Plumas
County
Biographies
CHARLES E. SHOPTAW
The
Quincy Lumber Company made a “ten strike” when it secured the services of
Charles E. Shoptaw as mill foreman, for he is a
veteran mill and lumberman and is intimately familiar with every phase of the
technical end of the business, while his administrative ability is also apparent
in the smooth manner in which the mill operates under his supervision. Mr. Shoptaw was
born in Logan County, Arkansas, January 16, 1875, a son of Matthew P. and Sarah
Shoptaw. His
father was a native of Kentucky and went to Arkansas to engage in the sawmill
business. Of the nine children who were
born to him and his wife, Charles E. is the sixth in order of birth. Three are living in California, Charles E.,
J. T., who is employed in the head office of the Bank of Italy in San
Francisco; and Bessie, the wife of Mr. Hillbinger, a
restaurateur of San Francisco. The
father died in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, at the age of eighty-three years, and the
mother in Fort Smith, Arkansas, at the age of forty-nine years.
Charles
E. Shoptaw received but meager educational advantages
as he was compelled to walk seven miles to school. When he was fourteen years of age his mother
died, after which he left home and has made his own way from that time. Going to Anahuac, Texas, he went to work for
the Cummings Lumber Company, in its hardwood lumber mill. Already he had some sawmill
experience, having as a boy worked with his father in the latter’s small
sawmill at Paris, Logan County, Arkansas.
They often worked at night, when the boy would hold a lantern to enable
his father to do his work as a sawyer.
During the years since then Mr. Shoptaw has
worked in every capacity about lumber camps and sawmills, from cleanup boy to
manager. From Anahuac, Texas, he went to
Oakdale, Allen Parish, Louisiana, but later decided to try his luck on the
Pacific coast. Going to Chiloquin,
Oregon, he worked for the E. A. Blocklinger Company
until its mill was destroyed by fire, in 1906, when he went to the Southern
Oregon Lumber Company. Later he went to
Alturas, Modoc County, California, and entered the employ of the Pickering
Lumber Company as a sawyer, remaining there until 1929, when he came to Quincy
as mill foreman for the Quincy Lumber Company.
There are twenty-five men employed in this mill, which has a daily
capacity of eighty-five thousand feet of lumber, and it is the principal
industry at Quincy.
In
1899, at Wallisville, Chambers County, Texas, Mr. Shoptaw was united in marriage to Miss Ethel Welker, a
native of Roanoke, Indiana, and they are the parents of five children: Emma Laura, who is the wife of O. L. Brain, a
carpenter in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and they have three children; R. L., an
employee of the Forest Lumber Company at Chiloquin, Oregon, who married Miss
Bernice Dill and they are the parents of two children; J. A., who operates the resaw at the Quincy mill; A. V., in high school at Quincy,
and Bobbie C., at home. Mr. Shoptaw is a member of the Knights of Pythias
and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Oakdale, Louisiana. He adheres to the Presbyterian Church and
gives generously to worthy benevolent causes.
Politically, he maintains an independent attitude, supporting the
candidates who in his judgment will do the most for the public welfare. Though comparatively a newcomer to Quincy, he
has formed a wide acquaintance and his sterling character has gained for him
the genuine respect of the community. He
is essentially a self-made man and his steady advancement in his line of work has
been due to his ability and faithfulness in the discharge of every duty, through
which he has won and retained the confidence of his employers.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 149-150. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.