Augustus L. Rhodes was the 10th Chief Justice of California.

Educated at Hamilton College, Rhodes studied law and then moved to Bloomfield

Bloomfield, Indiana

Bloomfield is a town in Richland Township, Greene County, Indiana, United States. The population was 2,405 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Greene County.Bloomfield is part of the Bloomington, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area....

, Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

, being admitted to the bar there in 1846. He served one term as the prosecuting attorney for the circuit court (1849), and departed for California in 1854. Settling in San Jose, he became district attorney

District attorney

In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...

 in 1859 and then State Senator

California State Senate

The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. There are 40 state senators. The state legislature meets in the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate and may break a tied vote...

 in 1860. He was elected to the Supreme Court of California

Supreme Court of California

The Supreme Court of California is the highest state court in California. It is headquartered in San Francisco and regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Its decisions are binding on all other California state courts.-Composition:...

 in 1864 and served until 1880, being Chief Justice from 1870 to 1872. From 1899 to 1907 he served as a Superior Court judge in Santa Clara County

Santa Clara County, California

Santa Clara County is a county located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 it had a population of 1,781,642. The county seat is San Jose. The highly urbanized Santa Clara Valley within Santa Clara County is also known as Silicon Valley...

.

Rhodes remained active to an advanced age; he gave an address at the annual convention of the California Bar Association in June 1918, 4 months before his death at the age of 97.

Rhodes married Elizabeth Cavins (1830–1901), a judge's daughter, in 1846.