Butte County
Biographies
BINET BROTHERS
BINET BROTHERS.—How an accidental circumstance conditioned
the locating by a pioneer—the circumstance, the search for improved health,
that has often played a role with the settler on the Coast—and to what extent
the combined enterprise and business capability of three energetic young men
may contribute to the exceptional success of an undertaking, are matters well
shown in the story of the Binet Brothers, and of the
foundations laid by them before the organization for their activities in
Oroville. The father of the three partners was Edward Binet,
who was born in the Isle of Jersey, a member of a family of French descent from
the noble Norman times. His parents were also from that island, and there
Edward was reared on a farm, later serving as an apprentice to a carpenter.
Having learned his trade, he migrated to Canada, and
in Quebec and Montreal worked at building for three or four years. He then
returned for a visit to the Isle of Jersey, and the next time he crossed the Atlantic
he made for New York City, where he was a stair builder, and was also employed
at sash and door work, which at that time was done by hand. He was a fine
workman, and his skill soon brought him a profitable reputation. While in New York City, Mr. Binet was
married on November 29, 1856, to Miss Cecilia Cooper, the ceremony taking place
in St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, where the officiating clergyman was the Rev.
Alfred B. Beck. The bride was also a native of Jersey. Her parents
having died when she was young, she and a married sister, Mrs. Hamon, came to New York, where she met Mr. Binet. They came to America on the schooner Typus, commanded by her brother-in-law, Capt. Thomas Hamon.
After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Binet
returned to the Isle of Jersey, making a wedding trip of the journey, and
taking advantage of the opportunity to visit their old home before coming to
California; and in 1857 they came back to new York, and then sailed to Aspinwall, where they crossed the Isthmus to Panama, and
took the steamer John L. Stevens, to San Francisco, landing at the Pacific
metropolis on May 15, 1857. There Mr. Binet remained
a short time, working as a stair builder, when he came to Marysville and opened
shop as a carpenter. He built the stairway in the old Dawson house, which is
still standing. Then he bought out the saddle factory from George Alt and
engaged in the manufacture of saddle trees, and with such success that he took
the premium at an early state fair. Thereafter he called his product the
Premium Saddle Trees. In January, 1868, he bought out the shingle mill at
Clipper Mills Butte County, and for a time operated both it and his saddle-tree
factory. He moved to Clipper Mills, and gave his personal attention to the
manufacture of boxes, shooks and shingles, at the
same time continuing the manufacture of saddle trees. He died in 1884, at the
age of fifty-six, having served his community as a school trustee, and having
passed his declining years in a neat residence not far from the mill, which was
run by water power and was located on a creek called Grizzly Creek.
Mrs. Binet, who spent her last
years with her children at Oroville, died here on February 26, 1914, in her
eighty-fifth year. She was a pillar of the Episcopal Church, and was the mother
of seven children, five of whom grew up. Celia J. is Mrs. Christensen, of
Petaluma, and another daughter is Mary Esther; while the three sons forming the
partnership of Binet Brothers are Edward Charles,
Philip John, and James Thomas Binet. All were born in
Marysville, but Mary E., who was born at Clipper Mills, to which place her
father had moved somewhat permanently on finding by experiment that the health
of his children was imperiled in the former place of residence.
Educated in the public schools and, excepting P. J. Binet (who afterwards graduated from Heald’s
Business College in San Francisco), finishing their schooling there, the three
boys learned the lumber business and continued in the same after their father’s
death. They built a mill, sawed logs and planed up some of the lumber, selling
a part of their output in Oroville, thirty-five miles distant, a part at
Marysville, forty miles away, and the rest at various points in the mountains.
In 1902 the Binet Brothers located in Oroville, but
they still own the mill property and timber lands at Clipper Mills. They have
dismantled the mill, and they now use the ditch for the irrigation of an
orchard. In the same year they started a planing mill
and lumber yard at the corner of Second Street and Railroad Avenue, Oroville,
and began the manufacture of lumber at a saw mill. Their business increasing,
they built, in 1909, a larger planing mill, where
they manufactured all kinds of building material, so that they were in a
position, if need be, to finish a house completely. It was well-equipped, and
was run by electric power. In 1917 they dismantled the planing
mill and leased the building to the Peco Packing
Company. The Binet Brothers built several residences
in Oroville, some of which they sold; and others they still own and rent.
The brothers are also interested in mining, and have
prospected some. They own a mine at Wallace, Calaveras County, where they are
getting out silica ore, the assaying of which proved eighty-six per cent, of
pure silica. They recently found a manganese ledge on the Clipper Mills place,
and they have also deposits of gold placer on the property.
The Binets are Republicans of the
progressive type, and citizens much interested in the work of the Chamber of
Commerce and the upbuilding of Oroville. They are
members of the Argonaut Parlor, No. 8, at Oroville, and are communicants of the
Episcopal Church, in which both at Marysville and Oroville they have served as
members of the vestry.
Transcribed 1-17-08
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 585-587, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
©
2008 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies