Butte County
Biographies
ALFRED MULLIN
ALFRED MULLIN.--As might be
expected of one who has spent his entire life in California, Alfred Mullin is a
patriotic son of the Golden State, and ardently champions all measures looking
toward the development of the section wherein he resides. Mr. Mullin was born
at Timbuctoo, Yuba County, October
9, 1857. His father was S. G. Mullin, a native of Nova Scotia. S. G. Mullin was
married at Topsfield, Maine, to Miss Harriet Thornton. Nine children were born
to them: Henry, Alfred, Hattie, Howard, Sadie, Will, Bird, Edward, and Van. The
lure of gold brought the father and his two brothers, John and George Mullin,
to California in the early fifties. They were pioneers, and mined for gold in
Butte, Yuba, and Sierra Counties. The old placer mine at Timbuctoo
was a payer, and among the best of the placer mines in the country.
Alfred Mullin grew up in Yuba County, and
attended the schools there until the age of fourteen, when he began to work at
driving teams to the mines at the old Rice crossing, below Camptonville,
handling four horses over the difficult mountain roads. In 1893, he moved from
Sierra County to Butte County, which was experiencing a boom at that time, due
to the successful operation of the many quartz gold mines in the Forbestown District. The Gold Bank, Shakespeare, Denver
Mine, Golden Queen, Carlyle, and Bullion were all running full blast. From 1893
to 1895, Mr. Mullin and his wife conducted a feed yard and a boarding house at Forbestown. He later went to work at teaming for H. P.
Stowe, manager of the Gold Bank Mine at Forbestown,
where he worked until the mine closed down in 1904. Since then he has teamed,
and with the assistance of Mrs. Mullin has managed a confectionery and
stationery store at Forbestown.
Alfred Mullin has been married twice. In
1882 he was united with Miss Selma Davis, of North Bloomfield, Cal. By his
second marriage he was united with Mrs. Agnes (Picken)
Garabaldi. She was born in the Province of Ontario,
Canada, a daughter of Alexander and Ann (Whitman) Picken,
the former a member of the same family as General Picken.
Her mother was descended from an old English family who settled at Guelph,
Canada, about the year 1700. Mrs. Mullin lived in Canada until twelve years of
age, when she came to California with her parents and settled at Sierra City,
Sierra County. Her father, a shoemaker by trade, was a Mason of good standing
and highly respected. He died at the age of fifty years, in 1899, at Johnsville, in Plumas County, leaving a widow and six
children, of whom Mrs. Mullin was the oldest. Mrs. Mullin’s first husband
was Andrew Garabaldi, the marriage taking place at Downieville, Sierra County, October
12, 1877. Three children were born to them: Amelia was married to William Beardsly, a blacksmith of Bangor. She died on September 13,
1917, leaving two children, Edward and Clifford. Norma is the wife of James
Young, a rancher near Forbestown; they have two
children, Lillian and Melvin. Andretta is the wife of
John Arndale, a rancher at Sloat,
Plumas County. She has been twice married. By her first husband, James Bennett,
she had three daughters, Agnes, Anna, and Melba; and by her present husband,
she has had two sons, Richard and George. Mr. Garabaldi
was killed while coupling wagons, on May 23, 1881, at Brown’s Valley, at the
age of twenty-four. Mrs. Mullin was a widow until January 23, 1893, when
she married Alfred Mullin. Mr. and Mrs. Mullin are highly respected in their
community. He has perhaps more political influence than any other man in Forbestown. She is an excellent and dependable postmaster
and business woman, and an authority on pioneer history in Butte County.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
20 May 2009.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages
976-977, Historic Record
Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies