W.W. BRISON 

W.W. Brison, guard at the State Prison, Folsom, was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, December 20, 1828, a son of Oliver and Mary (Wiley) Brison, the former of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio. The parents emigrated from West Virginia to Missouri in 1838, and resided there in Marion County until 1850. In the spring of the latter year father and son started across the plains to California, leaving Independence May 9. At Devil’s Gate, on the Sweetwater, about 150 miles west of Fort Laramie, they stopped eight days, and at Salt Lake two weeks, being there on the 24^th of July, which is the Mormons’ principal holiday. Striking northward from this point, they came to the old Fort Hall road, and onward until they arrived at the head of the Humboldt, and thence down that river to the sink. Soon they struck the forty-mile desert, which they crossed during the night. They reached the Carson River at a point called Ragtown, and went up to the town of Genoa, in the Carson Valley, at the foot of the Sierras. After crossing the summit they came down the old slippery Fort road, an old emigrant trail, to Placerville, arriving there August 19. They commenced mining on the south fork of the American River, near Sutter’s Mill, where Mr. Brison saw the first gold in California. In the fall the river rose so that they had to abandon that place, and they went over to Diamond Spring, El Dorado County, and wintered there. In the spring Mr. Brison, senior, “took up” a quarter section of land, forty acres of which he fenced, and twenty-five he plowed, assisted by his son. It was their intention to use it for garden purposes; but after working it awhile, and finding that they could do nothing with it during the dry spring of 1851, they abandoned it. The land was afterward found to be in the Sutter grant, and the Brisons lost it. A part of it is now in Sacramento city. They then purchased a couple of teams and started to Vacaville in Solano County, cut wild hay and hauled it to Cache Creek Slough, about fifteen miles distant, shipping it by a little boat called the Ohio, to Sacramento, where they sold it. During the winter of 1851-’52 they mined at Kelsup Diggings, near Georgetown, El Dorado County. In the spring the elder Brison went down to Cache Creek in Yolo County, and entered 160 acres, and about a month afterward the junior Brison also entered another quarter section. They fenced in about ten or fifteen acres, and tried to buy it of the grant (the Berryesa grant), but the owners would not give it up. The settlers on the grant then clubbed together and hired a good lawyer to fight the case in the courts at Washington, but they lost their suit. In the spring of 1853 Oliver Brison returned home by water, while W.W. Brison went back to the Diamond Spring mines in 1854, where he continued until 1858. He was then employed by the Eureka Canal Company as agent to collect the water rents. In 1861 he came to Sacramento and took charge of the Western Ditch, which was leased by that company, they giving Mr. Brison full control. The next year he was employed by the Eureka and Natoma Water Companies together to sell water at the Farmer’s Diggings on the American River. In 1865 he returned and took charge again of the Western Ditch in this county until 1867, and the next year bought a ranch on the Folsom grant, sixteen miles from Sacramento, on the Sacramento Valley Railroad. This farm he conducted until 1877, when he purchased a half interest in a wholesale and retail grocery store on the corner of Tenth and K Streets, a store which was formerly owned by Cox & Jones. Running that business until 1880, he sold out his interest to his partner, John Lambert, and May 16, 1881, he left for Arizona on a mining excursion. In September 1886, he returned to this county, and May 21, next year, was appointed as guard at the Folsom State Prison, which position he has successfully filled to the present time. Politically, Mr. Brison is a Democrat, and in former times was very active in public affairs. At one time he was treasurer of the Democratic County Central Committee. March 8, 1866, he married Miss Carrie, daughter of Newell Kane, Sr. They have two sons, Oliver O. and William William, the latter named after his father.