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.

 

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