San Francisco County
WILLIAM WALKER CAMRON
William Walker Camron, of the city of Oakland, real-estate dealer and land owner, was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, August 26, 1843, a son of Thomas Porter and Zillah (Emry) Camron. This branch of the Camron family begins with Thomas, who arrived in America in 1767 or ’68 with wife and at least one son, Thomas, Jr., born near Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1764. They located in Elbert county, Georgia, where Thomas, Sr., was for many years engaged in teaming and freighting, and at length became the owner of a large farm. Thomas Camron, Jr., was married there, about 1789, to Nancy Miller, also born near Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1772. They had five sons and six daughters. The sons were John Miller, Thomas, William, James, and a second William. Of these, James, born in 1804, is still living, in Bernadotte, Fulton county Illinois. The father died July 15, 1844, and the mother November 11, 1852. The oldest son, John Miller, born August 12, 1791, moved with his parents to Kentucky in 1804, locating about ten miles south of Red Banks, and resided there some seven years.
John M. Camron, the first to omit the “e” in the name Cameron, in 1811 married Mary Orendorff, previously of South Carolina and probably of Russian birth or parentage. After his marriage Mr. Camron settled in what is Henderson County, Kentucky, where two children, Betsey and Thomas Porter, were born. In 1814 or ’15 he moved to White county, Illinois, made a clearing, built a house and planted an orchard. In 1817 he moved to Looking-glass Prairie in St. Clair county, same State, some twelve miles east of Belleville, bought a tract of land and began improving it, but in two years he sold out and moved across the Sangamon river, locating about seven miles north of Springfield. About two miles south of his farm he established, in partnership with a relative by marriage, what was known as Orendorff’s ferry. In 1822 he sold out his interests in that section and moved to Rock creek, about twenty miles northwest of Springfield; but in 1825 he again sold out and located at Clary’s grove and sixteen miles below the Orendorff ferry. Near his mills he surveyed and laid out the village of New Salem and settled there, in 1827; and while residing there he was formally licensed to preach by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, April 20, 1829; and there, too, Abraham Lincoln was for a time a member of his family, the future President being then, as he says in his autobiography, “a sort of clerk in a store” in New Salem. At his store liquor was sold, of course, as was uniformly the custom in the country stores of that day; and when, in the famous campaign of 1858, Mr. Douglas accused Lincoln of having but a short time before “practiced behind the bar,” Mr. Lincoln retorted, “Yes, I did, while my friend Douglas practiced before the bar!”
Again selling out his interests in farm, mills and village, Rev. John M. Camron moved in 1831 or ’32 into Fulton county, locating on Spoon river, near Bernadotte. There he built a house and gristmill, besides making the usual improvements on his farm. His brothers, James and William, were also settled at Bernadotte; and the fourth born, Thomas, about fifteen miles further north. In 1835 J. M. moved to Rives’ Prairie, eight miles northwest of Canton, and two or three years later he once more “pulled up stakes” and moved into Jefferson county, Iowa, in 1837, settling near Fairfield. In 1841 he moved to a farm in the vicinity of what is now Oskaloosa, of which he became one of the founders in 1844. About 1847 he exchanged this farm for merchandise, and in the mercantile trade he went into partnership with his son in Oskaloosa. He soon bought another farm three miles from Oskaloosa, which he held about long enough to built a house and store in Oskaloosa, where he again took up his residence.
In May, 1849, with his son and both families, he set out for California, arriving at Fremont, Sacramento county, November 6, whence they soon proceeded to Sacramento city and remained about three months. Father and son went to mining at Long Bar, Yuba county, and they gathered up several thousand dollars. In the autumn of 1850 they moved to Martinez, built a brick house and entered mercantile business, and also raised livestock on their farm in Danville, that county. In 1851 they moved to Petaluma, and in 1852 to Green valley, settling on a farm near Sebastopol. In 1852 they dissolved partnership.
In 1854, Rev. Camron returned to Petaluma, where he built the first house that was finished with plaster in that town, but about 1856 he went back to his farm in Green valley, built a new house and remained several years. After a union of sixty-one years his wife died, March 25, 1872, aged seventy-eight years. Mr. Camron then resided at different places until February 3, 1878, when he died, at the age of eight-six years, six months and nine days. He was a man of remarkable energy and zeal. He had ten daughters, as follows: Betsy, now Mrs. Baxter Berry; Nancy, the wife of S. M. Martin; Martha, the wife of Rev. B. N. Bonham; Vina, first Mrs. Proise and by second marriage Mrs. Henry Lyster; Jane, Mrs. Charles Purvine; Serena, wife of Rev. Baxter B. Bonham; Selena, wife of Rev. Andy McNamer; Eliza Arminda, Mrs. Hiram Fogg, and by third marriage Mrs. Hugh Mundell; Caroline, the wife of Judge Thomas A. Brown; Margaret, Mrs. Jesse Thompson. Eight of the foregoing are still living, the eldest, Betsy, being aged about seventy-eight; Nancy and Selena are deceased.
