Amador
County
Biographies
WILLIAM BROWN
Macauley
has said that the history of a nation is best told in the lives of its people,
and each community recognizes the fact that there are a few men who are the
leaders in public thought and action, who stand forth as representatives of the
trade interests and are the promoters of that commercial activity upon which
the prosperity of every community depends.
Of this class William Brown is a
representative. He resides in Oleta,
Amador County, and is a native of the state of Missouri, his birth having
occurred in St. Louis, on the 21st of January, 1850. He is of Irish descent and is a son of John
E. Brown, who was superintendent of the gas works of St. Louis. His mother bore the maiden name of Bridget Grinell, and two children were born to them in St. Louis,
William and George H. With his wife and
two sons the father started across the plains to California in 1852, and during
a brief interval spent at Salt Lake City another son was added to the family,
to whom the name of John E. was given.
While attempting to kill a buffalo in the summer of 1852, the father was
gored by the horns of the animal and left upon the field as dead, but life was
not yet extinct. The accident, however,
kept the family in Salt Lake City for a year, but after he had sufficiently
recovered they continued their journey to California and he engaged in placer
mining in Rich Bar, on the Cosumnes River, where he
continued his mining operations until 1857; at which time he secured a claim
three miles below the town of Plymouth and engaged in ranching until his death,
which occurred in 1865, in the forty-fifth year of his age, his demise finally
resulting from the injuries sustained at the time when he attempted to capture
the buffalo. The following children were
added to the family in California:
Albert M.; Elizabeth Ellen, now the wife of John Ellis; and Matilda Ann,
wife of Frank Hammock. The mother
survives her husband and is now in the seventy-fourth year of her age. Mr. Brown was quite prominent in the affairs
of the community in which he resided, and filled the office of justice of the
peace. He was accounted one of the
reliable pioneer settlers of Amador County.
William Brown was in his third year
when he arrived with his parents in Amador County. Therefore he was reared and educated in this
locality, and in his youth he learned the blacksmith’s trade in Oleta, after
which he spent a year in the employ of Repper &
Hill, of Sacramento. He worked at that
business for seventeen years at Grizzly Flat, in El Dorado County, and later
returned to Oleta where he purchased the shop in which he had learned the
trade, his old employer being at that time sole proprietor. He has since carried on business here,
meeting with excellent success as the result of a very large patronage. He has splendid mechanical ability, and his
excellent workmanship, combined with honorable business methods, have won for him creditable prosperity. His efforts have been so discerningly
directed along well defined lines of labor that he has been enabled to make
extensive investments in real estate. He
not only owns his own shop but has a good residence in Oleta, together with
five hundred acres of rich farming land and one thousand acres of timber.
In 1878 Mr. Brown was united in
marriage to Miss Christina Neiber, of Grizzly Flat, a
daughter of August Neiber, of that place and one of
the California pioneers of 1850. Mr. and
Mrs. Brown have five children: Albert
N., the eldest son, is a graduate of Chestnut Wood University and is now
pursuing a medical education with the intention of making the practice of
medicine his life work; Jessie Belle; William Edward; and Dora Ruth and Cora
Myrtle, twins, all at home. Their
pleasant residence is celebrated for its gracious hospitality, which is enjoyed
by numerous friends. When Mr. Brown
attained his majority in 1871, he joined the Masonic fraternity and since then
has been a valued member of the order, in which he has filled the offices of
junior and senior warden. He also
belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
His political support is given the Democratic Party and he has filled
the office of county surveyor of Amador County for six years, discharging his
duties with promptness and fidelity. At
the present time he is serving as notary public. His life of industry is most commendable, and
Longfellow’s poem is as applicable to him in its portrayal of hones,
industrious manhood as it was of “The Village Blacksmith,” of whom it was
written.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 724-725. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2011
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Amador County Biographies