. Hichborn has performed a most
important public service. The perpetuity of republican institutions
depends upon the masses being able to secure correct information, and
to thus acquire a correct understanding of the underlying causes of
corruption and of bad government in our cities, states, and nation.
"The System" will make plain to every intelligent reader just what
these underlying causes of corruption and bad government are. It ought
to be read by every person in the state above the age of twelve years.
It is a clear, logical, sane, and fair history of one of the most
important periods in the life of San Francisco." So, too, Harper's
Weekly praised Mr. Hichborn's searchlight inquires into California
legislative proceedings, when it said; "To Franklin Hichborn, more than
to any other journalist, is due the sweeping tide of political reform
in California. The stern facts, marshaled in his "Stories of the
California Legislature"
for three successive sessions have been fatal to those condemned by
them. In the preface to his latest book, "The System," he says; "It is
my purpose-as far as it lies in my power--to keep the cover off." In
that phrase lies the temper of his service. Dispassionate as a
recording angel, keen as a detective hero, he does not need to
muckrake to content to let the logic of his facts bring their own
unsparing conclusions. While the traditional 'machine' of his
generation was still dominant in California, he saw that it was not so
important to know what was done as how it was done: so he merely turned
the clock around, took out the back and showed the voter how the
machine worked. In other words, for the last six years he has devoted
himself to telling, without fear or malice, the record of every man in
the Legislature, on every important measure; to tracing the influences
of special privilege through lobby and hall; to laying bare the hidden
and interwoven roots which produce corruption." And Collier's Weekly,
equally famous as a national periodical, added; "Roosevelt's speech, in
which he made famous the phrase, "the strenuous life,' was delivered at
Chicago in 1899. Reading it, we find the exhortation; 'Read the
Congressional Record.' And then follow several paragraphs of an
emphatic call to search the votes, roll-calls and other official
records of Congress, and to base approval or disapproval of public men
upon these records. Exactly this sort of searching of the records is
one of the things that has led to the porlitical revolution of the past
decade. Among the more potent agents of this political revolution are
the men who have gone into official records which were obscure and
comples, and made them simple and available to the general public.
Conspicuous among the men who have done this is Mr. Franklin Hichborn,
who, at the end of each session of the California Legislature, compiles
a book in which he analyzes the record of every member, and the history
of all the important bills. Every voter in California should read it.
Voters elsewhere should know about it, and try to secure a like
institution in their own states."
At Fresno, on December 31, 1897, Mr. Hichborn was married to Miss Mabel
Houlton, of Santa Clara, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Greenleaf Houlton,
and granddaugther of the founder of Houlton, Maine. Five children have
blessed this union. The eldest bears, very appropriately, the historic
name of Paul Revere, while the next in the order of birth is Deborah,
who in 1920 married David T. Rayner. The others are Drusilla, Mabel,
and Frances. A Progressive Republican, Mr. Hichborn is a member of the
San Francisco Press Club and the National Economic League. He resides
with his family at 1091 Fremont street, Santa Clara and director of
Santa Clara Observatory, who, in the San Jose Mercury-Herald, attacked
the amendment and the proposition of prohibition and pleaded for the
American's rights to personal liberty.
Transcribed by Marie Clayton, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 436
SANTA CLARA COUNTY PIONEER BIOGRAPHIES
SANTA CLARA COUNTY HISTORY