Sacramento County
Biographies
MORRIS
ADELBERT BAXTER
M. A. BAXTER, general foreman of foundry and wheel departments, Central Pacific Railroad shops, Sacramento, is a native of Vermont, born at Norwich Plain, on the 17th day of October, 1836, his parents being Erastus and Lucy (Freeman) Baxter. When he was but seven years of age, his parents removed to Franklin County, New York, where he received his education, and assisted his father on the farm. When he was sixteen years of age he went to Manchester, New Hampshire, and learned the molder’s trade at the Amoskeag Locomotive Works. He was employed there four years, then went to Providence, and was engaged at the works of Collins & Nightingill, one of the largest establishments in New England. In 1858 he went to Chicago, and was for several years employed at the McCormick Reaper Works. In 1864 he went to Elgin, and in connection with a partner, opened a foundry there, which they operated until 1866. In 1867 Mr. Baxter came out to California. Going to New York, he took the steamer Arago as far as the Isthmus, and proceeded to California on the America, landing at San Francisco January 28, 1868. On the 30th he was in Sacramento, and he went out on the Cosumnes River to the ranch of his father-in-law, Theophilus Renwicke, who now has a fruit ranch at Florin. From there he went to Folsom, and, obtaining employment in the shops of the Central Pacific Railroad there, went to work on the 26th of March, 1868. When they bought out the I street foundry, in September of that year, he came to Sacramento, and went to work in the foundry here. When the shops were built, two years later, he went into the foundry department. He worked as a journeyman seven or eight years, then was given charge of the wheel departments. In these departments between fifty and sixty tons of metal are melted per day, and 112 wheels is a day’s work. Mr. Baxter was married at Elgin, Illinois, on the 8th of June, 1859, to Miss Julia Renwicke, a native of that city. They have one son, Charles (who is an engineer for the Central Pacific Company at Dunsmoor), and one daughter, Miss Bertha. Mr. Baxter is a member of Union Lodge, A. O. U. W., and of Union Lodge, A. F. & M. He has been a Republican since the organization of that party, and cast his first presidential vote for John C. Fremont. Mr. Baxter is one of the old-time force of the railroad company, and is a popular man with the employees in his department.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of
Sacramento County, California. Page 735. Lewis
Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.