Washington married Georgianna Hite Ransom on October 22, 1845, in Jefferson County, Virginia[4] (now West Virginia). He studied law[5] but went west to California in the 1849 Gold Rush as the president[6] of the Charlestown Company.[7][8]
He was coeditor of the Sacramento Democratic State Journal, along with Vincent Geiger.[9]
On October 7, 1863, the Democratic Press was established in San Francisco, and by June 12, 1865, it became the Evening Examiner, with William S. Moss as publisher and B. F. Washington as editor. For several years William S. Moss, Phil Roach and George Pen Johnston were its owners. Until it was bought by Senator Hearst in the 1880s, the paper had been a "highly chaste and non-sensation journal".[10] After Senator Hearst's death the paper went to his son, William R. Hearst.
Washington, who at the time worked for the Times and Transcript, took offense at articles written in the San Francisco Herald. As a result, he challenged C. A. Washburn, then the editor of the San Francisco Herald, to a duel. Though Washington aimed to kill, his second shot went through the rim of Washburn's hat, and his third bullet struck Washburn in the shoulder. The duel then ended.[12]
References
^Thornton Augustin Washington, A Genealogical History Beginning with Colonel John Washington, The Emigrant, and Head of the Washington Family in America,1891, Press of McGill & Wallace, Washington, D. C., p. 31.
^Thornton Augustine Washington,1891,p. 24, see ref. above
