SAMUEL DOWDIN, JR.

Sacramento County

Biographies

SAMUEL DOWDIN, JR.

SAMUEL DOWDIN, JR.--A prominent citizen of Sacramento County is Samuel Dowdin, Jr., the free-holder of Folsom City. He was born on his father’s ranch, one and one-half miles south of Nimbus Station, in that county, on November 24, 1877, the son of Samuel Dowdin, who was a native of Old England, where he first saw light on April 24, 1832. He had come direct to America with his father, who expired while en route to California, the devoted kin being called upon to lay him to rest in the soil of Indiana; and Samuel continued on to California with his oxen, and arrived at Placerville early in 1852. He was a placer miner at Peet’s Flat, but the great flood of 1862 swept away all he had acquired of earthly possessions, and he was fortunate to escape with his life. Soon afterward he was married to Miss Orrella Allyn, a noble woman of Scotch ancestry, who had arrived in the Golden State in 1862, having traveled to Placerville by ox team.

Samuel Dowdin, Jr., is the second youngest of a family of five sons and two daughters, the eldest being Robert C. Dowdin, a rancher at Live Oaks in Sutter County. Angeline, the second-born, is now the wife of B. H. Taylor, of Sacramento. Cyrus M. is a rancher at Verona, in North Sacramento. And Charlotte E., the youngest, married C. M. Corbin, of the capital city. Two brothers, Edward and William, are deceased. All the children attended the Kinney School.

Samuel Dowdin, Jr., bought 320 acres in Butte County, at a place called Central House, and removed with his family there; but in 1889 he returned to Sacramento County. His son, Samuel, farmed for himself at home, until he entered the employ of the Natoma Vineyard Company, where he worked for eight years on a vineyard of 2,000 acres, the second largest of its kind in the United States, situated near Sacramento, midway toward Folsom City. At the age of twenty-three, he started work on a steam-dredger, in gold mining on the Mississippi Bar, and for three years he was occupied there; and soon after that, this plant was turned into an electric dredge, so that since his twenty-third year, he has followed the dredgerman’s work in every department. He worked for the Folsom Development Company, and when this was merged into the Natomas Company of California, he still continued with the Natomas Company. He has been an active participator and an eye-witness in this extensive industry and has seen the 500-pound buckets replaced by others each weighing 4,200 pounds.

Full of years and honors, Samuel Dowdin, Sr., passed away on October 1, 1905, at the age of seventy-three, and four years later, at the age of sixty-three, Mrs. Dowdin breathed her last. Both were esteemed and beloved by all who knew them.

Mr. Dowdin is thoroughly patriotic. During the World War he gave splendid support to Liberty Loan drives and to all Red Cross work. He is a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West, and has been president. He is a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, and has been a delegate to the Grand Lodge; and he is a past master of Masons, belonging to the Natoma Lodge, and is a member of the Eastern Star.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Page 890. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.