Sacramento County
Biographies
ORIN RANDOLPH RUNYON
ORIN RANDOLPH RUNYON was born in Will
County, Illinois, in 1833, said to be the first white child born in that
county, his parents being Armstead and Anna (Hornbecker) Runyon. The mother, a native of Ohio,
died in childbirth, in 1839. The father, a native of Kentucky,
died at Santa Rosa, California,
in 1876, aged about seventy-five. Grandfather Michael Runyon was about
eighty at his death in 1856. The father moved with his family to Missouri
in 1844, and thence to California in 1849, settling soon
afterward on the Sacramento River, two miles below
Courtland. Here the elder Mr. Runyon first took up 160 acres, to which he
added by later purchase until he owned about a section of land, with a frontage
of one mile on the river. O. R. Runyon worked for his father from boyhood
until 1855, and had but little regular schooling in his youth. In 1855 he
returned to Lockport, Illinois, his
birth-place, and went to school in Beloit, Wisconsin,
for three years. For several years he was in
business as a boot and shoe dealer in Lockport, and at Waterloo,
Iowa. He was also a book-keeper for a
short time at this period of his life. Mr. Runyon was married at Lockport,
December 28, 1859, to Miss Martha E. Place,
who was born at Oswego, New York,
in 1835, daughter of Joseph and Malora (Wright)
Place. Joseph Place
died in 1865, at the age of eighty-four, and Malora Place died in 1847, at
the age of fifty-one. The Place family is American for several
generations, and of English origin. Mr. and Mrs. Runyon are the parents of
two living children, both born in Lockport, Illinois:
George, in 1863, and Laura M., in 1868. One child, Howard Wright, born in California,
died at the age of five years. In 1870 Mr. Runyon returned to California
and went to fruit-raising about two miles below Courtland, where he still
resides. His ranch comprises 300 acres, of which, however, two-thirds is
swamp land, and 100 acres are devoted to fruit and alfalfa. In 1875 his
title was perfected, and in 1878 he built his present residence, one of the
most beautiful homes on the river. In is a two-story and basement house of
fourteen rooms, well built and handsomely furnished. Its dimensions are
about 50 x 60 feet, and must have cost over $12,000 to build and finish, not to mention the additional outlay for interior
ornamentation. Mr. Runyon has been school trustee of the Onisbo district for ten years.
Transcribed 9-12-07 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated
History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 636-637.
Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.