Butte County
Biographies
WILLIAM H. JAMES
WILLIAM H. JAMES.—A mining man of many
years’ experience, whose services as a mine examiner are widely sought, and who
enjoys life in the companionship of a most estimable wife, is William H. James,
of Oroville, and for the past forty-seven years a resident of California. Born near Camborne, Cornwall,
England, on January 14,
1864, he was the son of Peter and Elizabeth Jane (Mitchell) James. Peter James was a miner who came to California
about 1868, and about three years later he was joined by his family. For a while he mined at Grass
Valley, Nevada County, and later went to Placer
County and the Iowa Hill Divide,
eight miles east of Colfax. He became
interested in drift and hydraulic mining, and while foreman of the company he
was accidentally killed in the Morning Star Mine by the breaking of the
discharge pipe carrying off the gravel.
This was on April 20, 1880, and the mother also died at Iowa Hill, in
February, 1888, leaving six children, all of whom are living and residents of California. They are: Thomas W. and William H., of
Oroville; Elizabeth Jane and John R., twins, still living at Iowa Hill; Edith
C., of Oakland; and Edward G., of San
Francisco.
The second eldest
of this family, William H., was but sixteen years old when his father died, and
it was then he showed what “stuff he was made of” by becoming, with his elder
brother, a bread-winner for the family.
He was brought up in Placer County,
and attended the public schools there.
His attention was turned to hydraulic and drift
mining at an early age, and he was employed at the Morning Star Mine at the
time his father met his death. He still
continued working for this company and then became shift foreman for the Red
Point Mine, in Placer County. Later he returned to the Morning Star Mine,
where for three years he served as shift foreman. With this practical experience he decided he
would take a mining engineering course, which he did, and also studied bookkeeping
at Heald’s Business College
in San Francisco, graduating therefrom in 1900.
Mr. James then took a two years’ course in assaying, mineralogy,
chemistry and affiliated subjects, under E. H. Simonds,
in San Francisco. Thus prepared to cope with almost every
contingency in mining engineering, he traveled for Charles F. Hoffmann and Sons
and Ross E. Browne, noted mining engineers, going to Eagle City, Dawson and
other places in Alaska, examining mines and the possibilities of engineering,
until 1904.
In the last named
year Mr. James came to Butte County with Mr. Hoffmann to examine some property,
and upon completion of the examination and the recommendation of Mr. Hoffmann,
he accepted the position of manager of the Viloro
Syndicate, Limited, of London, and undertook to dredge their property; he
continued with them until they quit the field in the fall of 1915. In the meantime he assisted in organizing the
Oroville Union Gold Dredge Company, becoming its president, and this company
operated a dredge on the Will and Gable orchards until they were dredged out, a
very successful enterprise. Since 1915,
Mr. James has devoted his time principally to the examination of placer mines
in California, Oregon, Montana,
and other western states, for different mining companies. He also became interested, as a stockholder,
in drift mining at Sierra City,
with the Klondike Mining Company.
At Damascus,
Placer County,
Mr. James was united in Marriage with Miss Emma Schmitt, a native of Iowa Hill,
and the daughter of John Schmitt, one of the pioneer business men of that
vicinity. Five children have blessed
this union: Elbert Peter, who is employed by the Pacific Hardware and Steel
Company, in San Francisco; Irene Florence, who is a graduate of the Oroville
High School and the University of California, having been a member of the Class
of 1914 and receiving the degree of Bachelor of Science, and who is now a
teacher in the Oroville High School; William Lawrence, who is a baseball player
and who was a member of the Boston Nationals, and helped to win the pennant in
the world’s Championship series, getting credit of winning two games out of the
four that decided the series in their favor, and who is also a member of the
Elks and Knights of Pythias and is now in the service
of the Government as a member of Company I, Sixty-third United States Infantry;
Vernon Edward, who is a student in the Department of Dental Surgery, University
of California, and also a Mason, and who has been called to report in the
Medical Department of the United States Army at Allentown, Pa.; and Gertrude,
who died at the age of three months.
Mr. James is a
Republican in national affairs. He
belongs to the odd Fellows Lodge at Colfax, in which he is a Past Grand. Mrs. James is a member of the Rebekahs and the Eastern Star. Mr. James is a self-made man, public-spirited
and enterprising and enjoys the confidence of a wide circle of friends and
acquaintances.
Transcribed 5-7-08
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 934-935, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
©
2008 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
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