USA > California > A Volume of memoirs and genealogy of representative citizens of northern California, including biographies of many of those who have passed away > Part 48
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and is of highland Scotch ancestry. His parents, James and Effie (Gor- don) Munro, were both natives of Scotland and were married in the land of the hills and heather, whence they crossed the Atlantic to Canada, in 1832, bringing with them their first-born, a little son. Their family was afterward increased until it numbered eight children, seven of whom are yet living. The parents were Presbyterians in their religious faith. The father died in the sixtieth year of his age, but the mother long survived him, reaching the ripe old age of eighty years.
Mr. Munro was a little lad of only six summers when his father died. He acquired his education in the schools of Canada and began to earn his living as i bookkeeper, being employed in that capacity first in Canada and afterward in Big Rapids, Mecosta county, Michigan. After coming to the west he followed bookkeeping in Carson, Nevada. The year 1875 witnessed his arrival in California and for a year he was employed as a salesman in a large dry-goods house in San Francisco. Subsequently he became the bookkeeper for a firm at Glenbrook, Nevada, and in 1886 he came to Dutch Flat, where he purchased the general mercantile store formerly owned by Neff & Company. Mr. Neff having been elected to the office of lieutenant- governor of California. For the past fourteen years Mr. Munro has con- dlucted the business with marked success. His store has fifty-six hundred square feet of floor space and is divided into various departments, all sepa- rate, yet each complete in itself. There is a large basement fitted up with staple goods, having a capacity of holding ten car-loads. His stock is val- ted at about eighteen thousand dollars and embraces everything needed by the mining and fruit-growing community with which he is surrounded. Mr. Munro has proved himself to be a thoroughly progressive and capable busi- ness man. He employs a large force of competent clerks who aid him in carrying on his large and lucrative business. In addition to the manage- ment of his mercantile affairs he also conducts the office of the railroad company at this point to the fullest satisfaction of the corporation.
In 1872 he was happily married to Miss Jane McNaughton, a native of the province of Quebec, Canada, and they now have three children, as follows: C. H., who is a mining engineer, born in Michigan; Robert, born in Nevada, now attending school at Berkeley, California: and Fannie, who is a student in the same place. Mr. Munro has ever exercised his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the Democracy, but aside from this gives no attention to politics, his entire time being devoted to his business. Ile has won a very high and enviable reputation as an honora- ble and successful merchant of Placer county, and his prosperity is due to his improvement of his opportunities, to his keen sagacity and to his inde- fatigable energy.
JAMES RUSSELL BRIGGS.
That fruitful and healthful Scotch-English ancestry which has done so much to populate the United States worthily and which has carried success to every state in the Union, produced James Russell Briggs, of Modesto, California, one of the best known and most prominent retired farmers of
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Stanislaus county. Mr. Briggs was born in Pennsylvania, April 26. 1827, a son of John and Mary ( Coulter) Briggs. His great-grandfather Briggs came from England to Pennsylvania at an early date and there Mr. Briggs's father and grandfather Samuel were born. Samuel Briggs was a soldier of the Revolutionary war and was with General Washington at Valley Forge. His mother was of Scotch descent and his father was a successful farmer and for some years a class-leader in the Methodist Episcopal church. He died when in his forty-first year, and his widow survived him to the ripe age of ninety-eight years. They were the parents of ten children, of whom only three survive.
James Russell Briggs, the eldest surviving member of his family. received his early education in the public schools of Pennsylvania and was later a student in public schools in Marion county, Ohio, where his father removed with his family in 1834, when the boy was seven years old. He had begun life on his own account as a farmer when the Civil war began, and, inspired by the example of his father, who was a veteran of the war of 1812, he enlisted in Company D, Sixteenth Illinois Volunteer Infan- try, which was commanded by "Dick" Yates, afterward the celebrated war governor of Illinois, and was elected its first lieutenant. He fought under General Sherman in several minor engagements in Mississippi and Tennes- see and participated in the five-days fight at Vicksburg. While encamped with his regiment on the bank of the Yazoo river, he contracted an incura .. ble kidney disease and was honorably discharged from the service by reason of disability; and he was injured also by a fragment of a shell which exploded near him. He has never recovered from the chronic ailment men- tioned and in consequence of it he is to this day in a sense an invalid. He had volunteered for three years and had served gallantly for about nine months, and he deeply regretted his inability to fight longer for the preser- vation of the Union. After he had partially regained his health, his physi- cian advised him to go to California, in whose glorious climate it was hoped he would fully recover, and in 1864 he joined a large party of Cali- fornia emigrants and crossed the plains with a mule team. They chose the northern route, which, while it was more dangerous on account of Indians, afforded more and better feed for their stock than the southern route, and made the journey without serious adventure, and Mr. Briggs and his wife and five children pushed on to San Joaquin county, where they found a temporary home at Captain Weber's place.
