His practice in Mormon Island also resumed and he was hired to settle the affairs of the Connecticut Mining and Trading Company, which held interest in the famous store of Samuel Brannan.

Catlin offered the name "Natoma", meaning clear water in the local native dialect.

[2] They had seven children, including John Conyngham Catlin, who practiced law for more than thirty years and became mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California from 1932-1934.

He served in that capacity until 1876, when the Supreme Court of California declared most of the powers granted to the Board were unconstitutional and it was abolished.

In 1875, Catlin was proposed as a candidate for Governor of California, but lost the nomination to John Bidwell.

Catlin is interred, along with his wife who died in 1878, in the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery.