Calaveras
County
Biographies
WILLIAM B. KEYES
William Bingham Keyes is the name of
a prominent pioneer settler of Angel’s Camp, Calaveras County, California, the
owner of much valuable mining property and one of the best known citizens of
his section of country.
Mr. Keyes was born in Genesee
County, New York, on January 25, 1828, of Scotch and German ancestry, who had
made settlement in America long before the Revolutionary War. His father was Luman
Keyes, a native of Massachusetts who had been a soldier in the War of 1812, and
his mother was Nancy (Daily) Keyes, a native of Pennsylvania. The family removed to South Bend, Indiana,
when our subject was but three years of age, in 1831, being pioneer settlers of
that section. Nine children were born to
Mr. and Mrs. Keyes, but at present there are but two survivors. At the age of eighty-one years Mr. Keyes
died, after a life of honesty and persevering industry, but Mrs. Keyes had
passed away in her seventy-sixth year.
William Keyes was reared on the farm
in Indiana, working through the summers and going to school for three months in
the winter until old enough to learn the carpenter’s trade, at which he
employed himself until the gold fever attacked him. He was in poor health and his physician
favored his plan of journeying to California; hence, when Captain Ellsworth, a
friend of his father, sailed for San Francisco with his small merchant vessel
and twenty-six passengers, Mr. Keyes was one of them. The voyage was a long and tedious one, with
no accident except the sad death of one of the passengers, Charles Green by
name. Burial was made at sea and the
vessel pursued her way, finally safely reaching her destination.
Mr. Keyes first went to San
Francisco, thence to Hangtown, now Placerville, and began mining at Cedar
River, toward the southern part of the state, using first a pan, and later a
rocker. He met with very fair success
which, in part, he ascribes to his perseverance. His partner became very homesick, so much
that he went to bed, but Mr. Keyes went to work and in less than an hour had a
pan of dirt worth three dollars which he took within to show to his sick
partner. In a short time he returned to
the tent with a nugget worth $48, and this was all the spur needed, chasing
away homesickness from the young man and causing him to go to work with as much
interest as Mr. Keyes. Success attended
them, the largest day’s work of Mr. Keyes’ being sixteen ounces of gold. After four months labor, they found themselves
in possession of seven thousand dollars in gold.
Mr. Keyes has mined on Ranchero
Creek, in Amador County, and in 1856-57 he tried the reputed rich mining region
of the Fraser River, but that proved a failure, and he returned to Sutter
Creek, Amador County, and engaged in a partnership with William Smith. They had there a rich claim, taking out from
nine to ten ounces a day. From there he
went to Walker River, which section was the scene of much excitement, in 1859,
but his success here was indifferent and they started for Green River, and were
turned back by the Indians, who chased them for four days, cutting them off
from all provisions and water and for forty-eight hours they were without a
mouthful to eat or drink. They made
their way to Salt Lake and after a week’s stay they proceeded to Virginia City,
Nevada. Here he was taken sick and
returned to Sutter Creek, and worked in the Eureka mine for Haywood for two
years and then kept a hotel at Cold Springs on Amador road to Silver mountain,
which was a failure and caused Mr. Keyes to lose all he had, and went from
thence to Angel’s Camp in 1865, where he has since made his home, mining and
working at his trade.
Mr. Keyes took up a quartz and
placer mining claim of twenty acres adjoining the town, in a fine locality,
built a fine residence on it with his own hands, planted trees and made
improvements until he now has a most pleasant home in which to pass his
declining years. He has constructed many
of the houses and mills of the flourishing mining town of Angel’s Camp and in
1866, in partnership with Mr. Louis McGaffy, George
King, O. B. Kelly, Dr. O. P. Southwell and Mr. Leeper, he located the famous
Utica mine, selling it in 1884 to Lane and Company for ten thousand
dollars. It has proved one of the finest
mines in the state and much of the growth of Angel’s Camp is due to this
mine. Mr. Keyes then spent some time in
Tulare County, where he had charge of a large tract of land upon which he put
down the first test artesian well in that county. It was located on the line of Kern and Tulare
counties and was six hundred and forty feet deep, with a flow of nine inches of
water over an eight-inch pipe. Two years
were spent here, and then he returned to Angel’s Camp, making, however, a trip
through Oregon and Idaho, to see the country.
He is one of the proprietors of the Eureka Consolidated Mining Company
at Jennie Lind, who owns one hundred acres of quartz land, the owners being
Keyes, Collins and Hoffman.
Mr. Keyes was married January 23,
1867, to Miss Mary A. Lindsey, a native of Boston, Massachusetts. She was a daughter of Thomas Lindsey, a
pioneer who died at Angel’s Camp at the age of seventy-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Keyes have one child, Eva, who
is now the wife of James Barney. Since
the organization of the Republican Party he has been an ardent Republican,
casting his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, and staunchly upholding the
principles of that organization. Honesty
and integrity have marked the career of Mr. Keyes through life, and he considers
the following of the Golden Rule a sufficient moral law, free from creed.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 316-318. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Calaveras County Biographies