Butte County
Biographies
EDWARD ERNEST WALSH
EDWARD ERNEST WALSH.—The leading and busiest sign-painter in the county, and the proprietor of the largest automobile painting establishment here, Edward Ernest Walsh, stimulated perhaps by his association through marriage with one of the old pioneer families still finds time to interest himself in pioneer history, and is never too occupied to lend a helping hand to others in a community which has so generously patronized him. Born at Lake Geneva, Walworth County, Wis., March 26, 1860, he is the son of James Walsh, a native of Ireland, who came to the United States when about twenty years of age, and settled in Walworth County. There he soon met Susan Johnson, who was born in Niagara County, N. Y., and who came to Milwaukee with her parents in 1838. That town was then a trading-post, and the family settled in the southern part of Walworth County, where the father, who was a farmer, afterward died. Mrs. Walsh died at Oroville, the mother of four children: Eliza is Mrs. Bucknell of Pasadena; James came to California in 1876, established himself at Oroville as a blacksmith, and died here; A. J. is at John Day, Ore., in charge of a dredger; and Edward Ernest, the third in the order of birth, is the subject of this sketch.
Brought up on a farm in Wisconsin until he was eighteen, Edward attended both the grammar and the Geneva High School, and then struck out for the gold mines of California. He headed for Indian Valley, in Plumas County, where his brother had preceded him; and stopping at Reno, he walked into California over the snow. This was early in the spring of 1878. He took two days to cover the eighty miles leading to Indian Valley, and when he arrived at his destination began placer-mining. He met with reasonable success, and still has a longing to try his hand at the chanceful game. He followed mining at Indian Valley for six years, working both the placers and quartz mines, and then he learned both the wheelwright and painting trades, at which he worked in Gilroy for five years.
In September, 1888, he come to Oroville, and here he has resided ever since. With his two brothers, he established a blacksmith and carriage shop, but later he devoted himself to painting and found that carriage and sign-painting proved more profitable. He therefore disposed of part of his interest to his brother, and now limits himself to sign and automobile painting. His well-known establishment is at 403 Montgomery Street, and there he executes the finest of electric and other signs, and with expert touch and desirable thoroughness so renovates motor cars as to make them quite as attractive as when new. In all his work Mr. Walsh sets for himself a high standard which he never fails to maintain, thereby contributing his share toward an art, and acquiring an artisan supremacy which is bound to be favorable to the industrial reputation of the community. Mr. Walsh is interested with other in the place claims at the mouth of the Brush Creek, on the Middle Fork of the Feather River, twenty-five miles northeast of Oroville, where surveys are made and plans are forming for the construction of a large dam and power plant, for the conservation of water and the generation of electric power.
At Oroville, Mr. Walsh was married to Miss Georgie F. Josephson, who was born a mile from Oroville, the daughter of Martin Josephson, and honored pioneer here, and an expert horticulturist. Educated in this vicinity, Mrs. Walsh has become a valuable helpmate; she is the mother of two children: Kenneth, a graduate of the Oroville High School, who is painting with his father; and Lois, a graduate of the Chico State Normal School, who is a teacher. Mr. Walsh is a member of the Independent Order of the Foresters and the Modern Woodmen of America.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1317-1318, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies