WILLIAM DREHER

Sacramento County

Biographies

WILLIAM DREHER

WILLIAM DREHER.--One of the successful citizens of the capital city who has made his own way in the world and has always put his shoulder to the wheel when any project was brought to his notice for the developing of the wonderful resources of Sacramento County is found in William Dreher, residing at 403 Sixteenth Street. He was born in Germany on June 7, 1882, on a farm operated by his parents, Antone and Christina Dreher, worthy folks who did their duty in their place and day and sent the lad forth into the world with a far better equipment than many a boy has had. He attended the excellent schools of his native country and then he learned the trades of harness maker and upholster. After he had mastered them he went to England in the spring of 1900, and for the next eleven months he worked at the butcher business; the following summer he crossed the ocean to the United States and in Washington, D.C., he followed his trade of upholsterer. At the early age of nineteen he was in business for himself and when he sold out he came West to Nevada, where he was one of the pioneers in Manhattan, arriving there in 1905 and remaining until 1909, during which time for the first three years he ran a livery business and harness shop. He is well-posted on the pioneer conditions of that section when the new mining camps were enjoying their boom days and fortunes were won and lost overnight at gaming tables.

Leaving Manhattan he came to Sacramento, where from 1909 until 1921 he conducted the old Turner Hall cafe on K Street, headquarters for good things to eat. In the meantime he began to invest in land and bought a twenty-five acre ranch out on Sixteenth Street, which he began to develop from its virgin state of pasture, and he built roads to make the property accessible; he being the pioneer in this district. In time he established a dairy with thoroughbred Holstein cows and built up a good trade and at the same time sold young stock, shipping to the Hawaiian Islands and other places. The bull at the head of his herd, Sir Aggie Mead De Kol the Fifth, is a half-brother of the champion at the California State Fair in 1922. The ranch has now been sub-divided and laid out in town lots and factory sites, with fine improved streets, curbs, and gutters, and is being rapidly sold to home-makers. Besides his other business interests, he conducts a service and oil station on Sixteenth Street at the junction of the Marysville Road at the American River Crossing, which he has made a beauty spot at the entrance into the city of Sacramento from the north. As success has crowned his efforts, Mr. Dreher invested in property near Lake Tahoe, buying 167 acres and establishing a summer home which he has named Tamarac Park. He is now subdividing this tract and selling summer-home lots and resort sites and is meeting with the same success that has been his since coming to the Golden State.

In 1913, Mr. Dreher was married to Miss Nellie Ward, a native of Iowa, and she shares in the esteem in which her husband is held by their many friends, and they dispense an old-time hospitality at their home as well as at Tamarac Park. Politically, Mr. Dreher votes with the Republican party in national issues, but in local matters he is broad-minded and supports the man rather than party. For his recreation he takes his gun and goes after game and is thankful that his lot has been cast in the wonderful Valley of the Sacramento..

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 869-870. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.