James Russell Vineyard

{{infobox officeholder

|name = James Russell Vineyard

|alt =

|caption =

|state = California

|state_senate = California

|district = 2nd

| term_start = January 6, 1862

| term_end = August 30, 1863

| predecessor = Pablo de la Guerra

| successor = Henry Hamilton

|state_assembly1 = California

|district1 = 9th

| term_start1 = January 1, 1855

| term_end1 = January 7, 1856

| predecessor1 =

| successor1 =

|state2 = Wisconsin

|state_assembly2 = Wisconsin

|district2 = Grant 4th

| term_start2 = January 1, 1849

| term_end2 = January 7, 1850

| predecessor2 = Arthur W. Worth

| successor2 = Jeremiah E. Dodge

|office3 = Member of the Council of the {{nowrap|Wisconsin Territory}} {{nowrap|from Grant County}}

| term_start3 = November 26, 1838

| term_end3 = February 11, 1842

| alongside3 = John H. Rountree

| predecessor3 = Position established

| successor3 = Nelson Dewey

|birth_name =

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1801|01|16}}

|birth_place = Frankfort, Kentucky, U.S.

|death_date = {{Death date and age|1863|08|30|1801|01|16}}

|death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.

|restingplace =

|alma_mater =

|party = Democratic

|spouse =

|children =

|parents =

}}

James Russell Vineyard (January 16, 1801{{spaced ndash}}August 30, 1863) was an American Democratic politician and pioneer. He served in the California State Senate and Assembly, and earlier was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, the legislature of the Wisconsin Territory and the 7th Michigan Territorial Council (the so-called "Rump Council"). He was infamous for shooting and killing fellow Wisconsin territorial legislator Charles C. P. Arndt on the floor of the legislature.

Wisconsin

Born in Frankfort, Kentucky, Vineyard settled in Platteville, Wisconsin, in Wisconsin Territory, in the 1840s. During this time, he was elected to the Seventh Michigan Territorial Council for the western area of Michigan Territory; he was then elected to the Wisconsin Territorial Council (the equivalent of the present Wisconsin State Senate).'Proceedings of the Wisconsin Historical Society at its Sixth-eight Annual Meeting, Vol. 68, October 21, 1920, The Rump Council, Biographical Sketch of James Vineyard, p. 55. On February 11, 1842, in the course of a heated debate over the appointment of a sheriff for Grant County, Vineyard clashed with Charles C. P. Arndt. After the body was adjourned, Arndt's temper remained heated, he charged Vineyard's desk, and Vineyard shot Arndt dead upon the Council floor.{{cite news|title=A Wisconsin Tragedy|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14835110/james_russell_vineyard_18041863/|newspaper=The Weekly Wisconsin|date=February 13, 1886|page=8|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = November 2, 2017}} {{Open access}} Vineyard had boarded with the Arndt family in Green Bay during the winter of 1835–36, and is reported to have been regarded as almost one of the family; the two men were considered fast friends (even staying at the same boarding house in Madison).Cravens, Stanley H. "Capitals and Capitols in Early Wisconsin" in Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V., eds. The State of Wisconsin 1983-1984 Blue Book. Madison: Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, 1984; pp. 135–136.{{Cite web |url=http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=21&search_term=arndt] |title="Barstow and the Balance" |access-date=2018-07-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080824125629/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view |archive-date=2008-08-24 |url-status=dead }} Charles Dickens (who had been doing a lecture tour of the United States at the time of the incident) described the attack as an example of the violent depravity of American culture in his American Notes for General Circulation.{{cite book |last1=Dickens |first1=Charles |title=American Notes for General Circulation |year=1842 |volume=2 |publisher=Chapman and Hall |location=London |pages=268–270 |edition=3rd}}

He was tried for and acquitted of murder and later served in the first Wisconsin Constitutional Convention of 1846 and was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1848 for one term.{{Cite web |url=http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=2772&search_term=vineyard] |title="Barstow and the Balance" |access-date=2018-07-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080824125629/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view |archive-date=2008-08-24 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lrb/pubs/ib/99ib1.pdf |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2015-01-17 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061209014416/http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lrb/pubs/ib/99ib1.pdf |archivedate=2006-12-09 }}

California

In 1850, he moved to California to join the Gold Rush. He settled in Sacramento, California, where he was an Indian agent. There he was elected to the California State Assembly in 1854.{{cite web |title=September 6, 1854 General Election |url=http://www.joincalifornia.com/election/1854-09-06 |website=JoinCalifornia: Election History for the State of California |publisher=joincalifornia.com |access-date=25 July 2021}} In 1861, he moved to Los Angeles, California.

On May 7, 1861, Vineyard, Californio land magnate and former state senator Andrés Pico, and a partner won permission to make a deep slot-like road cut in the pass between the San Gabriel Mountains and the Santa Susana Mountains ranges, making what would become known as the Beale's Cut Stagecoach Pass or San Fernando Pass. The State of California awarded them a twenty-year contract to maintain the turnpike and collect tolls. A landowner and surveyor named Edward Beale was appointed by newly elected President Abraham Lincoln as the federal Surveyor General of California and Nevada. Beale challenged Pico's loyalty to the new president and in 1863, Beale was awarded the right to collect the toll in the pass.{{cite web|title=Daily Alta California, 4 March 1862|url=http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cdnc/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&cl=search&d=DAC18620304.2.4&srpos=8&e=-------en--20--1-byDA-txt-IN-%22san+fernando+mountain%22----|publisher=California Digital Newspaper Collection|accessdate=2013-05-31}}{{cite web|title=Ripley: The San Fernando Pass|url=http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/ripley13.htm|publisher=Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society|accessdate=2013-05-31}}

Vineyard was elected to the California State Senate from Los Angeles County in 1861,{{cite web |title=September 4, 1861 General Election |url=http://www.joincalifornia.com/election/1861-09-04 |website=JoinCalifornia: Election History for the State of California |publisher=joincalifornia.com |access-date=25 July 2021}} and died in office before the next general election (at 58 he was now the oldest member of the Legislature).{{cite web|url=http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/ripley12.htm|title=SCVHistory.com - Ripley: The San Fernando (Newhall) Pass, Part 12|website=Scvhistory.com|accessdate=15 July 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://www.joincalifornia.com/candidate/9214|title=JoinCalifornia - James R. Vineyard|website=Joincalifornia.com|accessdate=15 July 2018}}{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/historypolitica03davigoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/historypolitica03davigoog/page/n674 659]|title=History of Political Conventions in California, 1849-1892|first=Winfield J.|last=Davis|date=15 July 1893|publisher=California State Library|accessdate=15 July 2018|via=Internet Archive}} {{rp|659}}

Death

He died in Los Angeles on August 30, 1863.{{rp|659}}{{cite news|title=Col. J. R. Vineyard|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14856195/james_russell_vineyard_18041863/|newspaper=Petaluma Argus|date=September 16, 1863|page=1|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = November 3, 2017}} {{Open access}}