John Morton Eshleman

from 1915 to 1916.

A native of the Midwest, Eshleman was born in Villa Ridge, Illinois, but went west in 1896 to work on the Southern Pacific Railroad. Eshleman received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1902, and the next year he received his M.A. there. At Berkeley, he was president of the student government. Eshleman was admitted to the California bar in 1905 and was appointed Deputy State Labor Commissioner by Governor George Pardee.

Eshleman ran for the state legislature on a Republican and Union-Labor ticket and was elected to the 38th California Assembly from the 52d District (Berkeley) in 1907. Though appointed Deputy District Attorney of Alameda County, he did not serve, moving instead to the Imperial Valley in Southern California for the dry air because of his poor health. When Imperial County was created from the eastern part of San Diego County in August 1907, Eshleman was chosen the first District Attorney of the county, serving 1907 to 1910.

He left the District Attorney post in 1910 with his election as Railroad Commissioner from the Third District. The next year he was President of the Railroad Commission. Eshleman was elected Lieutenant Governor as a Progressive in 1914. He was inaugurated January 15 1915 and served under Governor Hiram Warren Johnson until Eshleman's death in 1916. He died of tuberculosis at Indio, California, and was buried in Inglewood Cemetery. His body was subsequently moved to the Sunset View Cemetery at El Cerrito in 1956. Johnson appointed William Stephens to replace him as lieutenant governor. Eshleman also served as an ex officio regent of the University of California by virtue of his office as lieutenant governor.

The student union at UC Berkeley was named Eshleman Hall in his honor; this building was later renamed Moses Hall. A new building called Eshleman Hall was subsequently erected, which houses various student groups including the campus newspaper, "The Daily Californian".

Eshleman married Elizabeth Ledgett in 1906. His son, also named John Morton, wrote detective novels set in the Bay Area. His daughter, Jane Eshleman Conant, was a pioneering woman writer for San Francisco newspapers from 1941 to 1976. Eshleman also had two other children, Kathryn Eshleman Wahl, a women's editor at the "Oakland Tribune", and Robert T. Eshleman, a prominent Bay Area attorney. His daughters were the first two women's editors at the "Daily Californian", which was housed in the original building named for their father.