Pixley was born in
Westmoreland,
Oneida County, New York. As a youth, he worked on the family farm and was first educated in the village academy, later at the
Quaker school in
Skaneateles (town), New York. He graduated from
Hamilton College and studied law in
Rochester, New York, he worked in the law office of Smith, Rochester and Smith. In 1847, he went to
Michigan where he was admitted to practice law and qualified to appear before the state supreme court. Two years later he travelled to California during the
Gold Rush, and spent two winters working mines on the
Yuba River. He met and, in 1853, married Amelia Van Reynegom, daughter of Captain John and Margaret Van Reynegom, who had arrived to San Francisco in 1849 aboard her parents’ ship the
Linda. The Pixleys lived in the
North Beach area of
San Francisco. In 1858, although California was a Democratic state, Pixley was elected as a Republican to represent San Francisco in the
California Assembly. In 1861, on the same Republican ticket as Governor
Leland Stanford, he was elected the 8th
Attorney General of California. His term ended in 1863. He traveled to Washington, D.C. as a
Civil War correspondent. However, he could not obtain a pass from
Edwin Stanton who was the
Secretary of War. At that he persuaded the United States Senator from California,
John Conness, to let him use his congressional pass. With that he was able to spend three months in Civil War combat areas, and at one time riding his horse to the front line with the Second Connecticut Regiment. He visited
Ulysses S. Grant in his headquarters. The General commented that Pixley had seen more warfare than many of his fighting men. In 1868 he was the
Republican candidate for
Congress in California's First District, losing to incumbent
Samuel Beach Axtell by more than 3500 votes. He briefly served as the
United States Attorney for the District of California in 1869. '' editorial office 1892 Pixley joined with Frederic Somers to found
The Argonaut in April 1877.
The Argonaut was considered one of the most important publications in California and it had a great deal of political influence. He was friends with former Governor of California
John G. Downey, and after the death of Downey's wife, introduced him to
Yda Hillis Addis, a young woman who wrote for
The Argonaut. Their relationship ended when the ex-governor proposed marriage to Addis. When Downey's sisters discovered the betrothal, they shanghaied the older gentleman to his native
Ireland. Pixley opposed immigration of Chinese people and voting rights for them. In 1882 Governor
George Clement Perkins appointed Pixley to the board of commissioners of San Francisco's
Golden Gate Park. In 1888, Governor
Robert Waterman appointed Pixley a trustee of the state Mining Bureau. In 1889 he was appointed to the board of the
Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove Commission. He died at age 70 in 1895 in San Francisco. ==Pixley, California==