Sacramento County
Biographies
STEPHEN UREN
STEPHEN UREN.--For more than three score years Stephen Uren has been identified with the development of the Sacramento Valley and during the whole of this long period he has been a resident of the city of Sacramento, where he is still living. Of English birth, he was born in Cornwall, September 10, 1837, and was the son of William and Bathsheba (Sincock) Uren, the former a blacksmith and machinist by trade and for many years foreman of a large shop in Cornwall. It was there that the son learned all the details connected with blacksmithing. When he crossed the ocean in 1857 he was well qualified to earn a livelihood at his occupation. For almost a year he was employed in the copper mining district of Ontonagon County, Michigan, from which place he returned to New York City for the purpose of starting to California. The steamer Constitution conveyed him to Aspinwall. After he had crossed the Isthmus he resumed the voyage on the steamer Golden Gate, which cast anchor in San Francisco, October 15, 1858. Coming from the coast city to Sacramento County, he worked for two years at his trade near Folsom, then spent a year in the mines of Eldorado County. After working for several months in Virginia City, Nev., he returned to Sacramento, and here he has since made his home.
After a period of employment on the capitol building, Mr. Uren secured employment as a blacksmith, December 20, 1866, in the shops of the Southern Pacific Railroad; September 7, 1871, he was promoted to be assistant foreman under A. F. LaSholles; May 1, 1876, he was made foreman of the blacksmith shop; the rolling mills were made also under his direction and the first bar was rolled out in July, 1881, under his supervision. In 1888, 11,000 tons of metal were turned out by the mill and during November, 500 men were employed in the rolling mill and blacksmith department. The forgings for the building of the heaviest steamboat ever made on the Pacific Cost (including those for the ship Piedmont) were manufactured under the direction of Mr. Uren, whose success with such tasks was a matter of common knowledge to the workers in the shops.
The efficiency of the department under his charge was greatly increased through the introduction of Mr. Uren’s own inventions. On April 27, 1880, he patented a device for forming car links, which previously had been made by hand, the new process reducing the cost about one-third. On October 6, 1885, he patented a process for the manufacture of nuts at the rate of one per minute, superseding the old method which required half an hour for each nut. December 1, 1885, he patented a wrought-iron brake-shoe which possessed an advantage over the cast-iron shoe in the ratio of five to one. On May 28, 1889, Mr. Uren secured a patent on a slot attachment on a bolt-heading machine, which has the distinction of being the only device in existence that will simultaneously head a bolt and slot the key, this being one of his most important inventions. On May 27, 1889, he patented a spike-making mechanism, and on October 6, 1903, a reverberatory heating furnace. Owing to his advanced years he retired from active work on September 30, 1907. Honored in many movements, he was especially prominent in the International Master Blacksmith’s Association and during 1893 served as chairman of the committee that effected the organization in Chicago, being elected president three years later.
The marriage of Mr. Uren took place in Sacramento, September 9, 1865, and united him with Miss Mary Walch, who was born in Ireland, August 12, 1844, and came to California in May, 1863. Four sons and three daughters came to bless their union; William Stephen married Miss Anna McDonald and they are the parents of two daughters, Gertrude and Marjorie; Edward married Miss Lulu Crompton and they have two daughters, Nell and Ruth; Mary G. became the wife of L. P. Kerner, and four children were born to them. Harry, Louis, Gertrude and Frances; Stephen J., married Miss Annie Theresa Burke and three children were born to them, Raymond Stephen, Cleta Mary and William Donald; the youngest son, Walter, passed away in 1905, at the age of twenty-eight; Grace Ella married Alfred Schaden and they are the parents of two children, Harold Alfred and Claire; Nellie Maude became the wife of Hazard Snowden Williamson and they have two children, Dorothea Marie and Ursula Jane. His wife passed away March 14, 1917, well-known, much loved, honored and respected by all who knew her. For many years Mr. Uren made his home in a residence he built at Thirteenth and G Streets, the first residence built on the north side of that block on G Street, and he was ridiculed for going so far out. He has since built two additional residences, one a four-flat and the other a two-flat residence, and two small cottages which he still owns. He now makes his home with his granddaughter, Mrs. Charles L. Swanton, at 3524 H Street.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With
Biographical Sketches, Page 993. Historic
Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.