Butte County
Biographies
ARTHUR B. BIRMINGHAM
ARTHUR B. BIRMINGHAM.--Chico is particularly fortunate in that its active and enterprising citizens are boosters. There is no room for knockers here. Arthur B. Birmingham, the efficient and popular financial man of the Chico Meat Company, belongs to the booster class. He is a native son, born March 19, 1865, in Strawberry Valley, Yuba County. His father, J. T. Birmingham, was born at Webster, in Westmoreland County, Pa., in 1834, where he learned the blacksmithing business. He is an old-time Californian, having come to this state in 1853, crossing the plains in the popular prairie schooner of that day, drawn by oxen. He located in Strawberry Valley, where he ranched, mined and did blacksmith work for other miners, and in addition was interested in the La Porte turnpike toll road. After a time he bought an interest in the Lumpkin Saw Mill Company in Butte County. They did a large business at Oroville and Marysville, as well as at Lumpkin Mills. He remained in the lumber business about ten years, still retaining his home at Strawberry Valley. He was married in Yuba County to Miss Georgiana Miller, who was born in the East. They had two children: Mrs. Charles Hawkins, now living in Delta, Pa., where her husband, C. H. Hawkins, is a prominent lawyer and fruit-grower; and Arthur B. Birmingham, of this review. After the death of his first wife, which occurred November 9, 1865, Mr. Birmingham married Miss Elizabeth M. Miller, who was a native of Illinois. Two children were the result of this marriage: William B., who is deceased; and James E., who is now living in Siskiyou County, Cal. J. T. Birmingham died April 24, 1916, in Strawberry Valley, where his second wife still lives during the summer. She spends her winters with her step-son, Arthur B., at Chico.
As a lad Arthur B. Birmingham lived in both Butte and Yuba Counties, in each of which he attended school, afterward taking a course at Heald’s Business College in San Francisco. After this he worked for about nine years at the Lumpkin saw mill, and was later employed in different places in the lumber and hotel business for about twenty-five years; he was seven years in the lumber and hotel business in Siskiyou County, and also for several years, followed the hotel business at Chico; he was also employed as bookkeeper for various firms here. He had charge of the office in Oroville for the Butte and Plumas Railroad while that road was being built. The road is now owned by the Swayne Lumber Company. From 1911 to 1915 he was bookkeeper for the Stirling Mercantile Company at Stirling City. In 1915 he came to Chico and took charge of the books of the Chico Meat Company and is still with them.
He was married at Enterprise, Butte County, in 1891, to Miss Marie M. Wickman. Her father, Joseph Wickman, was a pioneer at Enterprise, and is now living at Oroville. Mr. and Mrs. Birmingham have two children: Gladys G., a graduate of Chico State Normal, is a teacher at Honcut; Earl B., a graduate of the University of California, is a civil and constructive engineer and is now second lieutenant of the Twentieth Engineers in France. Mrs. Birmingham died, May 18, 1918, aged forty-eight years.
Mr. Birmingham is a member of the I. O. O. F. Lodge at Dunsmuir, Siskiyou County, and has passed all chairs; he is a member of the Encampment and the Canton, and also of the Rebekahs, of Chico. He is also a member of the Woodmen of the World Lodge at Dunsmuir.
Transcribed by Vicky Walker, 1/11/08.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, 612-613, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Vicky
Walker.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies