San
Joaquin County
Biographies
SAMUEL C. BEANE
An experienced, progressive railroad
man who is far more than a routine operator, is Samuel C. Beane, popular
district freight and passenger agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad at
Stockton. A native son and proud of his
association with the Golden State, he was born in Tulare County, California, on
February 26, 1869, the son of Samuel and Diana (Davies) Beane, the former a
native of New Hampshire and the latter of Ohio.
Mr. Beane came to California by way of Panama in 1862, and he died in
1875. The mother crossed the plains to
California in 1862, and she passed away in Sacramento in August, 1921.
Samuel C. Beane attended the public
schools of Plymouth, in Amador County, and then he started to work in the
quartz mill at the age of sixteen, having previously begun the study of
telegraphy. He worked at odd jobs around
the post office at Plymouth, while a boy, and at seventeen left home to go to
Sacramento, where he worked for Weinstock & Lubin, receiving at first six dollars per week. Later, he was given a post with Messrs. Scott
& Gilbert, the manufacturing chemists, at ten dollars per week.
Hearing that the Southern Pacific
Railroad Company was paying operators sixty dollars per month, he entered the
employ of that company on May 15, 1889, as night operator at Chico, and ever
since that date he has been in the service of that great concern. He next became relief agent and operator at
Chico, Woodland, Red Bluff, Reno, Ventura, San Jose and other cities, and for
ten years he was associated with the freight department at San Jose, where he
rose to the position of assistant chief clerk, and he was one year in the
general offices of the company in San Francisco as a rate clerk.
In August, 1902, he was transferred
to Stockton as chief clerk, where he continued for a period of nine years. Then he was traveling and freight agent out
of the district freight agent’s office at Oakland, but made his residence in Stockton,
and after four years he became commercial agent over the district between
Florin and Tracy. On March 1, 1920, he
was appointed district freight and passenger agent of the district from Florin
on the north to Newman and Merced on the south and from Antioch on the west to
the Southern Mines on the east. On May
15, 1921, he had been for thirty-two years in the continuous service of the
Southern Pacific Railroad.
When on June 5, 1894, Mr. Beane was
married at Sutter Creek, he chose for his life-companion Miss Lillie Frances
Higgins, a native of Pennsylvania; and they have had two children, one of whom
is married. Ruth A. has become the wife
of J. E. Duffy, and they have one son, J. E., Jr.; Chester Beane is a clerk in
the Commercial and Savings Bank of Stockton.
Mr. Beane belongs to Charity Lodge No. 6, I. O. O. F., and to Stockton
Lodge No. 218 B. P. O. E., and also to Stockton Lodge No. 319 of the Loyal
Order of Moose and to Stockton Parlor No. 7, N. S. G. W. He is a charter member of the Stockton Rotary
Club, and has been secretary of that influential organization since its
formation in August, 1913.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1264. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases