Biographies
EDWARD H. LAWSON
EDWARD H. LAWSON.--Folsom City owes much to such enterprising,
broad-minded and experienced merchants as Edward H. Lawson, who is widely known
as an up-to-date confectioner and dealer in notions and sundry supplies. Edward H. Lawson is the only son of Peter
and Harriett (Norman) Lawson, deceased pioneers, whose life records are written
in the hearts of their fellow men and have become an inspiration to those
following after. His father was born at Copenhagen on September 13, 1828, where
he went to school; and at the early age of fifteen he left home to follow the
sailor's life. He joined a merchant sailing vessel; and after coursing the
seven seas he arrived at the Golden Gate early in 1849, after which he never
returned to sea life. He went direct to the mines at Fiddletown,
in Amador County, and he was one of the first to placer mine there; but he soon
gave up mining to work at his trade, and sewed by hand the canvas hoses used in
bringing water to the mines from streams nearby. The hose was made in fifty and
one-hundred foot lengths, and sold at a good profit. He also later took up
painting, which occupied him in his declining years.
In 1866 Peter Lawson was married at Fiddletown to Mrs. Harriett F. Norman, a native of Chicago,
and the daughter of Dr. W. A. Norman, a prominent surgeon in Illinois, who had
migrated to the gold fields in 1849, and returned East again in 1850, to find
that his family, the mother and eight children, had already started for the
Golden State by way of Panama; and they arrived in Fiddletown
in 1851. After their arrival Dr. Norman returned to join his family. Dr. Norman
was a man of small physique, but a wonder in medical aid; and throughout all
the Mother Lode Section, he administered to the Indians as well as to the
whites. He died at the age of sixty, mourned by everyone who knew him. He had
luckily been succeeded by his son, Dr. W. A. Norman, who has become prominent
in the profession at Plymouth, Cal., in which town our subject was born on September
1, 1887.
Edward Lawson attended the public schools
until he was fifteen, although, while in his fourteenth year, he started to
work in a general store. In 1903 he left home to clerk in San Francisco, where
he added materially to his experience. He returned home, fortunately, in 1906,
just prior to the earthquake and fire. Three years later, he came to Folsom and
entered the employ of the Earl Fruit Company and there and in that field he
remained at work until 1914. In that year he bought a small business on Sutter
Street, and three months later this was completely destroyed by fire that swept
away the entire block in which he was located. He secured a temporary location
however just across the street from the old stand, and on July 1, 1915, he moved
to his present location where he has added, from time to time, to his store
equipment. He has a large stock, and the most modern fixtures. He also does an
extensive trade, selling soft drinks and ice cream of every kind, and handling
only the best available. He also sells bakery goods, notions and sundry
supplies.
Mr. Lawson also owns his residence at
Folsom and there, during the declining years of his parents, he cared for them,
moving his father from Plymouth where he had resided for thirty-three years.
Peter Lawson was an honored pioneer and a member of the Plymouth Pioneer
Association. He breathed his last at Folsom, in 1916, at the age of eighty-eight.
Mr. Lawson owns the outfit used by his father in the fifties to sew the canvas
hose, now a priceless heirloom.
In the year 1921, at Sacramento, occurred
the marriage of Edward H. Lawson and Miss Rose K. Zangerle,
a native of Sacramento, and the daughter of Mrs. Louise Zangerle, who is still residing in that city. A child
blessed the union on November 25, 1921, and has been named Anita Louise. Mr.
Lawson is a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West, and he belongs to
Granite Lodge, No. 62, I. O. O. F., and also to the Encampment and to the Rebekahs.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 328-329. Historic Record Company,
© 2007 Sally Kaleta.