WILLIAM FOREMAN

Butte County

Biographies

WILLIAM FOREMAN

WILLIAM FOREMAN.--One of the leaders in every movement for the development of California, and an upbuilder of Butte County, William Foreman, the pioneer, was born in Ohio, in 1826. He was reared in Michigan until he was twenty-three, then came across the plains to California, arriving in 1849. He stopped for a time at Bidwell's Bar, then settled at Berry Creek, where in 1854, in company with Russell Johnson, B. Newcomb, and Messrs. Dutton and Brooks, he built a sawmill on Berry Creek. The following year he erected the Berry Creek Hotel, which was in its day a well-known hostelry in the mining district of Butte County. He also built a store building and carried on a general merchandise business for many years. He became wealthy and his public spirit and progressive activities made him an extremely popular man. He had only a practical education, but was a great reader of papers and current magazines, which made him a well-read and widely informed man. He took an especial interest in Republican politics, attending every convention as a delegate from his precinct.

At Berry Creek, May 23, 1858, Mr. Foreman was united in marriage with Miss Rose Carroll, born August 15, 1835, and who came to California via the Isthmus of Panama in 1850. Four children were born to them, namely: William C., born February 27, 1859; Hugh, who died when twelve years of age; Bryant, born January 6, 1862, and who became a popular citizen of the county and died March 11, 1918; Stanton, also deceased.

William Foreman, after a long and useful life, passed to his reward on July 18, 1886, aged sixty years; his widow lived until October 2, 1913, when she died, aged seventy-eight years. William Foreman was a member of Cherokee Lodge of Masons, and Franklin Chapter, R. A. M., and of Oroville Commandery, K. T., in Oroville. To assist her husband and to fill a long-felt necessity, Mrs. Foreman kept a hotel until the narrow-gage railroad was completed, when she gave it up.

The Foreman Ranch originally consisted of six hundred forty acres of land, which was purchased from the railroad company. Of this the father sold one half and upon the balance he carried on the sheep business with well-deserved success. He set out a family orchard of five acres, consisting of peaches, plums, pears, olives, prunes, oranges and apples, also a small vineyard, to demonstrate the adaptability of this section of the state for the growing of every kind of tree, the climatic conditions being most excellent for fruit-raising. He erected a commodious house and suitable barns, blacksmith shop and outbuildings, and developed water from the many springs on the ranch for irrigation, obtaining sufficient for his half section. Several years ago, Bryant Foreman and his mother entered into negotiations for the sale of the entire ranch, except the five acres where the buildings of the old home place stood, to Cornell and Johnson, of Seattle, and the place is being set to olives, under lease. Bryant made the place his home until his death.

William C. Foreman, the only survivor of the family bearing the name, now lives at the home place, where he has two acres adjoining. He is a blacksmith by trade and has followed it in Butte County nearly all his life, for many years running the shop on the ranch for his father and after his death. He has in his possession the first silver dollar taken in at the opening of his father's hotel at Berry Creek. It is a Mexican coin and is nailed to the end of a yardstick used in his father's store for measuring cloth.
Mr. Foreman was married, in 1880, to Fannie H. Hurles, daughter of Smith Hurles of Hurleton, who is mentioned at length on another page of this history. Mrs. Foreman died, August 27, 1906, leaving one daughter, Norma, now the wife of Morgan D. Levulett, of Oroville. She is the mother of two children. Mr. Foreman is public-spirited and is interested in the preservation of history, and, like his father before him, supports those movements for the upbuilding of the state and county.

Transcribed by Sande Beach.

Source: "History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 452-455, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.

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