author

James O'Meara

1825–1903

A globe-trotting 19th-century newspaperman, he wrote from the middle of California and Oregon’s rough early press scene. His surviving work captures politics, frontier journalism, and the arguments that shaped the American West.

1 Audiobook

The Vigilance Committee of 1856

The Vigilance Committee of 1856

by James O'Meara

About the author

Born in New York City in June 1825, James O'Meara worked for the New York Herald before sailing around Cape Horn to San Francisco in 1849. After a short turn in the gold fields, he went back to newspapers and built a long career as an editor and writer in California and Oregon.

Records from the Huntington Library describe him as editor of the San Francisco Herald, later a special writer for The Oregonian, and a founder of the Portland Bulletin. He also edited papers in Jacksonville and Santa Rosa, and his articles appeared in magazines including Overland Monthly and The Argonaut.

O'Meara is especially remembered for The Vigilance Committee of 1856, published in 1887, a firsthand historical account of San Francisco's turbulent mid-century politics. He died in Santa Rosa, California, in January 1903.