Sacramento County
Biographies
CHRISTIAN H. RAVE
CHRISTIAN H. RAVE was born in
Schleswig, a province of Germany,
in the year 1820, his parents being Frederick, a cabinet-maker, and Rebecca
Rave. He attended school until he reached the age of fourteen years, then
was apprenticed to a locksmith at Hamburg
to learn the trade, then traveled to complete his education. Having become
an expert workman he desired a larger field and better opportunities for
advancement, therefore set sail in a packet ship from Hamburg
for New York, and arrived after a
tempestuous voyage of six weeks. Undeterred by the fact that he was
totally unfamiliar with the English language, he found his way to Philadelphia,
and obtained employment at his trade on Chestnut street. In 1849 he, with a
party of nineteen mechanics, determined to make their way to the land of
gold. They went to St. Louis and there secured an outfit and provisions,
and started to cross the plains, but they were illy
(sic) prepared for such a journey, and by the time they arrived at Salt Lake
their teams had given out and they were obliged to reorganize, and bought some
Indian ponies and packed the remainder of the way. Nor was this all, for,
taking the advice of some officious parties who were supposed to know, they
were induced to take a new "cut-off" across the mountains and the
dreary, pathless desert, only to find later that the cutoff was in fact a much
longer route; their provisions and water gave out, and they suffered terrible
hardships, losing two of their number in death. Meeting another party on
the desert who still had a small supply of water, our
subject paid his last dollar for a cup of the previous fluid, and begged for
more, but was sternly refused. When he arrived at Sacramento,
without money, friends or even acquaintances, he was glad to find any kind of
employment, such as unloading vessels at the levee and doing any odd job that
came to hand. At last he obtained employment with one Woodruff, proprietor
of a stove store, whose stock consisted in part of stoves which had been
shipped around the Horn and had to be "set up" after their arrival
here. These stoves often brought $300 or even $500. Woodruff became
his friend, and eventually assisted him to start a small shop of his own on
Sixth, between J and K streets, where it may be seen to this day, a relic of the past. In this little shop was laid the
foundation of a successful business, which, extending through the early years, broadened and grew with the growth of the Capital
City. His business was to make
locks, locks for the people, locks for the banks, hotels, and the jail and
prisons, 1,400 being made under contract for the latter; and not only locks but
iron doors, which, because of many fires, became an important industry, and was
carried on subsequently for many years. He returned to Europe
in 1853 to visit his old home, and his father, who died the following spring,
and to be married to Elizabeth Riemechneider. Together
they journeyed from the fatherland and took up their residence in the land of
sunshine, and here they have lived for nearly forty years, having in the
interval made three other trips to Europe. They are
spending in well-deserved affluence the latter part of their lives at their
pleasant home on Seventh street,
surrounded by their children and their children’s children.
Transcribed 9-6-07 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated
History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 630-631.
Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.