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Elcan Heydenfeldt

Whig

Date Party Office Votes Result
02-02-1850 Nonpartisan SD-San Francisco 771 Win
10-07-1850 Whig SD-06 0 Win
11-02-1852 Whig AD-06 0 Win
04-18-1853 Whig AD-06 0 Win
 

Candidate Biography:

Born: September 15, 1821 in Charleston, South Carolina
Family: Brother of Solomon Heydenfeldt (Justice of the California Supreme Court, 1852-1857)
Died: February 1898 in San Francisco, CA

1851: President pro Tempore, California State Senate
1853: Resigned from the State Assembly on April 1.

  • Legislative Altercation: On May 19, 1853, Heydenfeldt drew a pistol on Assemblyman John Conness. Even with that disadvantage, Conness "came first best out of the fight." 
  • ELECTED TO FILL THEIR OWN VACANCIES: On April 1, 1853, John Sime, Elcan Heydenfeldt, James M. Taylor, Frederick A. Snyder, and Samuel Flower all resigned from the Assembly. All but Snyder then ran for their vacated seats in the subsequent Special Election, all were reelected, and sworn back into office on April 18th.
  • In 1853, Heydenfeldt became the first person to serve in both houses of the California Legislature and the first to go from the Senate to the Assembly.

Source: Last Night of the Session of the Assembly by an Eye-Witness (Sacramento; James Anthony & Co., 1854)
Source: California Blue Book, 2000 by the California State Senate (editor Bernadette McNulty)
Source: "The Names of the President and Senators of the First Senate of the State of California. Convened at the Capitol of San Jose, December the 15th, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty Nine." (1849)