Mr. Briggs began farming on one hundred and sixty acres of land and as he prospered he bought more land until he owned six hundred acres adjoining the town of Modesto, which increased in value rapidly as Modesto grew in wealth and population. The building of the railroad was also an aid to Mr. Briggs in a financial way, and he eventually sold some of his land, at one hundred dollars an acre, and more of it at sixty dollars an acre, and was enabled to retire on a competency to pass his declining years in a pleasant home at Modesto. He is well known as a member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Santa Cruz Lodge, No. 38, Santa Cruz, California,
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and has been an unswerving Republican since the organization of that party. He has never sought or accepted any political office. His career as a citizen and as a soldier has shown him to be a patriotic lover of his country, who in his life and works has done it honor.
Mr. Briggs was married March 29, 1849, in Crawford county, Ohio, to Miss Elizabeth Bush, and of their children we make the following obser- vations: Mary Jane is the wife of Reuben Pixley, of San Joaquin county. Abraham is a resident of Modesto. John lives at Santa Cruz. Kate is the wife of Charles Rice, of Modesto. Ora married James Sample, of Santa Rosa. Albert is a member of his father's household in Modesto. After a happy married life of forty-seven years, Mr. Briggs was bereft of his wife by death November 28, 1896. His loss is an irreparable one and he refers to her as having been one of the best of women,-such a woman as is "God's best gift to man."
IRA HARRIS, JR.
The life story of Ira Harris, Jr., of Modesto, Stanislaus county, Cali- fornia, is that of the career of a self-made man, pushing, progressive and patriotic, who has shrunk from no duty and hesitated at no obstacle, a career of honest industry and a victory worthily won. Mr. Harris comes from Revolutionary stock in both lines of descent, great-grandfathers of both of his parents having fought for American independence. He was born in Rhode Island. November 18. 1848. His great-grandfather Harris was an carly settler there, but Jeremiah Harris, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, and his son Ira Harris, the father of Ira Harris, Jr., were both born in Massachusetts. Ira Harris married Miss Fanny Clark, a native of Massa- chusetts, whose father had fought in the war of 1812, following in the foot- steps of his patriotic fathers. Ira Harris was a wagon-maker during his active years. Hle is still living at the age of eighty-four. His wife died at the age of seventy-one, having given the work of most of her years to the Baptist church. They were the parents of six children, four of whom are living.
When the subject of this sketch had attained his fifteenth year. the strug- gle between the north and south was at its height and the need of more vol- unteers to put down the slave-hoklers' rebellion was pressing. The boy had inherited warlike blood, the demands of which would not be denied, and July 15. 1863. he entered the United States Navy, on board the frigate Ironsides. He was on duty at the capture of Fort Wagner and Fort Gregg, helped to silence the Cummings battery on Morris Island and assisted to batter down Fort Sumter and participated in the operations against Fort Moultrie and other fortifications on Sullivan's Island. He was in the service about a year all told, and received a slight injury from a fragment of a shell and another from an iron lever attached to one of the guns on the Ironsides. He was hon- orably discharged at Philadelphia, and returning to his home devoted himself to acquiring a practical knowledge of the carriage-maker's and blacksmith's tradles in his father's shop. He went to Colorado in the fall of 1879 and from
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there to San Francisco, California, in 1883. Six months later he came to Modesto, where for four years he was employed by Mr. Englehart and for a year afterward by Mr. Harter. In 1889 he opened a shop on his own account, which he has since managed successfully, giving attention to carriage-making, ironing and repairing and to general blacksmithing, making a specialty of repairing all kinds of machinery. He has prospered satisfactoritly and has acquired considerable town property. He is an influential citizen and is iden- tified with the orders of the Druids and the Artisans, and is a Mason, a member of blue lodge and chapter, and is a past commander of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic. In 1899 Mr. Harris was elected by the citizens of the town as one of the city trustees, in which position he is earnestly labor- ing to administer justice to all.
