16 Facts About James Budd

James Herbert Budd was an American lawyer and Democratic politician.

When James Budd was seven years old, he and his family emigrated to the West, settling in Stockton, California, in 1858.

James Budd attended local grammar and high schools before attending the University of California, Berkeley, where he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity, graduating in 1873.

Once in the US Congress, James Budd was influential in gaining enough congressional support for appropriating federal money to fund the dredging of the Stockton Channel, assisting shipping into the Port of Stockton along the San Joaquin River.

James Budd served a single term in the US House of Representatives, refusing the Democratic Party nomination for the 1886 elections.

James Budd advocated a property assessment ceiling cap of 45 cents per $100 in order to save state expenditures with the looming Long Depression.

James Budd fully denied all the allegations, branding his betrayal of Neff as an "infamous falsehood" imagined by Republican party machines.

James Budd did not deny he knew Neff, yet claimed instead that he had always acted as a brother to Neff and in no way harmed her.

James Budd gained favorable attention during the campaign by personally quieting a runaway team of horses, as well as helping extinguish a fire in Willows.

James Budd became the 19th Governor of California on January 11,1895.

James Budd desired a Railroad Commission substantially less influenced by the Southern Pacific and other rail monopolies.

James Budd's push for future legislation was slowed by the Legislature, which was controlled by an increasingly hostile Republican majority.

James Budd would be the last Democrat to occupy the Governor's Office until Culbert Olson in 1939.

James Budd served as an attorney to the Board of State Harbor Commissioners.

In 1900, James Budd was appointed by Governor Henry Gage as a member of the Regents of the University of California.

James Budd died at the age of 57 on July 30,1908, in Stockton, and is buried in the city's Rural Cemetery.