Placer
County
Biographies
WILLIAM B. LARDNER
Prominent among the distinguished
member of the bar of Placer County is numbered William Branson Lardner. He is actively connected with the profession
which has an important bearing upon the progress and stable prosperity of any
section or community, and one which has long been considered as conserving the
public welfare by furthering the ends of justice and maintaining individual
rights. In political circles Mr. Lardner
has also gained distinction and in 1899 and 1900 represented the thirteenth
district of California in the general assembly, and is now state senator from
the fifth congressional district.
A native of Michigan, he was born in
Niles, on the 12th of December, 1850, and is a representative of an
old English family. His great-grandfather,
Lynford Lardner, immigrated to Philadelphia in 1740. He was a brother-in-law of Richard Penn and
went to Philadelphia in the interest of the Penn heirs, having charge of the
estate there. He settled at Lansdowne
and had one hundred acres of land at Holmesburg, on the Delaware River. His son, William Lardner, the grandfather of
our subject, married Miss Ann Shepherd, of North Carolina, and their son,
Lynford Lardner, was born in Philadelphia.
Having arrived at years of majority he married Sarah K. Moore, also a
native of the Keystone state. In 1832 he
removed to Cincinnati, prior to which time he was in the United States Bank in
Philadelphia, with Nicholas Biddle, a cousin and one of the most distinguished
financiers the country has produced.
Later in life Mr. Lardner engaged in the wholesale grocery business in
Cincinnati. In religious belief he was
an Episcopalian, while his wife was identified with the Methodist church. They became the parents of nine
children. The father died in 1882 at the
age of seventy-six years, and is buried at Auburn, California. His wife passed away October 13, 1899, at the
advanced age of eighty-one years. Only
four of the family yet survives.
William Branson Lardner, whose name
introduces this review, was educated in Cornell College, Iowa, being graduated
in that institution with the class of 1875.
Determining to enter the profession of law he prepared for the bar by
pursuing a course in the law department of the State University of Iowa, in
which he was graduated n 1877.
Previously he had engaged in teaching school for five years in Iowa and
in California, and when he had mastered the principles of jurisprudence
sufficient for admission to the bar he came direct to Auburn and opened a law
office, in which he has since continued.
He has a close and discriminating nature, with keen powers of analysis,
is logical in argument, forceful in delivery and convincing in his appeals
before court and jury. He is now well
known as a well-read lawyer and an able advocate, having been connected with
much important litigation whereby his ability has been demonstrated. In 1879 he was elected district attorney and
served in that office most capably for two years and ten months, during which
time he prosecuted the train-wreckers who had wrecked the train at Cape Horn
Mills. This was a very celebrated case,
and two of the men were convicted. The
able manner in which he handled the suit won for Mr. Lardner considerable
celebrity as an able criminal lawyer.
In 1898, while he was in the east,
he was nominated by the Republican Party here as a candidate for the assembly,
and returning home he entered upon the campaign, making a capable canvass of
his district. He received the flattering
majority of eight hundred and ninety-three over his competitor, a most
excellent man. Mr. Lardner possesses
marked energy and determination and is an active factor in political
circles. Since coming to Auburn he has
frequently done able work on the stump for his party, and has also been one of
the most influential promoters of the interests of the town and county along
many lines which have contributed to the material upbuilding and progress of this
portion of the state. His is a loyal
devotion to the county’s good, and his efforts have been of benefit in many
directions.
Mr. Lardner is a member of the
Miners’ Association and labored for the mining interests of California through
his membership on the mining committee of the legislature. He is also a prominent Mason, holding
membership in lodge, chapter, and commandery.
He is also a Forester and is identified with the Improved Order of Red
Men, and in all these organizations he takes an active interest, being imbued
with the helpful and benevolent spirit of the fraternity.
On the 11th of January,
1881, Mr. Lardner was married to Miss Jennie Mitchell, a native of Essex
County, New York, and a daughter of William H. Mitchell, now a prominent
citizen and leading politician of Beloit, Kansas, who served as a delegate to
the national convention held in Philadelphia in 1900. Mr. and Mrs. Lardner have five children, all
born in Auburn, namely: Mabel Frances,
Mary Biddle, William Branson Penn, Georgia Florence and Effa
Elvira.
The parents are active members of
the Protestant Episcopal Church, in which Mr. Lardner is serving as the senior
warden and superintendent of the Sunday-school, having occupied both positions
for many years. He is a member of the Monday
Night Club, whose object is to study and cultivate a taste for literature,
science, art, music and patriotism. This
is one of the leading organizations of the city and in its work he takes a deep
interest. He has a nice home and finds
great pleasure in improving his grounds and in caring for his fruits and
flowers there. His is a well-rounded
nature, in which devotion to a single interest alone has not produced a
one-sided development. His career, both
public and private, is marked by the strictest integrity and faithfulness to
every trust reposed in him. The record
of his life is unclouded by any shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil. He is known as an honorable man, a pleasant,
social companion, a devoted husband and father and as one who holds friendship
inviolable.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 222-224. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.