Mr. Harris was married in 1869 to Mary Muhlholland, of Irish ancestry and a native of the state of Rhode Island, and the union has been blessed by the advent of eight children. Their eldest son William, following in the footsteps of his father and his ancestors, gave his services to his country as a member of Campany D. of the Sixth California Regiment, in the Spanish war. The other children are named Emma Agnes, Fanny, Mary, Ellen, Josephine, George and Genever.
Mr. Harris's brother, Thomas E. Harris, also served in the United States Navy during the Civil war and he also achieved a record of which he had a right to be proud. Four of Mr. Harris's uncles .- Jeremiah, William, Abel and Oran Harris,-served in the Union army during the rebellion and two of them gave their lives in defense of their country.
BERNARD SHERIDAN.
Sons of the Emerald Isle have made their mark in California in every field of human endeavor and in every generation since civilization began there, and venturesome and enterprising Irishmen were numerous during the days of the gold excitement. One of those who came in 1853 was Ber- nard Sheridan, long a respected resident of Mokelumne Hill. Mr. Sheridan was a son of James and Bridget ( Comeskey ) Sheridan, natives of Ireland and devout members of the Catholic church. They were farmers, not faring very well in their native land, and they decided to seek better fortune in America; and their children all came to the United States at different times. Bernard, who was born in county Cavan, September 12, 1830, came in 1842, when he was twelve years old, sailing in the Olive Branch from Drohady to Boston. He fell in with one Captain Brook and was employed by him to do chores about his place, and performed his duties so faithfully that he was a member of the Captain's household for eleven years, until 1853. when he came to California.
He sailed from Boston on the John L. Stephens, which landed him at Aspinwall. He crossed the isthmus and secured passage for San Francisco, where he arrived November 20. From there he soon went to Sacramento, where he found work at planking the streets, at seventy-five dollars a month and board. He went from Sacramento to Jackson, Amador county, and
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mined on the Middle Fork creek, with only moderate success. After a short stop at Jackson he mined at different camps on the Mokelumne river until 1856, when he settled at Mokelumne Hill, where he entered the employ- ment of the Mokelumne and Campo Seco Canal & Mining Company, in which he continued until 1899,-a period of forty-two years,-when he met with an accident which disabled him somewhat and caused him to retire from active work. Soon after he came to Mokelumne Hill he bought a building lot, which he subsequently planted with trees, vines and shrubs and on which he has established a pleasant cottage home, where he is literally passing his declining years "under his own vine and fig-tree." In 1860 he voted for Stephen .A. Douglas, the great war Democrat, but he voted for Lincoln in 1864 and has voted for every Republican presidential nominee since.
In 1851 Mr. Sheridan married Miss Catherine Blake, a comely Irish girl born in his own county Cavan. He sent for her and she came out to him in 1855 and five children were born to them in California: James, of San Francisco: Maria, who died at the age of twenty-four: Kate, who mar- ried Robert Randall and lives at Warner Creek; Rose, who is now her father's housekeeper ; and Frank, who is a member of his father's household. Mrs. Sheridan died in 1869, in the thirty-eighth year of her age, and is remembered by husband and children as a faithful wife and devoted mother. Mr. Sheridan has always mourned her death and has tried to rear their children as nearly as possible as he believed she would have done. His life has been an honest and industrious one and he is respected not only as a good citizen but as a pioneer who has given his years to the development of the interests of his adopted state.
JOHN T. MORGAN.
