Placer
County
Biographies
GEORGE WASHINGTON TOWLE
George Washington Towle, of the firm
of Towle Brothers, Towle, Placer County, California, is the only survivor of
the three brothers who established the above named firm and who built up the
largest and most successful lumber manufacturing business in northern
California.
Mr. Towle was born in Corinth,
Orange County, Vermont, February 2, 1836, of Welsh ancestry
who settled in Londonderry, New Hampshire, at a very early day and were
identified with the early history of that town and later with that of the
colonies. Grandfather Brocket Towle
served through the Revolution, coming out with the rank of colonel, and after
the war settled on land in Orange County, Vermont. There Ira Towle, the father of George W., was
born and spent his life, and the property is still in the possession of the
family. Ira Towle married Miss Annie
Doe, and the following named children were born to them: Edwin W.; Allen; George W.; Mrs. J. H. Robie, of Auburn, California; and Mrs. Henry Robie, of Lincoln, Placer County. The father died in the fifty-ninth year of
his age; the mother in her seventieth year.
George W. Towle received a public
school and academic education in his native state, and until he was past twenty-one
his life was passed on this father’s farm.
Then in 1857 he came to California, making the journey by way of the
Isthmus of Panama. His brother Allen was
already here, located at Dutch Flat, having come the year before, and the next
two years the brothers worked together, mining for wages at the rate of three
dollars and fifty cents per day. In 1859
the third brother, Edwin W., joined them and shortly afterward the brothers
became associated together in the sawmill business, an association which was
formed under the name of Towle Brothers, and which firm style is still used, though
two of the brothers are deceased.
Constant industry and honorable and upright business methods brought
phenomenal success to the company. July
14, 1889, it was incorporated and today the Towle Brothers, recognized as the
largest concern of its kind in California, ships its products to all parts of
this state, to various points in the east and to Europe. The first mill, built in 1859 at Blue Canyon,
had an upright saw and a capacity of about four thousand feet of lumber. The product was sold at good prices to the
miners, but as mining at that point proved a failure the lumber was never paid
for. Afterward they bought a mill at
Dutch Flat, with a capacity of ten thousand feet of lumber per day, and
equipped with a circular saw. This mill
was abandoned after the timber in its vicinity had been cut. Here it was, however, that the success of the
company began. Their next mill they
built on the creek about where Towle now stands, it being known as the Kersage mill and having a capacity of twenty thousand feet
of lumber per day. Subsequently they
built a mill at Cisco and two at Donner Lake, the three having a capacity of
about seventy-five thousand feet, the product from same being used in railroad
construction. The Canyon Creek mill,
with a capacity of thirty thousand feet per day, was the next mill erected by
the company. They took a contract for
and built thirty-five miles of railroad for the Southern Pacific Railroad
Company, from Towle to within three miles of Washington, Nevada County, having
during the period of construction five sawmills along the line. They now have two sawmills in the Texas
district and they manufacture as high as fifteen million feet of lumber per
season; also they manufacture doors, sash, blinds and mouldings of all kinds,
and they have a box factory at Towle and one at Sacramento. From time to time they have acquired large
tracts of land. Recently they sold
eighteen thousand acres of land for grazing and mining purposes, and at this
writing they have eight thousand acres of timber land. They have nine lumber yards in Placer and
Nevada counties. The town of Towle was
named in honor of them and to them owes much of the prosperity which it enjoys,
they having erected good residences and a first-class hotel, and also having
established a mercantile business, which they are conducting.
Edwin W. Towle died in 1888, leaving
a widow and two children, Arthur and Edwin, who reside in Oakland. Arthur is a member of the firm of Towle
Brothers. Allen Towle died in 1896. His children are: G. G., a partner in the above named business;
Ora, now Mrs. Stevenson; and Aline and Sadie. George W. Towle was married in 1874 to Miss
F. A. Staples, by whom two children were born, both now deceased.
For the past thirty years Mr. Towle
has been a member of the I. O. O. F., and politically he is a Republican. Throughout his long and successful business
career he has maintained a reputation for integrity and honor, a reputation in
which his brothers shared.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 385-387. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.