Butte County
Biographies
MYRON G. BERDAN
MYRON
G. BERDAN.--More than any other state in the Union, the
vigorous prosperity of California
is traceable to the sturdy characters and untiring perseverance of its
pioneers, many of whom risked their lives on the Indian infested plains.
Enrolled among these noble and self-sacrificing men is the name of Myron G. Berdan, who has been identified with the development of Northern
California. His father, Daniel Berdan,
was born in Chautauqua County,
N. Y., where he was a successful farmer. He started for California,
via Lake Michigan,
thence to Winnebago, County, Ill.,
to nine miles west of Rockton, where the Western Union Railway was building,
and in 1860 he arrived in Red Bluff, Tehama County,
Cal., having crossed the plains. He
followed teaming and freighting to the mines in Plumas
County, until he retired to Chico,
where he died, aged seventy-eight years. He married Catherine Berdan, who, though having the same name, was no relation,
but who was also a native of New York.
She died at the home of her son, at Berdan station.
There were five children who grew to maturity: David, who went to Canada
and probably died there; Lydia,
Mrs. Jeffreys, who resides in Chico;
Mercy M., who died early in life; Myron G., of this review; and Martha, who
died in San Francisco.
Myron G. Berdan was born on January 31, 1847, in Chautauqua
County, N. Y., and was reared at a
place called Hanover. He worked
on the home farm and attended the public schools until 1856, when the family
went to Rockton, Ill.
Four years later, on April 1, with horse teams and big wagons, the family left
Rockton for the long journey overland to California.
They crossed the Mississippi at Rock
Island, the Missouri River at Omaha,
proceeding up the Platte and via Salt
Lake and up the Humboldt, through Spring
Valley, Honey Lake
Valley, and to Susanville, and on
to Red Bluff, arriving August 1, just ninety days from Omaha.
Young Berdan attended school for a short time, then went into the shop of Jake Shafer to learn the trade of
blacksmith, and in 1868, came over to Chico.
He had an injury to his eye, caused by a flying piece of steel, which
necessitated his giving up the trade. He then drove team for a while, finally
owning a ten-mule team and a string of three wagons, and hauled lumber from the
sawmills in the mountains. In 1874 he bought forty acres of railroad land from
James Hombeck, situated on top of Humboldt ridge,
with an elevation of thirty-three hundred twenty feet. There was a small cabin
on the place, which Mr. Berdan enlarged, and called
the place after himself. It became a stage station for the teamsters and, in
time, a busy place. Four years later, he circulated a petition for a postoffice and he was fortunate in having favorable reports
on it, and Berdan postoffice
was established, himself being appointed postmaster, in June, 1878, at which
time he opened a store. He set out a family orchard; did some placer and drift
mining at Portuguese Point Channel Mine, and at Maude Butte
Mine, twenty miles from Chico. On
his place he has two wells and a good spring of ice-cold water. He retained the
office of postmaster at Berdan until 1915, when he
resigned, and sold the business to Dennis Murphy.
Mr. Berdan was married the first time in Chico,
to Catherine Lee, born in Philadelphia;
she died at Berdan. His second marriage, at Oroville,
November 3, 1916, united
him with Mrs. Sarah Greene Bunell, born in Louisville,
Ky., a daughter of Judge Isaac R. Greene,
who was born in Cooperstown, N. Y. He was a man of
national reputation. He married Eliza Smith, born in Pulaski,
Tenn., and died in Kentucky.
Judge Greene died aged ninety-seven years. Mrs. Berdan
was reared and educated in the Julia A. Tevis school at Science Hill, Shelbyville,
Ky. She married Charles M. Stokes, the son
of John M. Stokes, banker and merchant, who died in Nashville,
Tenn. Her second marriage united her with
Valentine B. Bunell, a native of New
York, and a humorous lecturer, a great friend of
Robert J. Burdette. They moved to Los Angeles,
where Mrs. Bunell built the Arlington Grand
Apartments, at Twenty-ninth
Street and Grand Avenue.
Here Mr. Bunell died and later his widow traveled
over the state, and, in the course of her wanderings,
met Mr. Berdan and they were married. In 1915, Mr. Berdan bought his residence at Third
Street, Chico. He was engaged
in the new and second-hand business at 839 Main Street,
until he sold out, in 1917.
Mr.
Berdan has had many interesting experiences and
remembers when the country was overrun with wild game. He has killed fourteen
bears, two lions, and many deer, and has the largest pair of deer-horns in the
county, a five-pointer, from a deer weighing two hundred ten pounds, dressed,
which he killed at night by using dogs. Mr. Berdan
has served as deputy registration clerk, and deputy constable. He was trustee
of Forest school district and clerk of the board. While
living in Red Bluff, he was a member of the state militia, and was second
lieutenant. He cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln, and has
voted the national ticket straight Republican ever since; in local matters he
is independent. It is conceded by all who know Mr. Berdan
that once he gives his word it is as binding as though it were written, a
reputation to be proud of.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 444-445, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2006 Sande Beach.
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