Amador
County
Biographies
WILLIAM M. PENRY
William M. Penry was born on the 27th
of September, 1838, in Mississippi of Welsh lineage. The family was founded in America by the
great-grandfather of our subject, who located in South Carolina, where the
grandfather, Jonathan Penry, was born May 21, 1785. He served as a soldier in the War of 1812 and
removed from his native state to Mississippi, where he died at a ripe old
age. His son, Samuel H. Penry, the
father of our subject, was born in South Carolina June 17, 1811, and
accompanied his parents on their removal to Mississippi, where he married Narcissa Davis, born October 30, 1817, a
native of Georgia, by whom he had six children, four of whom are now
living. During the Mexican War he
entered his country’s service and aided in defending her rights. Subsequently he removed to Texas, where he
successfully carried on agricultural pursuits and died November 9, 1899. When the war between the north and south was
inaugurated two of his sons, N. S. and Corydon, joined the Confederate forces,
and the latter was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, his death resulting from
his injury. Narcissa
Penry died November 14, 1892.
Mr. Penry, of this review, was
educated in the state of his nativity and learned the printer’s trade, at which
he worked as a journeyman until 1857. In
that year he sailed from New Orleans for San Francisco, reaching his
destination on the 26th of April, 1857. There he worked at his trade for a few
months, after which he went to visit his uncle in Placer County and while there
purchased an interest in the Folsom Dispatch, with which he was connected for
two years. On the expiration of that
period he sold his share of the paper and established the Folsom Telegraph, in
connection with Mr. Kilma. That paper is still published, but in 1863
Mr. Penry dissolved his connection therewith and came to Jackson, where he has
since resided. After the big fire which
occurred in this city he had, in connection with Mr. Pain, re-established the
Amador Dispatch, and for thirty-four years aided in its publication, being most
of the time the editor and proprietor.
In 1896 he sold the journal to E. C. Rust, who is now its
publisher. Since that time Mr. Penry has
lived retired from active business. He
made the Dispatch one of the leading newspapers in this section of the state
and secured for it a very large circulation, and the financial returns
therefrom annually augmented his income until, with a comfortable competence,
he was enabled to retire to private life.
In politics Mr. Penry has always
been a pronounced Democrat, and reared in the south, his sympathy was naturally
with the people of that section of the country during the Civil War. On that account he was arrested in 1865 by
United States soldiers. About one
hundred, under the command of Captain Knight, came to his office and demanded
his surrender. For five or six weeks he
was imprisoned and was then discharged without trial. He has, however, always been true to the
interests of the county, town and state, and his efforts have been effective in
promoting the welfare of the community in which he makes his home. Through the columns of his paper he has
always been the champion of the measures calculated to prove a public benefit
and many needed reforms and improvements were adopted through his instrumentality. He served for some years as a deputy assessor
of the county, but devoted the greater part of his life to journalistic labors,
in which he met with gratifying success.
In a minor degree Mr. Penry has been an inventor, having originated a “pole
climber” and a “folding ladder,” the latter being fully covered by patents, and
is a revolution to all previous inventions of the kind, his chief motive being
to invent a more simple and convenient fire escape, but it may be used in many
other ways. He has never devoted time
and money to bring it properly before the public, hence has never met with any
marked degree of success.
In 1870 Mr. Penry was united in
marriage to Miss Jennie Barton, a native of Ohio, and to them was born one son,
William M. Our subject is a valued
representative of the Masonic fraternity and since 1860 has been a member of
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has passed all the chairs and
has frequently represented his lodge in the grand lodge and has taken an active
interest in its work. Of the Knights of
Pythias lodge at Jackson he is a charter member, and also belongs to the order
of Rebekah and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, his wife being a member of
the Eastern Star and also of the Daughters of the Rebekah.
He and his wife have a very pleasant
home in Jackson and enjoy the high esteem of the people among whom they have so
long resided. His life has been well
spent and has been characterized by devotion to all that he believes
right. The rest which he now enjoys is
well merited, for his property has come to him as a reward of earnest and
indefatigable labor.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern California”,
Pages 521-522. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Amador County Biographies