The only son, Thomas Porter Camron, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Henderson county, Kentucky, February 24, 1814, and in his youth learned the millwright and similar trades, in connection with his father’s mills, and also aided in the oversight of his farms. He was married in 1837, to Zillah Emry, who was born in 1816, a daughter of David Emry. Soon after his marriage he moved with his father into Iowa, spent some years in farming and then engaged in mercantile business, in partnership with Jasper Smith, in Oskaloosa, and so continued in business from 1844, the year of the founding of the town to 1847. Mrs. T. P. Camron died in 1846, leaving four sons: John Henry, born in 1837, and died in Martinez, California, in 1850; David Emry, born September 5, 1839, now a farmer at Alila, Tulare county, California; has three daughters and one son, Russell; Alvah Orendorff, born March 6, 1841, also a farmer at Alila, and his six daughters and one son; and W. W. Camron, our subject.
T. P. Camron was again married in 1847, to Cynthia Hiler, a native of Ohio, by whom he had two children, now living: Oliver Porter, born in California, August 15, 1852; and Mary Emily, born also in this State, April 6, 1854, both now residing in San Francisco, Oliver P. has one daughter, Pearl Camron.
About 1847 Mr. T. P. Camron became associated with his father in the store in Oskaloosa, and in 1849 came with him to this coast. After a change or two he settled on a farm at Danville, Contra Costa county, and built a house. Here he had a critical encounter with some robbers who had stolen his horses. Being very brave he pursued them, but his pistol proving ineffectual they seized and bound him. Leaving him for a time with the purpose of returning and killing him, as was afterward confessed by one of the gang; he succeeded in escaping death at their hands, only to meet it a few years later in an equally tragic form. At the “Three Brothers” in the entrance to San Pablo bay, on board the steamer Secretary, he was killed by the explosion of her boilers, April 14, 1854. Being among the first to notice the impending danger, he had succeeded in inducing the women and children to take their places in the after part of the boat; and, hastening forward to labor with the captain and engineer to reduce the steam pressure, the boiler burst and he was killed, while the women and children through his forethought were all saved.
Mr. W. W. Camron, whose name heads this biography, reached California in the seventh year of his age, where he has since resided, and has experienced all the hardships of a frontier life, his first notable experience here being the discomfort of the family in going through the great floods in Sacramento in 1849-50.
Becoming a full orphan at the age of eleven years, he was placed in the care of his uncle by marriage, Judge Thomas A. Brown, who did a good part by him. By industry and careful economy he has acquired a fair education. Since leaving school, he devoted his time to stock-raising, mining, farming and at present is engaged in real-estate business and fruit culture.
Having accumulated a little money, early in 1869 he entered the Sheriff’s office at Martinez, as deputy of Warren Brown, the brother of Judge Brown, already referred to. He was married in Martinez, September 5, 1871, to Miss Alice Frances Marsh, born March 16, 1851, at the old homestead near Brentwood, a daughter of Dr. John and Abby S. (Tuck) Marsh. Dr. Marsh had left the United States in 1835, traveled through what is now New Mexico and other portions of Mexico and arrived in this section in 1836. In 1837 he purchased Los Meganos rancho, about 10 x 12 miles in extent, since popularly know as the Marsh grant.
After his marriage Mr. Camron resided in Martinez for two years, where his daughter, Amy Gertrude was born, June 13, 1872. He was one of the five who organized the first bank in Contra Costa county, at Martinez, being owner of one-fifth interest in that institution. He also erected a good residence there, but concluded to settle in Oakland in 1874, where their second daughter, Grace, was born October 9, 1875, deceased October 13, 1877. Here he continued the business of buying and selling realty, one of his first purchases being the north half of the block bounded on Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets, and Broadway and Washington street.
Towards the close of 1875 he interested himself in re-organizing the Oakland Bank of Savings, now one of the strongest financial institutions in the State, and he was chosen vice-president of the bank, which position he held four years, resigning May 10, 1880, after his election to the Assembly, to protect the bank from all appearances of being interested in politics.
In 1877 he entered the Camron block on Fourteenth street, where is now the post office. In the same year Mr. and Mrs. Camron visited Europe, with their only child, Amy Gertrude. Returning after an absence of five months Mr. Camron resumed his customary vocation of dealing in real estate.
He was appointed a member of the City Council September 3, 1877, to fill a vacancy. In 1880 he was elected to the Assembly by a majority of about a thousand, and while in the Legislature he was chiefly occupied in resisting the “mining lobby” and preventing the passage of obnoxious debris and water bills. At the next State convention of the Republican party, with thirteen candidates in his district, he was nominated by acclamation, as a tribute to “his conscientious and able services in behalf of the people.” In 1882 he entered the contest for State Senator, and was supported by 120 or the 153 delegates, but being requested to withdraw in the alleged interest of party harmony he retired from the field, thus losing the vantage ground gained in the Assembly and his well-earned prestige in State politics. He has since devoted his energies to his private affairs. In the “citizens’” movement of 1889 he was induced to accept the nomination for Councilman at large, which position he filled with the marked acceptance of the people.
Transcribed
by David Rugeroni.
Source: "The
Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, Page 219-222, Lewis
Publishing Co, 1892.
©
2005 David Rugeroni.