John T. Morgan is the cashier of the Citizens' Bank of Nevada City, a leading and reliable business man who has been prominently identified with the growth and prosperity of this favored section of California since 1853. Ite is a native of the old world, his birth having occurred in the little rock-ribbed country of Wales, on the 24th of June, 1830. On both sides he represents families that for many generations had resided in that land. His parents were John and Rachel ( Thomas) Morgan, the former born in 1785, the latter in 1787. They had nine children. John T. being the eighth in order of birth. The father died March 27. 1859, and the mother passed away on the 27th of March, 1865.
Mr. Morgan, of this review, was reared and educated in the land of his nativity and at the age of fourteen entered upon an apprenticeship at the blacksmith's trade, which he followed for many years. In 1851 he bade adien to home and friends and crossed the Atlantic to the new world, mak- ing his first location in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Subsequently he removed to Dodgeville, lowa county, that state, where he followed his trade 'until 1852. when, attracted by the discovery of gold in California and other sec- tions of the Pacific coast, he crossed the plains and after a long and tedious
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journey of six months reached his destination. He first went to Volcano Bar, Middle Fork of American river, where he located for a few months. He then visited what is now New Castle, Placer county, but again returned to Volcano Bar. In the fall of 1853 he came to Nevada City, since which time he has been identified with the various interests of this section of the state. In 1871 he was elected county assessor, serving for four years, and since 1876 he has occupied his present position in connection with the Citi- zens' National Bank. The success of the institution is largely due to his efforts. He is thoroughly familiar with the banking business in all of its departments, and his conservative methods and keen discernment in busi- ness affairs have placed the bank on a substantial basis that has secured to it a large patronage. During his residence in Nevada county he has also made judicious investments in mining property and his income is materially increased thereby.
In this county, on the 20th of June, 1857, Mr. Morgan was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth J. Eddy, a lady of English birth, who accom- panied her parents to Pennsylvania in 1849. The father died in the Key- stone state, but the family came to California in 1857. Mr. and Mrs. Mor- gan are the parents of ten children, seven of whom are living, as follows: David E .: Gracie A., now the wife of F. T. Nilon; Rachel J .; Edward J .; Frank F .: Alva N .; Bessie C .: Grace and Rachel, who are deceased ; and William F., who died in 1893, at the age of thirty-one years. The family are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
In politics Mr. Morgan is a Republican, and socially he is affiliated with the Masonic order, belonging to lodge, chapter and commandery, and with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, holding membership in both subordinate lodge and encampment. He has filled many offices in both fra- ternities and for many years has been the treasurer of the former. He has twice visited his native land, the second time in 1893. and amid the associa- tions of boyhood and the friends of his youth he spent many pleasant hours. He has, however, greater love for the land of his adoption, with its bound- less opportunities, its great liberties and its principles of republicanism. He is most true and faithful to all that is best in our American government, and his loyalty is equal to that of California's native sons.
GEORGE WASHINGTON TOWLE.
George Washington Towle, of the firm of Towle Brothers, Towle, Pla- cer county, California, is the only survivor of the three brothers who estab- lished the above named firm and who built up the largest and most success- ful lumber-manufacturing business in northern California.
Mr. Towle was born in Corinth, Orange county, Vermont, February 2. 1836, of Welsh ancestry who settled in Londonderry, New Hampshire, at a very early day and were identified with the early history of that town and later with that of the colonies. Grandfather Brocket Towle served through the Revolution, coming out with the rank of colonel, and after the
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war settled wie land in Orange county, Vermont. There Ira Towle, the father of George W., was born and spent his life, and the property is still in the possession of the family. Ira Towle married Miss Annie Doe, and the following named children were born to them: Edwin W .; Allen ; George W .: Mrs. J. H. Robie, of Auburn, California; and Mrs. Henry Robie, of Lincoln, Placer county. The father died in the fifty-ninth year of his age; the mother in her seventieth year.
