Born in Connecticut, Stephen Johnson Field (1816-1899) was practicing law in New York City when word of the Gold Rush arrived. He sailed to California in 1849, crossing Panama at Chagres. He soon became a leader of the California bar, going on to sit on both the State Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court. Personal reminiscences of early days in California (1880) focuses on Field's first years in California, centering on his experience as practicing attorney and first alcalde or magistrate for the lively mining town of Marysville, 1850-1857, a period rich in crime and political skullduggery. In a second section, Field relates anecdotes of his later career as justice of the California Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court, where his knowledge and expertise in western land law served him well.