Fred Beckman Hart, who hung out his shingle at Sacramento in May, 1903, announcing himself as an attorney at law, has, before the tarnishing of a single letter of that inscription, gained a fair share of the legal business of his city and taken a leading position among the lawyers of this part of the state. His preparation for his profession has been the best obtainable, and his reading and study have been both deep and broad. He is enthusiastically devoted to the law, both in its theory and its practice, and his rare ability, already demonstrated, as a forensic pleader and in the more intricate department of research and exposition is certain to advance him rapidly to the goal of his ambition. Mr. Hart inherits his tendencies toward a professional career, being a son of the late General A. L. Hart and having brilliant connections among the professions in California. He is a nephew of Judge E. C. Hart and of Dr. A. C. Hart, both men of remarkable ability in their special lines, and whose personal histories will be found on other pages of this work; various other members of the name and family are prominent and highly esteemed in this state.
Mr. Hart was born in Colusa county, California, January 23, 1879, and is a son of the late Attorney General A. L. Hart, who was born in Bloomfield, Indiana, and came to California in the early days. At the age of twenty-one he was elected district attorney of Colusa county, which position he held for several terms, and was elected to office of attorney general of the state, being the first incumbent of that office under the new constitution. He held the office for four years from January 5, 1880. His death occurred on June 30, 1901. Mr. Hart’s mother is Mary Alice (Beckman) Hart, who was born in Sacramento, being a daughter of William Beckman, whose biography also appears in this work. She is still living, and makes her home in San Francisco. There are two other children of the family, A. L., being an attorney of San Francisco, and Mary Beckman Hart residing with her mother.
Mr. Hart was educated in the public schools of Sacramento, and graduated from the San Francisco high school with the class of ’97. He then entered the “naughty-one” class of the University of California, and graduated with the degree of A. B. From the university he entered the Hastings Law School in San Francisco, and was graduated May 12, 1903, with the degree of LL. B. In the month of his graduation he was admitted to the bar on the motion of Dean Edward Robson Taylor, and at once opened his office in Sacramento and began the career which has been so promising to the present and lacks only time to place him among the most successful lawyers of the state.
Source: Leigh H. Irvine; A History of the New California Its Resources and People, 2 Volumes; New York and Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1903.