Sierra
County
Biographies
WILLIAM JAMES COPREN
The
fact that William J. Copren, of Sierraville, is now serving his seventh
consecutive terms as assessor of Sierra County is strong evidence of the
ability, integrity and faithfulness of the man, and today no citizen of his
county is more highly honored. A native
of Salem, Massachusetts, he was born on the 20th of February, 1873,
and is a son of William and Susan (Higgins) Copren. His father, who was of French and Irish
extraction, was born in the province of Quebec, Canada, in 1849, and was
married in the east. Moving to
Massachusetts, he became a brick and stonemason, which trade he followed until
coming to California in 1877. Here he
became a contractor and timber man, and also burned
charcoal extensively, selling this product to the various mines and forges in
his section of the country. In 1903,
while hauling a load weighing seven thousand pounds, his team became fractious,
pulling Mr. Copren down off the load, and he was run over by the heavy wagon
and instantly killed. The mother died at
Reno, Nevada, September 10, 1929, at the age of eight-five years. Grandfather Higgins, who was of Scotch-Irish
stock, lived to the age of ninety-three years.
Of the eight children born to William and Susan Copren, six are living,
William James; Rose, of Reno, Nevada; Margaret, a trained nurse, who served
overseas during the late war and now resides in San Francisco; Susette, who is
conducting a rooming house in Reno, Nevada, and is a graduate of the Boston
Conservatory of Music and an accomplished pianist and singer; Charles A., a
contractor and builder at Folsom, California; and John V., a lawyer, with
offices in the Crocker Building, San Francisco.
William
J. Copren attended the public schools of Sierra City and learned the trade of
meat cutting. Besides following that
line of work, he clerked in stores during the summers. As a young man he also served as sawyer and
saw setter in local mills and in that way earned the money necessary to pursue
his higher education. In 1893 he
matriculated in the State College at San Jose, then known as the San Jose State
Normal School, from which he was graduated in 1896. He taught his first school in Alleghany,
Sierra County, and continued teaching until 1907, when he assumed his present
office. True to his habit, he lost no
time, teaching until the last of February and entered the assessor’s office on
March 1st. He has been
reelected at each four-year period since and can probably hold the office of
assessor as long as he so desires, for his duties have been performed in a
manner that has been highly satisfactory to the property owners and taxpayers
of the county.
During
his lengthy period of service Mr. Copren has appointed four different deputies
in succession, each of whom died in office.
His first deputy was John T. Boley, a southern secessionist and a
Republican, who had previously served as county coroner and public
administrator. He rendered able service
as deputy assessor, being capable and honest, and remained in the office until
his death, in 1907. He was succeeded by
Jack W. Wolf, another southerner, who also died in office. After him came W. A. Lotspiech, a southerner,
and at one time a mine owner in Sierra County.
After his death Mr. Copren appointed Charles Keller, of Sierra City, a
well known and honored old gentleman. He
too died in office, since which time Mr. Copren has handled the affairs of the
office without assistance. These four
deputies were men of unusually strong character and ability. All are buried in the cemetery at Downieville
and it is Mr. Copren’s intention to erect a monument
to each of them.
In
1903, at Sattley, California, Mr. Copren was united in marriage to Miss Jennie
L. Church, a daughter of Ezra and Jennie (Menzies) Church, who were numbered
among the pioneer settlers of Sattley.
Mr. and Mrs. Copren are the parents of two children, William E., who
graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the University of Nevada in
1929, and is now engaged in teaching, and Margaret Alice, who is a sophomore in
the high school at Sierraville.
In
his political alignment Mr. Copren is a Democrat, prominent in the councils of
his party, being a member of the democratic central committee of Sierra County
and a member of the state central committee.
He belongs to Sierraville Lodge, No. 184, F. & A. M., of which he
has been master four times; Mountain Vale Lodge, No. 140, I. O. O. F., at
Sierraville, of which he is a past noble grand; Crystal Encampment, No. 64, P.
M., at Sierraville, of which he is a past chief patriarch and has been the
secretary for the past twenty-six years, and has also served as chairman of the
committee on petitions of the California grand encampment. He was formerly a member of Lodge No. 44, K.
P., which was located at Forest, a mining town in Sierra County, and is a
member of Reno Lodge, No. 597, B. P. O. E., at Reno, Nevada. Mr. Copren is a great lover of music and is a
proficient player of the baritone horn, having been a member of the juvenile
band and two later bands in Sierra County.
His office is in the courthouse at Downieville, but he still maintains
his residence in Sierraville. One of his
schoolmates at the San Jose Normal School in 1893 was the present Mrs. Herbert
Hoover, the first lady of the land, with whom he was personally acquainted at
that time. Being an experienced timber
man, Mr. Copren is frequently engaged by private concerns to cruise timber, for
which work he finds time, as the duties of his position require him to be in
his office only from March to August of each year. Trout fishing is his favorite pastime, and he
also derives great pleasure from music.
Probably no citizen of Sierra County is better known that Mr. Copren and
certainly none is held in higher regard by the people generally, for he
possesses to a marked degree the personal qualities which commend a man to the
good opinion of his fellowmen.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Wooldridge,
J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley California,
Vol. 3 Pages 217-219. Pioneer Historical Publishing Co.
Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Sierra County
Biographies