Butte County
Biographies
CHARLES F. SADOWSKI
CHARLES F. SADOWSKI.--A veteran of the Oroville Fire Department with
three decades of volunteer service to his credit, during which he was for years
the fire laddies’ chief, Charles F. Sadowski looks back on a successful life as a pioneer
farmer and merchant. Born in Fairview, Jones County, Iowa, July 15, 1852, he
was the son of Michael Sadowski, a native of Warsaw,
in Poland, where he was born in 1818. While a young man the father was serving
in the Polish Army, and was captured by the Russians, and on being given a
choice of returning to Poland or making for the United States, he decided in
favor of America as the safer place of the two. After arriving in New York City,
he secured a position as interpreter, and having seven languages at his
command, the result of a higher collegiate education in Poland, he acted for
three years as interpreter. In 1839, he came to Jones County, Iowa, and being a
cabinet-maker by trade he found employment in the manufacture of chairs and
tables. He bought forty acres at Fairview and tilled the same, and later took
up house painting, which he continued until his death, in 1868. His wife, who
was Sarah Williams before her marriage, was born in Indiana, and came from that
state to Iowa with her parents. When she died, in 1912, she had reached her
eighty-second year, the mother of four children, three of whom are still
living.
The oldest child in the family, and the
only one in California, Charles Sadowski was brought
up in Fairview until 1864, when he came to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he
attended school, and from there he removed to Boone County, in the same state.
Here he learned the tinner’s trade, and on completing
his apprenticeship went to Council Bluffs. For a while he worked as a tinsmith,
and then he took to railroading, serving first as a fireman and then becoming
an engineer.
In July, 1872, Mr. Sadowski
came to California, intending to lay off for a month.
He brought his maternal grandmother, Mrs. William Olmstead, to Berry Creek,
Butte County, for her health, as she had a daughter, Mrs. Hakes, living here.
He liked it so well in Butte County that he took employment with
J. M. Brock as a tinner, and continued with
him, on Montgomery Street, Oroville, for seventeen years, the firm later
becoming Brock and Taber.
In March, 1889, Brock and Taber failed in
business, and then Mr. Sadowski started for himself
in plumbing and tinning, opening a shop on Montgomery Street, between Huntoon and Lincoln, where he hung out his sign until 1911.
He manufactured galvanized iron tanks and other serviceable articles, and
secured his share of the trade; but in November, 1911, he was burned out. Since
then he has continued a shop near his residence, doing such jobbing and
plumbing as he can. Some time ago Mr. Sadowski
secured twenty acres, three and a half miles east of Oroville, which he cleared
and set out to olives, oranges, and some deciduous fruit trees. He has a fine
spring, from which, with the aid of a gas engine, he elevates the water to the
highest point, sixty feet above the surface and a thousand feet away.
When Mr. Sadowski
married he plighted his troth to Miss Rose Martin at the altar in Oroville. She
was a native of New York City, and after some years of happy wedded life she
passed away in 1905, the mother of five children, all of whom are living: Lottie Amelia, Mrs. Dresser, resides with Mr. Sadowski at his attractive home at 515 Oak Street; Harry is
chief of the Oroville Fire Department; Archie is a plumber at Oroville; and
Edith and Ethel are twins. The former lives at home, while the latter, Mrs.
Matson, resides at Richmond. Three times Mr. Sadowski
has returned to Iowa, but each time he has returned to California with
increased liking for the Golden State.
A Republican of prominence, Mr. Sadowski was long connected with the fire department, and
for nine years was chief of the same, being especially active in the Ophir Hook, Ladder and Hose Company. He is a
member of Oroville Lodge, No. 59, I. O. O. F., in which he has served three
terms as Noble Grand, and was a delegate to the Grand Lodge eight times. He is
a member and Past Chief Patriarch (having served two terms) of the Encampment,
and five times was a member of the Grand Encampment. He is also a charter
member of the Rebekahs.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
19 May 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 975-976, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies