Butte County
Biographies
ISAAC B. ADAMS
I. B. ADAMS.—A man of pleasing personality who is ably performing the responsible duties of manager of the De Sabla district for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, is I. B. Adams, a native of Glamorganshire, Wales, born at Neath, May 11, 1877. His father, Thomas Adams, of an old Welsh family, was a blast furnace man at Britton Ferry, until his wife, Eleanor (Gibby) Adams, died, when he became very dissatisfied and wishing to remove from the scenes where the great sorrow had come into his life, he came with his seven children to Colorado, in 1891, and six months later to California, locating near Marysville, where he was busily engaged in farming and stock-raising until his death. Six of his seven children are still living, I. B. being the third youngest.
I. B. Adams was reared in his native place until fourteen years of age, when he came with his father to Marysville, Cal., in the fall of 1891, where he completed the public schools. During his leisure hours he followed farming, assisting his father. Afterwards he learned the blacksmith and machinist’s business until December 6, 1899, when he entered the employ of the Yuba Electric Power Company, which became Bay Counties Power Company, then the California Gas and Electric Company, and now the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. He was an operator in the Yuba power-house for about one year, then in the Colgate plant under the Bay Counties Power Company, as operator till May, 1903. Next he was with the Valley Counties Power Company as foreman at the De Sabla power plant, until June, 1908.
It was during this time, in 1906, that the Pacific Gas and Electric Company took the De Sabla plant over. From the De Sabla plant Mr. Adams became construction foreman of South Tower Division, from Oakland to Stockton, also for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, till November, 1908, when he was appointed superintendent of the Colgate Power Division for the same company, until September, 1910, at which time he was transferred as manager of the De Sabla district for the company. His district takes in Butte, Plumas and Tehama Counties. As manager he has charge not only of the electric power, but of the water and irrigation system, an intensely interesting and responsible position, and he has demonstrated his ability and qualifications for the place. In his district are four different power plants, i. e., De Sabla, Centerville, Lime Saddle, and Cool Canyon. To aid him in his work he has completed a course in electrical engineering in the International Correspondence Schools of Scranton, Pa., receiving a diploma. Mr. Adams was married in Sacramento, being united with Mrs. Florence (Malinoff) Spangler, who was a native of Missouri. Fraternally he was made a Mason in Chico Lodge, No. 111, F. & A. M.; exalted to the Royal Arch degree in Chico Chapter, No. 42, and knighted in Chico Commandery, No. 12, K. T. He is a member of Islam Temple A. A. O. N. M. S., San Francisco, and of Chico Lodge, No. 423, B. P. O. Elks. In the line of his profession he is a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. He has contributed articles, in the line of his work, to the Pacific Service Magazine.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1142-1143, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies