Alameda County
Biographies
DR. WILLIAM T. THRASHER
DR. WILLIAM T. THRASHER. In San Leandro, Alameda county,
is located the ranch of Dr. William T. Thrasher, for some years a
professional man of that city, but since 1880 engaged in agricultural pursuits.
Born in Frederick county, Md.,
April 29, 1821, he is a son of Elias Thrasher, a native of
Virginia and a soldier in the war of 1812. The elder man removed to Maryland
shortly after his marriage with Elizabeth Ritchy,
also a native of the Old Dominion, making that his home until 1822, when he
located in Loudoun county, Va., and followed
agriculture. Fifteen years later he became a pioneer of the state of Ohio,
farming in Jefferson county for twelve years, when he
removed to Whitley county, Ind., where his death occurred at an advanced age.
In his political convictions he was a stanch Whig.
His wife also died in Indiana, leaving a family of four sons and three
daughters.
The second child in his father’s family
and the only one now living, Dr. William T. Thrasher was reared
to manhood in the states of Virginia and Ohio, where he attended the common
schools. At twenty-one years of age he became apprenticed to learn the
trade of wheelwright, being then located in Jefferson county,
Ohio, and after his mastery of the work followed the same for seven years. In
the fall of 1849 he removed to Iowa, spending a half year in Jefferson county and a year in Wapello county, when he returned to
Ohio for a short time and then located in Huntington county, Ind. In the latter
location he followed dentistry for seven years. In 1860 he came to California
via the Isthmus of Panama, and continued his profession for a like period in
Hornitos, Mariposa county. In the fall of 1867 he came
to San Leandro and in connection with farming carried on his profession until
his eyesight failed, practically relinquishing the latter work in 1880. During
this time he had purchased the seventeen acres which comprise his home place,
planting a part to fruit, and since then has bought some small places which he
now leases.
Dr. Thrasher has been married twice, his first wife
being Annie E. Clark, who was born, married and died in Indiana. The
one child born of this union died in infancy. In California in 1863 he married
S. Maria C. Woodward a native of Chautauqua county,
N. Y. In his political convictions Dr. Thrasher is a stanch
adherent of the principles advocated in the platform of the Republican party.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard 17 April 2016.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages
1080-1081. The Chapman Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Marie Hassard.
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