Butte County
Biographies
CHARLES COLMAN
CHARLES COLMAN.—Charles Colman, the head operator at the Pacific Gas and Electric Power Company’s house on Butte Creek, fifteen miles above Chico, is one of the favored sons of Butte County. He was born on July 23, 1878, a son of Daniel Bryant and Mary (Moore) Colman. The elder Colman crossed the plains in 1850 by means of ox teams and wagons, while his wife crossed the plains with her parents in 1851.
Charles Colman is the eighth in order of birth of ten children, only four of whom are now living. He attended the public schools of Butte County and grew up on the home ranch, one mile north of Centerville. The family were all typically Californians, highly respected, and spent most of their time in Butte County. When he was twenty-one years of age he entered the employ of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, when the company was just starting to build the power-house on Butte Creek. Ever since then he has labored faithfully for the interests of the company and he has been rewarded from time to time by promotions until he is now head operator. While his knowledge of electricity has been largely practical and acquired through actual work, yet he is firmly grounded in the theoretical and scholastic knowledge of the subject by a thorough and diligent self-study of electrical engineering as prescribed by the International Correspondence Schools at Scranton, Pa. He passed a very satisfactory examination in all studies pertaining to the course mentioned.
Mr. Colman was united in marriage with Miss Clara Wood, of Chico, and their married life was ideally happy until the death of Mrs. Colman, in 1913. She left him four children: Carlton B., who is now employed by F. M. Thatcher at Stirling City; Lois; Erol Clifton, and Mary Alice. Mr. Colman’s parents died at the ages of seventy-nine and sixty years respectively.
Mr. Colman is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and is public-spirited and generous, and has a host of friends in Butte County.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1189-1190, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies