Butte County
Biographies
EDWARD MICHAEL GALLAGHER
EDWARD MICHAEL GALLAGHER.--A Butte County pioneer from the good old soil of Erin, who has been here forty years, and knows, therefore, nearly everyone prominently connected with this section, and recalls with unerring memory the events in the county’s romantic past, is Edward Michael Gallagher, whom nearly everybody knows and likes as “a real Irish gentleman.” Edward Michael Gallagher was born in County Derry, in the North of Ireland, on February 17, 1860, the son of Michael and Ann (McAllister) Gallagher, farmer-folk who lived and died in that country. The lad attended the national schools there, growing up in the pleasant ways of country life, and when eighteen years of age crossed the ocean to America. He landed in New York, and from there came direct to Biggs; and here, as farm laborer, tenant and landowner, he has been ever since.
At present, as a tenant farmer, Mr. Gallagher has three hundred acres, five miles northwest of Biggs, planted to barley; and this, he finds, keeps him sufficiently occupied. Other crops he does not particularly care to raise. He is convinced, however, that rice has proved to be a successful crop, and that the new industry means money to the farmers.
Mr. Gallagher has a wonderfully retentive memory, an inquiring and an acquiring mind, a level head--like most Irishmen--and excellent judgment; and his counsels are sought by the poor and the rich. This has given him a wide acquaintance among the pioneers of the county. He has a salutary regard for truth, and the capacity for good-fellowship and friendship. He is probably too generous ever to become rich; but he is nevertheless independently well-to-do.
Mr.
Gallagher is active in politics, and concerns himself with every matter that
pertains to the common good. In this way, while proving the best of kind
neighbors, he also evidences his value as a public-spirited citizen.
Transcribed by Vicky
Walker, 1/17/08.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Page 631, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Vicky
Walker.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies