Butte County
Biographies
HENRY WILLIAM NASH
HENRY WILLIAM
NASH.--Inseparably connected with the history of Stirling
City in its infancy are the names of Henry William Nash, commonly known as Will
Nash, and his father, John D., and brother, John Frank, more familiarly known
as Frank Nash. These pioneers of the
flourishing little town shared in its youthful hopes and lived to realize in
some measure the fulfillment of its early promises of growth and prosperity. The Nash family, originally from England,
have had among their descendants in this country men of note, a near relative
of the California branch of the family being the late
Governor Nash of Ohio. Henry William Nash, Stirling City’s
first postmaster, has held the office continuously
since his appointment, having been reappointed by every President since
President Theodore Roosevelt granted him his first commission. He is a native son of the Golden
State, having been born in Auburn,
Placer County,
August 1, 1860.
His paternal grandfather, James C. Nash, a native of Massachusetts,
and one of thirteen brothers who scattered throughout the country, gradually
losing track of one another, came to California via Panama,
in 1849, leaving his family in Massachusetts. He engaged in placer mining in Placer
County. Here his son, John D. Nash, was married to Electa Ann Wheeler, a native of New York
State, who joined her father in California
in 1854, and taught school in Placer and Eldorado
Counties. Two sons were born of this union, Henry
William and John Frank. Mrs. Nash’s
father, Artemus Wheeler, a native of Vermont,
removed to New York State,
where he married. He was a widower when
he came to California via the
Horn, in 1849. He was a practical mining
man, having had charge of an iron mine at Plattsburg, N. Y. Artemus Wheeler
likewise engaged in placer mining, making and losing, as did James Nash and his
son. John D. Nash died nine year ago at Stirling, aged seventy-five years. He had been a resident of Stirling City
since 1903. His wife died at Alameda,
at the home her son, John Frank, while visting the
Exposition in 1915. She lived to be
eighty-three years of age.
Frank Nash is
superintendent of the Verdi Lumber Company, at Verdi,
Nev.
His family are living at Berkeley
at present, because of the educational advantages afforded by the
university. His name is inseparably
linked with the history of Stirling
City. As a young man he became interested in the
lumbering industry in California, and made a study of California’s
forests of yellow and sugar pine, and fir.
He became acquainted with the owner of forty thousand acres of pine
timber at what is now Stirling
City who employed him to negotiate
a sale of the property. He was
successful in the effort, selling it in 1902 to the Diamond Match Company, of
which F. M. Clough (now Pacific Coast
manager for the Shredded Wheat Company at Oakland)
was then the manager on the Coast. Frank
Nash was appointed superintendent at Stirling
City by Mr. Clough; and in this capacity he laid
out the Stirling City
town site and directed the work during the first year, thus going down in
history as the first superintendent for the Diamond Match Company at Stirling City. He remained with the company until about
1910, becoming land-buyer for them. They
now have one hundred seventy-three thousand acres at Stirling City
covered with yellow and sugar pine and red fir.
Frank and Will Nash and their aunt, Mrs. S. R. Bradley, of Placer
County, own the Spring Garden Mine
at Forest Hill, a very rich gravel placer gold mine located in an ancient river
channel. Frank Nash is a member of the Rebekahs and of the Fraternal Brotherhood.
Henry William
Nash grew up in Placer County,
and was educated in the public schools, graduating from the grammar school,
after which he took a special private course under his professor. As a millwright he assisted his father in
putting up quartz mills, constructing iron mills, and installing machinery in
quartz and lumber mills, as at Clipper Gap, Placer County, Forest Hill (gravel
mill), and various other places. In 1894
he went to San Francisco and engaged with the Board of
Fire Underwriters, remaining with them until he came to Stirling City,
in July, 1904. While in their employ he
surveyed and established insurance rates in San Francisco.
Mr. Nash was
married in 1897 to Miss Elizabeth Butler, of Colfax, Placer
County, with whom he had grown
up. She is the daughter of ex-Sheriff
John Butler, well known in Placer
County. Mr. and Mrs. Nash are the parents of one
child, a daughter, Vera, fourteen years of age, now attending Sacramento
High School. Since Mr. Nash’s appointment to the office of
postmaster in 1904, he has built, and owns, two store buildings, the
moving-picture building, and a number of dwelling houses. He has conducted a variety merchandise store,
in which he has the post office. He is
also the proprietor of the moving picture theater, where are shown some of the
finest films obtainable, for the amusement of the citizens of the
community. Mr. Nash is a charter member
and Past Noble Grand of Stirling Lodge, I. O. O. F.
Transcribed
by Roseann Kerby.
Source: "History of Butte
County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1090-1091,
Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Roseann Kerby.
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