Sacramento County
Biographies
ROBERT L. UPHAM
ROBERT L. UPHAM--A most interesting representative of an old pioneer family is Robert L. Upham, the rancher of Sherman Island, who has 180 acres of about as rich and choice farm land there as may be found anywhere in Sacramento County. He is prominent as a Republican, and also as a member of both the Knights of Pythias, of Rio Vista, and the Eagles, of the same place, enjoying a popularity in those fraternal orders such as must always come to the man who accords honor and fraternity to others. He was born on the Upham Ranch, on Sherman Island, on July 6, 1880, the son of Lorenzo M. and Elizabeth (Brown) Upham, highly-esteemed farmer-folk of Sherman Island who owned and operated some 500 acres and had six children, among whom our subject was the second in the order of birth. Mary Elizabeth, Mrs. Fraser of Rio Vista, was older; and Clarence Irwin, in Hayward, deceased, Celeste, and Lester, of Portland, and an infant, were younger. Robert went to the Rio Vista schools, as well as to the schools in Collinsville and in San Francisco, where he attended the Lincoln School, and in Santa Clara; and when fifteen years old he began to make his own way in the world. He worked on the dredger of the San Joaquin and Sacramento River delta island levee, which took about fifteen years to build, rising to a position of leverman operating the dredger, and then for a couple of years was superintendent of the Rio Vista waterworks. His father had sold his farm on Sherman Island to a Mr. Ober, and in 1916 Robert L. and his sister, Mrs. Fraser, bought back from Mr. Ober 180 acres of the old home place. This ranch has until recently been devoted to the, raising of alfalfa, and also vegetables, but Mr. Upham is putting it into asparagus.
Mr. Upham was married at Rio Vista to Mrs. Emma Elizabeth (Nevin) Jose, the ceremony occurring on December 9, 1911. An accomplished lady, she was born at Rio Vista, the daughter of Joseph and Emma (Joy) Nevin, the former a native of County Antrim, Ireland, the latter of Deptford, County Kent, England. Her parents were married abroad, and came out to California in 1868, where Mr. Nevin busied himself at his trade as a carpenter. Mrs. Nevin passed away at thirty years of age; while Mr. Nevin lived to be fifty-three. They had four children: John, who is in Ukiah; Jennie, deceased; Emma E., Mrs. Upham; and William, who is also deceased. Mrs. Upham went to the Rio Vista grammar school, and she is now a past most excellent chief of the Pythian Sisters' Lodge at Rio Vista.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 603-604. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA.
1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.