Sharon/Hill Divorce And Terry/Field Affair: 1883-1885 & 1887-1890

The divorce trial began on March 10, 1884. Shortly afterward, Hill's attorney, George Tyler, hired David Terry as a "special counsel" to assist with the case.

Terry was one of the most colorful individuals in American history. The young Texas lawyer came to California during the 1849 Gold Rush and, eight years later, became the chief justice of the state's supreme court. Within a short time, he was almost hanged by the famous San Francisco Vigilance Committee, had shot a U.S. senator in a duel, and returned to Texas to become a Confederate brigadier general during the Civil War. By 1871, Terry was back in California, where he prospered as an attorney. He also had a volatile temper and was known to frequently carry a bowie knife underneath his vest whenever he entered a courtroom.

The divorce dragged on for several months and the public was enamored with all the titillating details. Sharon testified that the $500 a month he offered Hill was his standard proposal to all of his mistresses. Likewise, Hill admitted that she once hid her friend Nellie in Sharon's bedroom while she and the senator were having sex in the hope that Nellie would overhear Sharon refer to Hill as his "wife."

On Christmas Eve 1884, Judge Jeremiah Sullivan of the California Superior Court granted "Sarah A. Sharon" a divorce, one-half of the community property, $2,500 a month in alimony, and $55,000 in attorneys' fees. That same day, Terry's wife of over 30 years died after a long illness.

Senator Sharon immediately appealed Judge Sullivan's decision and pressed on with his federal forgery lawsuit. Despite objections from Hill's attorneys, the federal court appointed an examiner in early 1885 to hear testimony and collect evidence on the authenticity of the marriage contract. The process lasted six months and it took its toll on Hill. She began to act irrationally, shouted epithets and accusations at virtually everyone in the courtroom, and once pulled a gun on one of Sharon's attorneys. Hill was disarmed, but her actions were brought to the court's attention. On August 5, 1885, Stephen Field, an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, ordered that Hill be disarmed whenever she entered the courtroom. (At this time, Supreme Court judges heard major federal court cases whenever the Court was not in session. In this instance, Field was helping Circuit Court judge Lorenzo Sawyer and District Court judge Matthew Deady, who were presiding over Senator Sharon's lawsuit.)

Although he did not know Hill, Justice Field was a personal and political enemy of David Terry ever since the two sat together on the California Supreme Court nearly 30 years before. Furthermore, it was commonly believed that Terry played a major role behind the 1884 California Democratic State Convention's repudiation of Field that destroyed the judge's candidacy that year for the White House.