From History of Nevada, Volume 2, Sam P. Davis, 1913

HON. H. F. BARTINE.

The subject of this sketch has had a most honorable and distinguished career as a public man.
He was born March 21, 1848, in the City of New York; he removed with his parents to New Jersey when
ten years of age. A mere boy, but little past his fifteenth birthday, he enlisted on July 20, 1863,
as a private soldier in the Eighth Regiment New Jersey Volunteers, for service in the Great Civil
War. The regiment was a seasoned one and was then at the front as a part of the Army of the
Potomac, where it remained until the close of the war. Mr. Bartine participated in about a dozen
battles and practically the entire siege of Petersburg. At the great struggle in the Wilderness he
was severely wounded, a partially spent ball striking him almost directly over the heart. He was
sent to the hospital, but returned to his regiment in a little less than three months, although it
was six months later before the wound was entirely healed. He came to Nevada in the early spring of
1869, engaging in various industrial pursuits. His public life may be said to have begun in 1876,
when, in the political campaign of that year, he obtained recognition as one of the most eloquent
and forceful platform speakers in the State. He was admitted to the bar in 1880, and at the ensuing
election was chosen District Attorney of Ormsby County, holding the office for the period of two
years. He at once took a leading place in his profession, being regarded as especially strong in
the discussion of legal questions, and scarcely less effective as a jury lawyer. In the fall of
1888 he was elected to Congress and was re-elected in November, 1890. He served two full terms, the
last one expiring on March 4, 1893. He acquired a national reputation as an advocate of the
complete restoration of silver to monetary use. This reputation was enhanced and extended by his
later work as editor of the "National Bimetallist," published first in Chicago and afterward in
Washington, D. C. In 1902 he became a candidate upon the Democratic and Silver Party tickets for
the office of Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, but was overwhelmed by the Roosevelt tidal
wave that rolled over the country in that year. He held the position of State Tax Examiner from
September, 1904, to December 31, 1905. He was appointed Railroad Commissioner in March, 1907, was
reappointed in January, 1909, and appointed for a third term in January, 1912, the last-named term
ending in February, 1915. On March 23, 1911, the Public Service Commission was created and the
Railroad Commission became ex officio the Public Service Commission as well. Since their creation,
Mr. Bartine has been continuously chairman of both commissions, and the member who, under the law,
must be an attorney well versed in railroad law. The work of these commissions has been most
important and under the legal guidance of Chief Commissioner Bartine, the commission is now
regarded as having no superior in aggressive force and intelligent strength west of the Mississippi
River, if, indeed it stands second to any in the country. Mr. Bartine, or "Judge," as he is usually
called, has a wife and three daughters. His home for thirty-eight years has been in Carson City,
the Capital, and he is a Democrat in politics.