Sacramento County
Biographies
RICHARD TIMM
It took Richard Timm,
the present proprietor of the California Planing
Mill, situated at the corner of Second and Q streets, Sacramento, years to
finish his wanderings and settle down to business. But he did it and he
is none the worse for wear. He was born in Altona,
Holstein, Germany, January 3, 1864, one of the sons of the household of William
and Matilda Timm, prominent citizens of that sturdy
old German state. Children are schooled in Germany and schooled hard, and
the boy Richard had his work in the public schools and afterwards in the
gymnasium laid out for him till he was eighteen years old. Then he took a
medical course at the University at Kiel and he was ready for the New World and
its adventures. Naturally he went as far west as he could on the American
continent, and in the California mines around Placer county
he dug and shoveled and washed for almost two years. His next appearance
was in Los Angeles, where he filled an engagement as bookkeeper for Helman, Haas & Co., wholesale grocers. Here he
remained for three years, and another year, spent in Mexico as a correspondent
in an office, made four years spent in the south before he returned to the
upper portion of the state.
Once more in Placer county,
near Lincoln, Mr. Timm was a rancher, industriously
plowing and growing, when the Klondike discoveries in the north claimed his
attention, and Mr. Timm figuratively left, his
plowshare in the mold and stampeded for Alaska. Over the steep, icy Chilcoot he climbed and for a year he dug and froze for the
dull yellow nuggets. In May, 1898, he was back in California.
Volunteering for the Spanish war, he served in the regular army, being assigned
to Battery A of the Third U. S. Artillery. In 1899 he was mustered out,
there being no prospect of any further skirmishes with Spain, and the
discharged soldier returned to Lincoln, Placer county. For two years he
was again on the old ranch, hard at work but ambitious to enter larger
interests. In 1901 he worked at the planing
mill of Braunton & Robertson in Sacramento,
remaining at this place for seven years; in fact, he stuck to it till he became
the owner of the establishment. Then he changed its title to the
California Planing Mill. His travels are over, and
with the same industry and care for the details of business that marked his
work as an employe of the mill, he is working as a
proprietor and manager, and meeting success. An event which while he
labored so steadily in the mill during his apprenticeship was his marriage,
which auspicious event took place June 8, 1905, in Oakland, and the other party
to the compact was Miss Caroline Pulcifer. They
have one daughter, Ernestine, aged five years, who makes glad their capital
city home.
Mr. Timm takes
great interest in public affairs around him and makes his influence felt for
the right. He is a Republican of the Insurgent type, believing first in
the people and the politicians afterwards, if necessary to believe in them at
all. He is a member of the Humane Society, of the Home Products League,
the Retail Merchants Association, and is also a Spanish- American War Veteran.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Willis,
William L., History of Sacramento County,
California, Pages 717-718. Historic
Record Company,
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.