Siskiyou
County
Biographies
H. B. REAM
Well established among the ranchers
of the Sacramento Valley is H. B. Ream, whose modern ranch is situated in
Siskiyou county.
A native of Yreka, California, his birth having occurred July 3, 1865,
he is a son of Dr. Daniel and Augusta (Belden) Ream. The father came to California in the early
days by way of the Oregon trail, and settled on Humbug
creek, where he mined for a brief interval.
He then decided to follow his profession at Deadwood, in Scott valley,
then moved to Yreka and continued there until his death in 1889. He was prominent in public life, and served
as sheriff of Siskiyou county, and Modoc county when the two were combined as
one county. Doctor Ream once held the
office of tax collector, and published a small newspaper at Fort Jones for a
short time. He was a real pioneer of
northern California, and administered to the ill of a wide territory, riding
over the country in those days on a saddle horse. He was one of the most successful men of
Siskiyou county, and was highly respected as a
sterling gentleman. He served as state
senator from this district for two years, 1878 to 1880.
H. B. Ream attended the common schools
of Siskiyou county, then took a course in the
Polytechnic School in engineering at Vander Naillan
school in San Francisco. Having
completed his studies he took up civil engineering with the Southern Pacific
Railroad, thus continuing for six years while that railroad was being laid
through the northern part of California.
Following this, he spent eleven years in the United States mint at San
Francisco, after which he returned to his home near Mount Shasta, where he has
a beautiful ranch of two hundred thirty acres, reposing in an artistic setting
of virgin trees and magnificent landscape.
Mr. Ream also owns three hundred and twelve acres on Mt. Eddy, which
acreage has been leased for twenty years as a range. Mr. Ream has not entirely forsaken his
engineering profession, and still does work of the nature privately. For sixteen years, also he served as city
engineer of Mount Shasta, and installed a thirty thousand dollar water system
and a ten thousand dollar sewerage system for this city.
Mr. Reams is a democrat in politics,
and his standing in the community is indicated by the fact that for eight
years, beginning in 1915, he represented his district as state
assemblyman. He belongs to the Masonic
Blue Lodge at Yreka, the Commandery at San Francisco,
and Islam Temple of the Mystic Shrine at San Francisco, and was oriental guide
of the latter for six years.
In 1892 H. B. Ream was married to Miss
Amelia Kiefaber, of St. Louis, Missouri, and they
have become the parents of two children:
Lucille, who is the wife of J. W. Morgan, an engineer for the McCloud
River Railroad; and Mildred K., who married Robert Smith, and lives in Inyo
county, California. Mr. Ream’s farm was
a stage headquarters during the exciting pioneer days of California, and at one
time he engaged in stock raising on his land.
The first pail and tub factory in
California was located on his farm, having been built by his grandfather and
operated by him during his lifetime, but when tin was introduced the owners
could not compete with tin products.
This was also the first industry to be named after Mount Shasta.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of the Sacramento
Valley California, Vol. 2 Pages 97-98. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies