Biographies
ORLANDO FRANK WASHBURN
From Maine to California is the width of a
continent, but these states are two points in the life of O. F. Washburn, of
Sacramento. He was born in Kennebec county, Me.,
November 25, 1849, on the farm on which his father, Abisha
Washburn, was born and reared. He is related to the well-known Washburn family
which furnished governors for Maine, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Illinois.
When a young man Mr. Washburn went to
Portland, Me., and engaged in the wholesale grocery business. In May, 1876, he
was married to an old schoolmate, Miss Ray Williams. Their wedding trip to the
Centennial Fair at Philadelphia was really the first lap of their immigration
westward, for after doing the wonders of the great one-hundred-year exposition
they left for California, coming by the way of the Isthmus of Panama, and
located in Los Angeles, where they remained for several years. Then, after two
years spent in connection with the wholesale grocery business in San Francisco,
he opened the American Cash Store in Stockton, which was successfully conducted
under the firm name of Parmalee & Washburn. After
selling out his interest in the business to Mr. Parmalee
Mr. Washburn came to Sacramento in 1885 and established the American Cash Store
at No. 915 K street. After two years the business was
moved to a larger store in the Clunie building, on
the corner of Eighth and K streets, where it soon developed into the finest
store in its line in the city. In 1901 Ex-Governor Fancher
became associated and the corporation was formed of which Mr. Washburn is
president and Mr. Fancher secretary and treasurer.
The quarters again becoming too small, in 1909 Mr. Washburn and Mr. Fancher built a three- story brick building with an
eighty-foot frontage for the company. The various departments include grocery,
market, delicatessen, bakery and hardware, and the sixty-seven people and
seventeen delivery wagons are not too many for the daily work of this big
establishment. Mr. and Mrs. Washburn became the parents of two children, one of
whom, Virginia, died at the age of seventeen; the other daughter, Alice, was
married August 17, 1904, to George B. Lorenz, who is identified with the
People's Savings Bank, and they have two children, Robert Washburn, born June
22, 1905, and Edith Virginia, born October 25, 1911. Mrs. Washburn has also
done her share of the firm's work and contributed considerably to the success
it is today. She was the confidential bookkeeper for ten years and her
practical oversight of the affairs of the establishment has been invaluable.
She is prominent in the club life of her home place. Mr. Washburn can trace his
family line back to the Pilgrim Fathers and the Mayflower.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Willis,
William L., History of Sacramento County,
California, Pages 930-931. Historic
Record Company,
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.