San Francisco County
Biographies
MYRON ALLEN WHIDDEN
MYRON ALLEN WHIDDEN, County
Auditor of Alameda
county, was born in Washington
township, this county, February 23,
1860, a son of William and Sarah (Akerman)
Whidden, both natives of New
Hampshire. The father, born in Portsmouth,
July 8, 1822, learned the trade
of blacksmith and followed that vocation in his native city, and was there
married August 14, 1845. In
1847 he moved to Exeter, New
Hampshire, where he followed the same line of
business until April, 1850, when he set out for California
by way of Panama.
Arriving on this coast he tried mining for a short time, and then located in Stockton
at his trade. In 1851 he went East, returning in November with his wife and
only child, George A., born in October, 1847, and resumed work in Stockton. In
August, 1853, he moved to San Francisco and opened a blacksmith shop on Pine
street, where he remained until 1855, when he again went East, returning in
October as far as Alpha, Nevada, where he spent the winter engaged in mining.
In 1856 he resumed his old business in San Francisco,
where another son, William G., was born to him in 1857. About that time he went
to ranching in San Mateo county, but soon sold his place there, and in 1858
moved to this county, and engaged in farming near Centerville, at the same time
carrying on a blacksmith shop in that town. There his third son, the subject of
this sketch, was born. About 1865, in partnership with A. E. Crane, he bought
the Eighenbrodt ranch of 252 acres near Alvarado, and
there resided for some years. He was also interested at one time with Abijah Baker in a ranch in Murray
township. Selling out his interest in the Eighenbrodt ranch about 1874, he moved to Alameda,
and after a few months to Haywards, where he lived
three years and was elected Justice of the Peace for one term. In 1878 he moved
to Alameda, and was there elected a
Trustee for two or three terms. He died in Alameda,
September 9, 1882, much
respected in the community for many excellent qualities of head and heart. His
oldest son, George A., is superintendent of the San Joaquin
ranch of 103,000 acres, in Los Angeles
county (the Irvine
estate). William G. is clerk in a lumber yard in San
Francisco.
Myron
A., the subject of this sketch, received his earliest schooling in Alvarado,
then in Alameda, and next in the Haywards high school, at which he graduated at the age of
eighteen. He then took a business course in Barnard’s college, in San
Francisco, and became foreman of the Baker & Whidden ranch, in which his father was interested,
remaining three years. He was married August
1, 1883, to Mary A. Neal, born in Pleasanton,
February 19, 1863, a
daughter of J. A. Neal, a rancher of that place. Mr. Neal was a native of New
Hampshire, and left that State in the fall of 1846,
arriving in California in the
spring of 1847. In those early times he followed various occupations, being a
clerk for some time in one of the first stores in San
Francisco, mining a little, and dealing in cattle,
which he bought in the southern section of the State and drove to market in the
mining regions. He married a daughter of the late Augustin
Bernal, deceased June 19, 1872,
at the age of eighty-seven. Mr. Bernal was born in what is now Santa
Clara county, served two
years in the Mexican army and received a grant of the ranch El Valle de San
Jose, comprising 48,000 acres, which he divided
equally with his brother, Juan Pablo, and their two sisters, and which is still
largely held by their descendants. Mrs. Neal died young, leaving two daughters:
Mrs. Myron A. Whidden of Oakland,
Mrs. T. W. Harris of Pleasanton.
Mr. Neal died of heart disease October 14, 1887, being found dead in a
bath-house in San Francisco, aged about sixty-two. He had filled the office of
Supervisor of this county for three terms.
After
his marriage in 1883, Mr. Whidden was occupied for a
time on the Neal farm, and in 1884 engaged in the warehouse and commission
business in Pleasanton, with his
brother, William G. About a year later he bought out his brother, and after
another year sold the business to Harris & Son. Again engaged on the Neal
ranch for a year, he came to Oakland
in 1889 to fill the position of deputy County
Assessor, which he held for two
years. He was elected County Auditor
in 1890, by a plurality of 4,871 votes. He is a member of University Lodge, No.
144, I.O.O.F.; Secretary of Oakland Lodge, No. 171, B.P.O.Elks;
and is First Vice-President of Oakland Parlor, No. 50, N. S. G. W.
Transcribed 1-23-06 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages 284-285,
Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
©
2006 Marilyn R. Pankey.
California Biography Project
San Francisco County
California Statewide
Golden Nugget Library