Sacramento County
Biographies
TIMOTHY J. PENNISH
T. J. PENNISH.—An expert plasterer who
has also won for himself an enviable reputation as an experienced contractor,
able to carry out by himself both extensive and most difficult work, is T. J. Pennish, who was born in the city of Sacramento on February
15, 1857. His father, Martin Pennish, had
married, in New Orleans, Miss Mary Corcoran, and had come
from Louisiana the year previous;
and for a while he tried his luck in the mines. Then, realizing that more
of a fortune was likely to be made in catering to the wants of the other
fellow, digging for gold under inconvenient circumstances, he engaged in truck
gardening, and he also commenced to team to the mines and to haul freight and
fresh supplies for the miner. His was an eventful life; and when he died
in 1907 those who had known him mourned his departure. Mrs. Pennish also made many a friend through her exceptional
nobility of character, and she breathed her last in 1913. The worthy
couple had five children, and four grew to maturity.
T.
J. Pennish, the eldest, started in to take the usual
public school courses, but owing to his frail health, he had to leave somewhat
early. He sought outdoor, vigorous exercise in labor, and took up the
plasterer’s trade, and having started as a lad, he is now able to boast the
longest service of any plasterer in Sacramento
County. He has been in
business for himself for the past forty-three years, and that is a record of
which any honest workman may reasonably be
proud. He has been an honest, capable and faithful artisan, with the
result that he has worked on the principal buildings in Sacramento and for the
state, and he has been so deservedly successful that he is now about to
retire. A Republican in his political preferences, he took an active part
in politics as a young man, and once served as councilman of the city of Sacramento. He
is very loyal to Sacramento County,
and never loses an opportunity to speak a good word for its past, its natural
attractions and its brilliant future, when it must fully come to its own.
In
Sacramento, Mr. Pennish
was married to Miss Helen Flannigan, an accomplished woman connected with one
of the old and prominent families; and they have had several worthy
children. Frank, passed away at the age of
twenty-nine, respected and lamented; Alice has become the
wife of Charles Vance, the Stockton attorney; and Howard,
responding patriotically to the call of his country, saw thirteen months of
arduous service, under severe exposure, as a member of the ambulance corps in France. Florence
is Mrs. William Roberts; and the youngest child is Fred. Two
grandchildren give particular joy to Mr. and Mrs. Pennish. Mr.
Pennsh is a member of Sacramento Lodge No. 6, B. P.
O. Elks.
Transcribed 5-21-07
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County, California
With Biographical Sketches, Page 814. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.