Sacramento
County
Biographies
HON.
ROBERT WHITNEY WATERMAN
HON. ROBERT
WHITNEY WATERMAN, Governor of the State of California. Perhaps no study is of either a deeper
interest or a greater value, more especially to the young, than that of
personal history and the delineation of character. In material of this nature the records of American
citizenship are peculiarly rich, furnishing us some of the most striking
instances possible of what can be achieved, even under the most untoward
circumstances, by force of diligence, determination, and strict integrity. Moreover, while such examples can be culled
from the annals of almost every section, no State of the Union presents so rich
a field for the biographer and historian as does California. Her population has no equal in any other
portion of the world either in independence of character, in strong virtues of
manhood or the accomplishment of great success.
For these reasons it is, that no apology is
necessary when the name of a true Californian is mentioned. Especially is this the case when the subject
chosen is one who stands deservedly and honorably so, a type and representative
at once of the large manhood of the West, and as well the civic head of the
great State of California, Governor R. W. Waterman, one who owes more to the
capital embraced in a splendid physical organization and a well poised brain
than to the wealth inherited from a line of ancient ancestry. Robert Whitney Waterman, seventeenth Governor
of California, was born in Fairfield, Herkimer County, New York, December 15, 1826.
His father died when the son was ten years old, and in very moderate
circumstance. Two years later the son
removed to the West and was located at Sycamore, Illinois, and later acted as
clerk in a county store until his twentieth year, in Belvidere,
Illinois, where he engaged in business for himself as a general merchant in
1846. In 1848 Mr. Waterman removed to
Genoa, Illinois, where he engaged in the mercantile business, and in 1849
became postmaster under President Taylor, but, carried away with the early tide
of the gold-seeking emigration, he crossed the plains in the following year to
California. During the years 1850 and
1851 Mr. Waterman engaged extensively in mining on the Feather River, and paid
frequent visits to Sacramento to purchase goods, hauling them thence to the
scene of his mining operations, little dreaming at that time that he should
return again to Sacramento nearly forty years later to fill the gubernatorial
chair of a State with over a million inhabitants. In 1852 Mr. Waterman returned to Illinois,
locating at Wilmington, and engaging in an extensive general mercantile
business, at the same time giving considerable attention to agricultural
pursuits. In the following year he
entered the fields of journalism, and published the Wilmington Independent. He was a delegate to the now historical
convention, held at Bloomington, Illinois, in 1854, that gave form and name to
the Republican party.
At this convention he was associated with such men as Abraham Lincoln,
Lyman Trumbull, Richard Yates, David Davis, Owen Lovejoy, Richard J. Oglesby,
S. A. Hurlbut and Allen C. Fuller, all of whom he
counted among his valued and intimate friends.
While Governor Waterman has never been known as a politician, he has
always taken a lively and clear-sighted interest in the affairs of the
nation. Although not a voter he did
effective work during the campaign of Henry Clay, for whose character he has
always had an ardent admiration. He was
instrumental in raising the first brass band outside of Chicago. He took a very active part in Fremont’s
campaign, and also in the Senatorial contest between Lincoln and Douglas. Under President Lincoln he took the office of
postmaster of Wilmington, Illinois.
There were thirteen applicants for the position, all of whom wanted it
for the money there was in it. Mr.
Waterman took it, however, not for the sake of the office, but to turn it over
to the first one of the “boys in blue” who came home wounded. A man with only one leg got it. Not-withstanding numerous and important
duties and interests at home, on the outbreak of the war he enlisted more than
1,000 men, and also rendered valuable services as bearer of the dispatches of
Governor Yates, making several trips to the front in 1861, and afterward
actively taking part in the reorganization of the hospital service at Cairo,
Bird’s Point, and Mound City, Illinois, and Fort Holt and Paducah,
Kentucky. In 1873 he returned to
California and established his home at San Bernardino the following year. He had already acquired a practical and
valuable mining experience, and soon started out as a prospector. After undergoing many hardships and meeting
obstacles that would have discouraged most other men, he and J. L. Porter were
finally successful in discovering a series of silver mines in a locality which
has since become famous as the Calico Mining District in San Bernardino County,
and has added materially to the wealth of the State while giving profitable
employment to very many men. He had
always retained his fondness for agricultural pursuits, and with the increased
means thus placed at his command, he soon made his Hot Springs ranch, on the
mountain side near the city of San Bernardino, one of the most charming and
beautiful homes in the State. This
place, with it picturesque surroundings, is the admiration of thousands of
visitors every year. During the
presidential campaign of 1884 he and Richard Gird were the principal projectors
and builders of a large ”wigwam” or pavilion in San
Bernardino for the use of political meetings.
At the Republican State Convention held at Los Angeles August 27, 1886,
Mr. Waterman was nominated for Lieutenant Governor, and in the following
November he was elected by a plurality of 2,500 votes, the Democratic State ticket
being successful with but two other exceptions.
He came to the chair of the Senate without previous experience as a
presiding officer, but acquitted himself in a manner that commanded the respect
and inspired the confidence of that body and of the people, and succeeded in
winning over his severest critics of opposite political faith. Upon the death of Governor Washington Barlett, September 12, 1887, Lieutenant Governor Waterman
was called to the duties of Chief Executive and was inaugurated the following
day in San Francisco, where the oath of office was administered by Justice
McFarland, of the Supreme Court. The
course pursued by Governor Waterman since his election to this position has
been subjected to the severest hostile criticism by persons of the other party,
yet so equitable, firm and fair has it been, and so manifestly and honestly
watchful has been the guardianship of the State’s best interests, both in the
exercise of patronage and of the prerogatives of office, that Governor Waterman
stands to-day as perhaps the most generally popular, as he is one of the best,
governors California has ever known.
During recent years he has engaged in numerous business enterprises in
various parts of the State. He is owner
of the famous Stonewall gold mine in San Diego County, and has extensive ranch
properties in Southern California. He is
president of the San Diego, Cuyamaca & Eastern
Railway, and is prominently connected with many other enterprises tending to
the development of the State. Governor Waterman
was married in 1847, at Belvidere, Illinois, to Miss
Jane Gardner, she being a native of that place.
They have had seven children, of whom six are living, two being sons and
four daughters. Their names are as follows: James S., Mary P., Helen J., Waldo S., Anna
C., and Lou A.
Transcribed by Karen Pratt.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 582-584. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007
Karen Pratt.