Sacramento County
Biographies
PAUL MURER
PAUL MURER.--Wherever the fame of Folsom City has become known, one may be sure that the good repute of the People’s Garage, owned in part by Paul Murer, the popular Italian-American, has also been heralded, for there are few establishments in this lively town which have proven of greater use to the critical and exacting public. He was born at Venice, in the province of Treviso, on May 18, 1893, the son of L. and Mary Murer, both natives of sunny Italy, and started life with some decided advantages. His father was a prosperous farmer, who died many years ago; but his mother resides at the old home in the famous City-by-the-Sea.
Paul Murer came to America for the first time in 1910, intending to visit an uncle, G. Murer, who had come out to California four years before and had become a successful building contractor at Kenneth, in Shasta County, where he still owns real estate; although since 1911 he has resided at Folsom City, enjoying the esteem of the public as an enterprising, accommodating merchant. Paul Murer had learned the trade of cabinet-maker and a finisher at Venice, where he was fortunately surrounded by some of the world’s best art, and it was a pity that he could not have found employment, on arriving here, in what he was most capable of accomplishing; but for some time he was compelled to do outside carpentering in both Shasta County and San Francisco.
In 1913, Mr. Murer came to Folsom City from San Francisco, and he has been a resident here ever since. As early as 1916, he made a small-type aeroplane for his own use, and this mechanical and scientific effort was followed by his enviable record in the military service, in which he enlisted, at Sacramento, on April 21, 1917. He was sent to Kelly Field at Mineola, N. Y., where he joined the department of mechanics and with the 358th Aero Squadron did remarkable work in the construction of bombing airships. The bombing plane of Caproni manufacture arrived at Mineola early in the autumn of 1917, and was turned over to the government; and our subject had the care of rebuilding the motor and parts of wooden structure, under Captain Williams, and a plane was built in imitation of the Caproni, equipped, however, with three Liberty motors. He was retained by the government at Mineola as a most-valued man until his honorable discharge in January, 1919.
The same year, Mr. Murer returned to Folsom, and here formed a partnership which enabled him in January, 1920, to establish the People’s Garage, taking charge himself of the building of bodies for the cars, and the making of auto-tops; and having a well-equipped shop, with every needed modern appliance, he has been kept busy constructing automobile stages and school busses. He has rendered a real public service, of which his fellow-citizens at Folsom City are naturally proud. He has made the general welfare of the community his goal, quite as much as his own prosperity, and Folsom City and the People’s Garage are developing together. Mr. Murer is a Republican. He belongs to the Natoma Lodge of Masons, and also to the Knights of Pythias; and he is to be found in the front rank of workers in all commendable civic and patriotic endeavor.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With
Biographical Sketches, Page 985.
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.