August 2017 Bar Bulletin
The last Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Washington Territory was Cornelius Holgate Hanford. When Washington became a State in 1889 Congress created a new Federal Court Judicial District — the District of Washington. President Benjamin Harrison promptly appointed Judge Hanford to that new judgeship.
For 20 years Hanford was the only Federal judge in the State. (Later, I think it was in 1909, Congress split the District of Washington into the Eastern District and the Western District and Hanford even got some help, finally, in the Western District by the appointment of a second judge,...