George W. Towle received a public-school and academic education in his native state, and until he was past twenty-one his life was passed on his father's farm. Then, in 1857, he came to California, making the journey by way of the isthmus of Panama. His brother Allen was already here, located at Dutch Flat. having come the year before, and the next two years the brothers worked together, mining for wages at the rate of three dollars and fifty cents per day. In 1859 the third brother, Edwin W., joined them and shortly afterward the brothers became associated together in the sawmill business, an association which was formed under the name of Towle Broth- ers, and which firm style is still used, though two of the brothers are deceased. Constant industry and honorable and upright business methods brought phenomenal success to the company. July 14, 1889. it was incor- porated, and to-day the Towle Brothers, recognized as the largest concern of its kind in California, ships its products to all parts of this state, to vari- ous points in the east and to Europe. Their first mill, built in 1859 at Blue Canyon, had an upright saw and a capacity of about four thousand feet of lumber. The product was sold at good prices to the miners, but as mining at that point proved a failure the lumber was never paid for. Afterward they bought a mill at Dutch Flat, with a capacity of ten thousand feet of lumber per day, and equipped with a circular saw. This mill was abandoned after the timber in its vicinity had been cut. Here it was, however, that the success of the company began. Their next mill they built on the creek about where Towle now stands, it being known as the Kersage mill and hav- ing a capacity of twenty thousand feet of lumber per day. Subsequently they built a mill at Cisco and two at Donner Lake, the three having a capa- city of abont seventy-five thousand feet, the product from same being used in raffroad construction. The Canyon Creek mill, with a capacity of thirty thon-and feet per day, was the next mill erected by the company. They took a contract for and built thirty-five miles of railroad for the Southern Pach Railroad Company, from Towle to within three miles of Washing- 1011. Nevada county, having during the period of construction five sawmills along the line. They now have two sawmills in the Texas district and they manufacture as high as fifteen million feet of lumber per season: also they manufacture doors, sash, blinds and mouklings of all kinds, and they have a box factory at Towle and one at Sacramento. From time to time they have acquired large tracts of land. Recently they soll eighteen thousand acres of land for grazing and mining purposes, and at this writing they have eight thousand acres of timber land. They have nine lumber yards in Placer and Nevada counties. The town of Towle was named in honor of
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them and to them owes much of the prosperity which it enjoys, they hav- ing erected good residences and a first-class hotel, and also having estab- lished a mercantile business, which they are conducting.
Edwin W. Towle died in 1888, leaving a widow and two children, Arthur and Edwin, who reside in Oakland. Arthur is a member of the firm of Towle Brothers. Allen Towle died in 1896. His children are: G. G., a partner in the above named business; Ora, now Mrs. Stevenson; and Aline and Sadie. George W. Towle was married, in 1874, to Miss F. A. Staples, by whom two children were born, both now deceased.
For the past thirty years Mr. Towle has been a member of the I. O. O. F., and politically he is a Republican. Throughout his long and success- ful business career he has maintained a reputation for integrity and honor, a reputation in which his brothers shared.
SAMUEL L. PRINDLE.
Scotch and German blood has always produced good pioneers. The ancestors of Samuel L. Prindle, one of the most prominent citizens of Mokel- umne Hill, Calaveras county, California, were of such stock and settled early in New England. Nelson Prindle married Lydia Everett, a member of the prominent family of Everett, of which the Hon. Edward Everett was a representative, and was an early settler in Ohio, where he became an extensive land-owner. Samuel L. Prindle was born at Girard, Trumbull county, Ohio, June 7, 1823, and was there educated and made a fair start in life. February 12. 1849, he sailed for Aspinwall on the brig May. com- manded by Captain Hayes, and after a long delay at Panama he obtained passage on the steamship Panama for San Francisco, where he arrived in August, 1849, with the party known as the Gordon company. From San Francisco he went to the mines at Downieville, and from there he went to Calaveras county, in 1851, to mine at Big Bar, on the Mokelumne river. where he says he and four others took out half an ounce each in a day and at the end of a week had two hundred and seventy-five dollars to divide among them. After that he mined at other places and eventually was appointed collector at Campo Seco for the Mokelumne & Campo Seco Canal & Mining Company and was later collector at Buckeye: and in 1862 he was elected the secretary and general manager of the company and became an active factor in its important operations and filled the position ably until his death. He served for several years as a member of the board of supervisors of Calaveras county and in that office was influential in bringing Calaveras county from a state of virtual bankruptcy to a sound financial basis, and for that achievement was given a warm place in the memory of his fellow citizens.
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