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George D. Schofield
GEORGE D. SCHOFIELD is a lawyer of
Nome, a man of forensic ability and one of the
best presiding officers ever selected to conduct
the business of a public assemblage. He was born
in Portland, Michigan, August 23, 1864, and received his education in the Northwest University, and
Normal School at Dixon, Illinois. Equipped with a
law and literary course he was admitted to the bar
at the age of twenty-one in the State of Washington.
Mr. Schofield comes from a family of lawyers.
His grandfather was a lawyer in the state of New
York, and his father was district attorney of one of
the four districts of Nebraska from 1876 to 1880.
In 1879 the subject of this sketch went to Butte,
Montana, to spend his vacation, and forgot to return
home. He remained in Butte until 1883, when he
went to the State of Washington, his father in the
meantime having removed to that state and opened a
law office in Montesano on Grays Harbor. While in
Montana he learned mechanical engineering, and ran a hoisting engine at the Anaconda
Mines.
In 1883 a party of six, of which he was a member, started from Butte to Juneau,
but the subject of this sketch stopped in Montesano and entered his father's law office.
He subsequently attended the Chehalis Valley Academy, and after his admission to the
bar he went back to school. He began the practice of law with John C. Watson, of
Nebraska City, Nebraska, and in the fall of 1890 returned to Montesano and resumed
the practice of law with his father. He was associated with his father for two years.
During this time and at one of the elections his father was a candidate for district
judge and the son was a candidate for district attorney. They were the candidates
of opposing parties, and the father was defeated and the son elected. He served two
years as District Attorney for Chehalis County, and in the Sixteenth District of the State of Washington.
He came to Alaska in the spring of 1900 but returned to Washington in the fall.
He came back the following summer and has resided in Nome ever since. In the spring
of 1904 he was appointed by the Nome City Council to the office of city attorney.
When he arrived in Nome in the spring of 1 900, his first introduction was to the pest
house. He had the misfortune to contract the smallpox en route. Mr. Schofield is
married. His wife was formerly Miss Sarah E. Amidon, of San Francisco. They
have two children, George D. and Mary Gwendolin, aged eight and five years
respectively.
Source: Nome and Seward Peninsula by
R. S. Harrison. Seattle: The Metropolitan Press, 1905.
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