Butte County
Biographies
EDWARD BENSON WARD
EDWARD BENSON WARD.—A native son who was proud of the pioneer record of his family and who, therefore, had the interest of both the city and county much at heart, was Edward Benson Ward, late secretary of the Oroville Chamber of Commerce, who was born at Morristown, Sierra County, Cal., December 8, 1860. His grandfather, Thomas Ward, was born in Londonderry, Ireland, and came as a contractor and stonemason to Romney, W. Va., and there, after some years at farming, he died. Edward’s father, William, was born at Romney, became a journeyman saddler, and when the excitement about the discovery of gold in California agitated the country, he was attracted to the coast, and soon arrived at Lexington, Mo., where he fitted out as one of a company for the long trip across the plains. It was a mule-train caravan, and the party arrived in California in the fall of 1849. It had headed for Hangtown or Sacramento, but the roads were so hard to follow and maps were so incomplete that east of the Rocky Mountains they came to forks in the road where many people were already assembled in a fearful state of bewilderment as to which way to proceed.
After about three days, one of the party struck out and others followed him. It happened to be on the Lassen trail. When they came to Deer Creek divide, a few miles from Big Meadows, they found such a bad path that they had to abandon their wagons and most of their supplies, which enabled them to get through without any further trouble. They saw notices, however, left by travelers who had gone that way before, one of which had been scratched with charcoal on the bleached head of an animal and which read, “Beware! Indians bad in this section!”
At length William Ward reached the gold fields at Long’s Bar, Butte County, on the Feather River, and there he and his three comrades divided their stores and separated. Mr. Ward located a claim above Long’s Bar at White Rock, and spent the first winter in a dug-out below two logs covered with brush and dirt; and there, by hard work, he did well.
As soon as one claim did not pay twenty dollars a day, Mr.Ward would take another; and hearing of mines further north toward Yankee Hill and Concow, he and others went there, arriving with mules in the afternoon. Many Indians visited them, but proved friendly. Towards evening the gold-seekers saw fires kindled on higher ridges, and heard shouting back and forth, calls and responses; and fearing treachery of the savages, they loaded up after dark and returned to Pentz Ranch. Then they mined at Stringtown; and when, about 1852, a company was formed, they went into Sierra County at Craig’s Flat and Morristown, where they profited by hydraulic engineering undertaken for the American Mining Company. After trying his luck at Morristown for a while, Mr. Ward engaged in the butcher business there, and also at Poker Flat, still later locating at Eureka, eight miles north of Downieville.
Completing a round decade in the butcher and stock business, Mr. Ward, with a partner named John Greenfield, and for a while the business was conducted under the firm name of Greenfield and Ward. Then the latter sold his interest to Greenfield, and opened the Huntoon Market, on Huntoon Street, with James Stevenson, of Wyandotte, as a partner and the new firm was called Ward and Stevenson. At the end of three years Mr. Ward sold out, having been appointed road overseer of District No. 1, an office he continued to hold for many years. He died in 1906, aged eighty-one years.
Edward Ward’s mother was Chestina Maria Benson, a native of Syracuse, N. Y., who moved to Illinois with her parents and settled at Belvidere. Her father was a pioneer of Illinois, who came from New York in a wagon, making his way through swamps and over corduroy roads to Belvidere. He was a freighter and farmer, and died there. One of his sons, named Le Roy Benson, had come to California about 1850 or 1851, and was a partner of Mr. Ward at Craig’s Flat. Miss Benson joined her brother in 1856, traveling by way of the Isthmus of Panama to Craig’s Flat, and there she met Mr. Ward, whom she married the following year. She died while visiting in Oakland, four years after her husband’s death. Their five children are: Mary Virginia, who is Mrs. McFarland of Antelope, Cal.; William A., who lives in Oroville; Julia V., a teacher in the Oroville school; Lewis F., residing at Oroville; and Edward Benson, the subject of this sketch.
Born at Morristown, Cal., Edward Benson Ward was brought up in Sierra County and attended its public schools until his fifteenth year, when he came to Oroville, and for a couple of terms attended the public school here, and having completed his course began life on his own account. He helped his father in the market, and then assisted him in collecting the road tax for his road work. Then he acted as clerk in a grocery with Perkins, Logan and Company, and finally was in the sheriff’s office three years under Sheriff Samuel McClellan, and three years under John M. Ball, when he resigned to make a campaign for the office of auditor and recorder. He was defeated, however, and then he became clerk in a grocery store. Being given a vacation, he was assistant minute clerk in the State Legislative Assembly for 1893, and at the close of the session he continued with the grocery firm. In the campaign of 1894 he again received the nomination for auditor and recorder, and this time he was elected, taking office in January, 1895, and being reelected in 1898. He held this office until January, 1903, and then accepted service with the North California Mining Company, as manager of the Oroville office under H. H. Yard. While with the North California Mining Company, Mr. Ward was appointed justice of the peace of Ophir Township, to fill an unexpired term of a year. Since 1912 Mr. Ward was secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. He was manager of the two citrus fairs, the Oroville Orange and Olive Expositions, which were decided successes. Since then similar funds were used for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
Not a movement for the public benefit has been proposed which has not had Mr. Ward’s support. He was secretary of the Feather River Highway Association, whose aim was to secure a state highway or military road up the Feather River from Oroville to the eastern connection through Plumas and Sierra Counties. He was secretary and one of the trustees of the Oroville Mosquito Abatement Association, an organization to fight the mosquitoes. He was a charter member of the Knights of Pythias and in politics was a Democrat.
Mr. Ward was married June 30, 1892, to Miss Georgia McClellan, a native of Butte County, and the younger daughter of Samuel and Sarah McClellan. Her father was from Ohio, and crossed the plains in 1852, and after mining at old Diamondville was a butcher there, and then had a hotel at Nimshew. Mr. McClellan was county assessor for many years, and then served for a couple of terms as sheriff, after which he retired. Mrs. Ward was a graduate of the Oroville schools, and the mother of one son, Earl Stanley, a student of the law department of the University of California. Mr. Ward passed away on August 11, 1918.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 567-569, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2007 Sande Beach.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies