San Francisco County
Biographies
LORIN J. DUTTON
LORIN
J. DUTTON, a contractor and builder, San Francisco, was born in Augusta, Maine,
in 1857, and was reared and educated in his native city. His parents were also
natives of Maine, and his father, John L. Dutton, was a stone contractor.
In 1878, on
reaching his majority, Mr. Dutton came to California, and in San Francisco
learned the trade of carpenter and joiner. After working at his trade for
several years, in 1884 he began business for himself, since which time he has
been successfully engaged in contracting and building. He has established a
reputation for thorough, substantial and artistic work, and has done much in
the way of fitting up stores and offices, besides a general jobbing business.
Transcribed
by Elaine Sturdevant.
Source: "The
___________________________________
TALIESIN
EVANS, Councilman at large of the city of Oakland, and a stockholder in the
Popular Railroad Guide Company of San Francisco and Oakland–of which he is
general manager–was born in Manchester, England, November 8, 1843. His father,
John Evans, was a native of Montgomeryshire, and his
mother Ann Thomas (Evans), of Flintshire, both in
Wales, and they both sprang from the freeholding
agricultural class. His grandfather, Evan Evans, lived to the age of
eighty-three, and his grandmother Thomas was ninety-one years old at the time
of her death. His parents were married in Manchester, England. The father was
interested in quarrying and mining enterprises, being manager of a slate quarry
for many years and of a copper mine near Beddgelert,
Caernarvonshire. The mother died in England, in middle life.
Mr. Evans, the
subject of this article, left England, December 22, 1862, in the ship Rising Sun, destined for Victoria, Vancouver. Coming by way
of Cape Horn, he arrived June 16, following. His father left in February, 1863,
and came by the Southampton route to St. Thomas, and thence to Aspinwall, and by way of Panama to San Francisco, and went
to the mines in this State. He and Henry B. Jackson, a merchant of Manchester,
formed a company of twenty-six practical miners, under engagement for two
years, with a view to work the Cariboo mines in
British Columbia. Mr. Evans arrived in San Francisco and went to Nevada to
ascertain what inducements would be offered for employing his company of
miners. Finding the State laws unfavorable, Mr. Taliesin Evans went to the Cariboo country in charge of the men and located claims in
Lightning creek. There they worked two years, with no profit to the undertakers
of the enterprise, Messrs. John Evans and H. B. Jackson, and the company
disbanded. Mr. T. Evans continued mining until the latter part of October,
1869,–six and a half years in all–and then came to California, arriving in San
Francisco before the close of that year, and he has been a resident here ever
since. John Evans died in August, 1879, aged sixty years, a member of the
Provincial Parliament, serving his third term. He was a resident of Cariboo, where he had filled the position of Government
Mining Engineer of the Cariboo district.
Mr. Taliesin
Evans studied law the first year (1870) in the office of George B. Merrill. A
year afterward he entered the printing office of John H. Carmany
& Co., publishers of the original Overland Monthly, the Commercial
Herald, the Pacific and some other publications. Mr. Evans had
previously become a contributor to the Overland and also the Bulletin,
and now learned the printing business at the case. While so engaged, in
October, 1871, he accepted an invitation from the Los Angeles News to
become its local editor, and he remained with it until it became extinct, in
November 1872. During the next month he became local editor of the San Diego Union,
beginning December 26 and succeeding John De Young, subsequently managing
editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. In May he accepted an invitation
to take a place on the San Francisco Bulletin,
and for two years was the junior commercial editor of that paper; then for
eight years he was city editor, and five and a half years managing editor. He
left the Bulletin in August, 1888, and then became associated with the
Oakland Tribune. Meanwhile, in November, 1883, he had come to Oakland to
reside. In March, 1889, he was elected Councilman at large on the Citizens’
ticket, receiving the highest vote, namely, 1,200 more than some of his colleagues,–a
clear majority of nearly 2,000.
He organized in
1887 the first Ward Improvement Association in Oakland, and was its first
President. Since 1880 he has been a member of the Masonic order.
He was married
in Los Angeles, August 4, 1873, to Mary J. Macy, who was born in Indiana, and
brought up to this coast from the age of one year, her parents, Dr. Obed and Lucinda Macy, having come across the plains in
1850 and settling in Los Angeles. They were of the Macy family who founded
Nantucket, Massachusetts. Dr. Macy died in middle life, and his wife in 1872,
both in Los Angeles. Mr. Evans’ children are four daughters (two sons died in
infancy): Annie Lucinda, Cora Louisa, Leila Emily and Minnie Olwen.
Transcribed
by Elaine Sturdevant.
Source: "The
© 2006 Elaine Sturdevant.