Lauren
Upson, deceased, a once prominent, but now silent, figure of Sacramento
history, was a native of Connecticut, and son of Asahel and Lydia (Webster)
Upson. Both the Websters and the Upsons were among the earlier and prominent
families of New England. Lauren Upson was born at Oxford, New Haven County,
Connecticut, but reared across the line in Hartford County, at Marion,
Southington Township, where his parents removed when he was a mere child. He
was a twin brother with Warren Upson, who died in 1855. He and Warren were the
oldest of nine brothers, and it fell to his lot to do the farm work. He
remained on the farm until twenty years of age. He was also engaged more or
less on the construction of the Hartford and New Haven Canal. He was given a
year’s time before reaching his majority, and so left home at the age of twenty
years, and went South traveling overland, finally bringing up at Marion, Perry County,
Alabama. After a few years he returned to Connecticut, and was there married to
Selina Chatfield, a native of Oxford, Connecticut, and a relative of the
Goodyears, the great rubber manufacturers. After his marriage he went back to
Alabama with his bride, and embarked in the mercantile trade at Marion, in
which he met with great success. But the financial crash of 1887 fell heavily
upon him, as he was endorser for large amounts on the paper of men who went
under at that time. Meantime, however, he had been a great student, studying
law and reading up on the political situation, so that when he was admitted to
the bar at Marion he was already one of the best posted men politically in
Alabama. He practiced his profession more or less, but his taste lay more in
the line of writing, and he adopted the profession of editor as his future life
work. He was given charge of the leading Whig paper, and with such effect did
he wield his pen in behalf of that great party’s principles that he changed
Perry County from a Democratic to a Whig county, and held it in line as long as
he was at the helm of the paper. In 1847 Charles Langdon, editor and proprietor
of the Mobile Advertiser, was elected mayor of Mobile, and he asked Mr.
Upson to go to that city and take charge of the editorial department of the
paper. He did so and remained in charge until 1851, when he started for
California. The journey was made via New Orleans and Panama, and he landed in
San Francisco in January, 1852. He proceeded to El Dorado County, where he
remained a short time, and was then called upon to come to Sacramento and take
charge of the Union, then in its infancy, with which he remained until
1864. The history of the United States does not present a more marked example
of a newspaper controlling public sentiment throughout a vast extent of
territory than that of the Union, throughout the Pacific Coast during
that period. At times his pen seemed almost inspired, and a tremendous
influence for good was wielded by the paper at a time when the future destiny
of the United States was being wrought. The building of the Pacific Railroad, which
supplies what was necessary to forever bind and cement the American Union,
could never have been accomplished when it was, without the great efforts in
its behalf by Lauren Upson. In fact its very conception at the time would have
seemed almost ridiculous without the causes shown and the help given by him in
the Union. Besides being the guiding star of the Whigs, the paper, under
his editorship, had great influence even with the Democrats, as a legislative
party, because they feared his pen. Though a strong, forcible writer, he never
descended to personalities, and had but one instance of trouble. Mr. Bell, then
Controller of State, took exceptions to an article of Mr. Upson’s criticizing
his official acts, and one morning as the latter was coming out of the Senate chamber,
he met Bell, who at once assaulted him. Mr. Upson never preferred charges
against his assailant. Years afterward, however, Mr. Bell called upon Mr. Upson
at San Francisco and manfully apologized for his act. He finally broke down under the great strain
placed upon him by his literary work, and he was compelled to seek rest. In
1864 he had a paralytic stroke of the tongue. About that time one of his
intimate friends, high in Government council secured for him the appointment of
Quartermaster of the Division; but as the remuneration, while great, was
largely in the form of commissions on purchases, etc., he did not accept the office
with its emoluments, on account of conscientious scruples. He was afterward
tendered and accepted the appointment to the office of United States
Surveyor-General, which he held for six years, under President Lincoln and
Johnson. He was again appointed but not confirmed by the Senate, and finally
Mr. Day, a relative of Senator Evarts was nominated and confirmed. Returning to
Sacramento, he retired to his farm (on the crossroads between the Upper and
Lower Stockton roads), which he had bought while editor of the Union.
While living there he was nominated for the position of county clerk and
elected. He was re-nominated for another term, but there was a split in the
Republican rank that time, and Ham. C. Harrison, who received the Democratic
and Independent nominations, was elected. He afterward accepted the management
of the interests of the company operating at Riverside, San Bernardino County,
and while there was interested also in the San Jacinto tin mine. About the 1st
of May, 1877, while he was attending the meeting of the board of directors of
the company at San Francisco, he was stricken with something like paralysis of
the brain. His son Lauren A. went there and brought him to Sacramento. He never
recovered the use of his faculties, but died November 20, 1885. His faithful
and devoted wife died on the 1st of May, 1887. To them were born six children, of whom the
first child died. The other children were as follows: Warren F. (a resident of
this State); Lauren Asahel (of Sacramento); Lucy L. (wife of John Arnold);
Charles W. (who met with an accidental death in this city); and Cornelia Selina
(wife of General George B. Williams, of Washington, who is now attorney for the
Southern Pacific Railroad at Washington, District of Columbia.
Transcribed
by: Marla Fitzsimmons
An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California.
By Hon. Win. J. Davis. Lewis Publishing Company 1890. Page 304-305.
© 2004 Marla Fitzsimmons.