COLONEL
E. R. HAMILTON, who has been the cashier of the Sacramento Bank since its
foundation in 1875, and has held many other positions of trust, was born in
1832, in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and there spent his childhood and early
youth. In 1848, when sixteen years old,
he went to Pittsburgh, and became an apprentice to the trade of steamboat
coppersmith. He served the full-term
all four years, perfecting himself in the trade, receiving during that period.
The wretched pittance of only 50 cents a week and board, and yet having to
clothe himself! Having finished his
apprenticeship, he followed his trade until April, 1853, but he crossed the
plains, making most of the distance on foot behind an ox team. At last, September 23, 1853, he reached
Sacramento, footsore and weary, a strange boy in a strange land, with only two
bits in money in his pocket, but with a stout heart and honest purpose in his
breast. He got a job at once to shovel
the dirt into China's Slough for a contractor who was then grading K
street. Having no money wherewith to
buy blankets he slept in a pile of straw.
For two weeks he kept at this, when he rose a step on the latter,
securing employment as a porter in the store of Mr. E. Ayers. There he worked until January, 1854, when he
went to San Francisco and resumed his trade of coppersmith, receiving as wages
$6 a day. Mr. Hamilton continued there
until the fall of 1855, when he set out in business for himself in the stove
and ironware trade at Placerville, in partnership with Mr. J. L. Smith. In 1857 he sold out and came to Sacramento,
forming a partnership with a Mr. Purdin, continuing in the stove business until
1866. In that year he was elected city
assessor upon the Republican ticket, Colonel Hamilton having been all his life
a consistent and hard-working member of the party. In 1867 he was proffered the appointment of cashier of the
Sacramento Savings Bank. Accepting
this, he has continuously since that date been connected with that institution,
receiving the like appointment of cashier of the Sacramento Bank upon the
liquidation of the former and the founding of the latter bank. Colonel Hamilton has honorably earned the
title he wears. At the commencement of
the war he organized a company of sharp-shooters, and was afterward chosen
Colonel of the Fourth Regiment of the Infantry, National Guards, of
California. He has been twice married,
and has a son and a daughter. The son,
E. G., is learning a trade.
An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. By Hon. Win. J Davis. Lewis Publishing Company 1890. Page 266-267.
Submitted
by: Nancy Pratt Melton.