Sacramento County
Biographies
JOHN L. MAYDEN
Three generations of the Mayden family are at present identified with Northern
California, the first of these being represented by John Mayden,
the founder of the name in the west and a man of energy and intelligence, who
came to the coast country prior to the building of the first trans-continental
railroad. A native of Indiana, born November 5, 1843, he received such
advantages now offered to the young, but he has supplemented them by
observation and reading, so that he is now a man of broad general
information. During 1865, at the age of about twenty-two years, he came
to California via Panama and settled in Amador county,
near Plymouth, where for a long period he owned extensive mining
interests. Since his retirement in 1893 from mining operations he has
lived quietly but happily at his old homestead, where he and his wife, Mrs.
Mary (Thomas) Mayden, reared their family and passed
many years of purposeful activity.
It was during the residence of the family
at Drytown, a mining town in Amador county, that John L. Mayden was
born January 28, 1875, and his earliest memories cluster around the village of
Plymouth. Later the family lived again at Drytown
and there he attended the public schools. After he had completed the
regular public school course he attended the business college at Stockton for
one year and there prepared for commercial activities, graduating in
1891. At the age of seventeen years, in 1892, he came to Sacramento and
secured employment as a bill clerk with Baker & Hamilton, dealers in
carriages and farming implements. His work was so intelligent and the
results so satisfactory that the firm retained him in their employ, but
recognized his ability by promoting him until finally they appointed him department
manager, in which position he served for five years, on December 25, 1911,
being made general manager, and he is now filling the place with characteristic
energy and capability. The business of the Sacramento house extends all
over Northern California, Southern Oregon and Nevada. Fraternally he is
identified with the Woodmen of the World and the National Union, while in
politics he votes with the Republican party. In
Sacramento, November 28, 1898, occurred his marriage
to Miss Ella Darrow Hatch, a native daughter of this
city. They are the parents of two daughters, Helen Molter
and Eleanor.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Willis,
William L., History of Sacramento County,
California, Pages 781-782. Historic
Record Company,
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.