Butte County
Biographies
CYRUS C. ANTRAM
CYRUS C. ANTRAM.—For
a quarter of a century Forbestown,
Cal, has been the home of Cyrus C. Antram,
one of the successful and leading mining men of Northern California. He was born May 1, 1853, in Fayette
County, Pa., a son of Samuel
and Hannah (Crow) Antram. They were both natives of Fayette
County, and were descended from pioneer families
of that section of Pennsylvania, represented in Fayette
County for several
generations. The name is sometimes
spelled Antrim, and the genealogy is traced to English forebears. The legend goes that two brothers, John and
James Antram, came to America
in 1680, and settled in Mount Holly,
N. J. They were Quakers and helped to
build the Quaker church in Burlington
in 1683. Samuel Antram
was a successful farmer in his county and lived to an advanced age.
In
the fall of 1870 the Antram family emigrated
to Illinois and settled in La Salle
County, where the parents died and are buried in
Grand Ridge
Cemetery. While living there C. C. Antram
worked on his father’s farm until 1880, when he went to Saunders
County, Neb., and there farmed
for himself until 1888. He made his
first trip to California as a tourist in 1884 and he was
so well impressed with the possibilities of the new country that he returned to
Nebraska and closed out his business and, in 1888, came
to make his home in the Golden State. He lived in San Joaquin
County until coming to Butte
County, where he has since made his
home. After prospecting for a time he
turned his attention to the mining industry as a business, and it has brought him prosperity.
About twenty-five years ago, Mr. Antram took
up his abode at Forbestown and during the intervening
period he has developed and proved up on, as well as purchased, a bunch of
claims, now owning the Antram Consolidated Quartz
Mine at Forbestown.
This property includes the following quartz claims: Fayette, Quail, La
Salle, Squirrel, Monon, and the Antram
Extension, which lies to the northeast and joins the Carlysle
mine on the South Fork of the Feather River. Mr. Antram feels
satisfied that his ore lodes are the same general formation as the “Mother
Lode” in Calaveras and Placer Counties, especially in the district of Angels
Camp, wherein are located several paying properties.
The residence
occupied by Mr. Antram since 1914 is a spacious house
of fourteen rooms, which was erected in 1892-1893 by H. P. Stowe, president of
the Gold Bank Mine, at a cost of fourteen thousand dollars, and was one of the
show-places of this section. Mr. Stowe
and his family lived there until 1904.
Mr. Antram takes a great interest in the general welfare of his
community and has served as Justice of the Peace in Forbestown. He is now serving as a member of the board of
trustees of the Oroville Union
High School. He has been an Odd Fellow since 1879, and
holds his membership at Wahoo, Neb.,
where he helped organize the lodge. He
is a stockholder in the Golden West Motors Company of Sacramento
and has been on the board of directors two different times. He is an intelligent, progressive and kindly
man, always ready to give aid and encouragement to those who are willing to
make an extra effort to succeed, and has a wide circle of friends in the
section of the county where he has lived for so many years.
Transcribed 5-7-08
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 934-935, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
©
2008 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
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