Biographies
JAMES EDWARD WATERS
J. EDWARD WATERS.--An experienced executive, whose
fidelity to an important trust has enabled him to render a real service to the
public, thereby entitling him to public confidence such as he seems in large
measure to enjoy, is J. Edward Waters, the plant superintendent of the
Sacramento Gas Company, who was born on his father’s ranch in Sutter County,
California, on April 29, 1878, the son of James and Virginia (Long) Waters, the
former a native of New York State, descended from English ancestry, and the
latter a native of Virginia, where she was born of Scotch parentage. Mr. Waters
is now dead, having rounded out a very useful life;
but Mrs. Waters is still living, in California, idolized by those knowing her
intimately. The worthy couple were joined in wedlock in California; and from
their fortunate marriage, sprang twelve children, eight of whom are still
living. These include Fred, Mrs. Minnie Green, Mrs. Laura Freitas,
J. Edward, the subject of this biographical review, Henry Franklin, Mrs. Ida Keigel, Herbert, and Mrs. Tessie
Muller; while the children now mourned as having passed on to the Great Beyond
are Mrs. Cora White, Irving, who lived to be twenty-two, Lottie,
who died aged fifteen, and Rose, who died in infancy.
James Waters, the father, came out to California in a
sailing vessel in 1857, via Cape Horn, on a ship commanded by his brother, but
when the vessel reached San Francisco he deserted the ship and went into
Mendocino County, with a party of explorers. All the rest of the party were
killed by a band of Indians; and having escaped with his life, young Waters
made his way into Yolo County, and secured work there in a packing house. He
was in Sacramento the year of the great flood of 1862, and took Governor
Stanford in a rowboat from Sutter Fort, through the watery streets to the
steamboat landing, where the Governor boarded a boat for San Francisco. He
later settled on a ranch in Sutter County, where he died at the age of
seventy-seven. He was one of the pioneer business men of the state, and brought
the first hive of bees to northern California. Afterward, he followed
bee-raising, truck-gardening and dairy farming. Mrs. Waters crossed the great plains to California with her parents in early days,
and now resides on the old home ranch in Sutter County.
J. Edward Waters attended the district schools of Sutter
County, and then followed farming until he was twenty-one years of age. On July 16, 1900, he entered the employ of
the Sacramento National Gas Company (now the Sacramento Gas Company); and he
has been with that corporation ever since, and is today the oldest employee of
the company. His first work was the laying of a gaspipe
on Second Street; and soon after he was put in charge of the pipe-laying crew.
Next he was in charge of the service department, in the houses; later still, he
learned hot to make gas, and became the foreman of the gas works. Since 1909,
he has been superintendent in charge of gas-making, and has had an average of
eighteen men under him. He also invented and perfected a gas-making machine,
and has made several improvements on other machines in the plant. He has thus become an employee of great value
to both the company and the city, particularly as he is enthusiastically
devoted to the best interests of Sacramento, both town and county. Nor is he
without something to show in the matter of his own thrift and prosperity; for
he owns four houses in Knight’s Landing.
Mr. Waters was married in Sacramento November 28, 1900, to
Miss Hattie Green, a native of Sutter County, and the daughter of Bernard L.
Green, the esteemed pioneer now deceased, who crossed the plains with an
ox-team, and then farmed in Sutter County; his widow was Mary E. Smith, born in
Missouri, and she crossed the plains with her parents when thirteen and now
makes her home with Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Waters. She is seventy-three years of
age. Of Mr. and Mrs. Green’s children, four are still living: James W.; B. L.;
Charles B.; and Hattie, now Mrs. J. E. Waters. Mr. Waters belongs to Lodge No.
109 of the Fraternal Brotherhood, River Lodge No. 256 of the Odd Fellows,
Occidental Encampment No. 42, and Lodge No. 10, Foresters of America, and with
his wife is a member of Capital City Lodge No. 160 of the Rebekahs,
in which Mrs. Waters is a past noble grand and still takes a very active
interest.
Transcribed by Vicky Walker,
8/14/07.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical
Sketches, Page 972. Historic Record
Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Vicky Walker.