USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol II > Part 33
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General Salomon was born on Christmas day of 1836 in the city of Schleswig, Germany. His father, Solomon M. Salomon, was a native of Schleswig Holstein and a representative of an old German family, whose ancestral history can be traced back through four hundred years. He mar- ried Caroline Samuels, who was born in Holstein and also belonged to one of the old families of the fatherland. Mr. Salomon followed merchandising in Schleswig and was identified with the German movement in 1848, which attempted the liberation of the duchess of Schleswig and Holstein from Den- mark. He died in 1869 at the age of fifty-eight years. In the family were five sons and six daughters, all of whom are living in America with the exception of one brother who is deceased.
General Salomon began his education in the public schools of his native land. and afterward attended college in Schleswig. He put aside his text- books at the age of seventeen years and then made preparation to come to America. Crossing the Atlantic he spent about six months in New York city, after which he removed to Chicago, where he was employed in mer- cantile lines for three years. On the expiration of that period he took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1859, after which he prac- ticed in Chicago. He was in 1860 elected an alderman of that city and was the youngest member of the board, being only twenty-four years of age at ยท the time he was chosen for the position.
That Mr. Salomon had become a loyal and patriotic citizen is indicated by the fact that in 1861 he offered his services to the government in defense of the Union cause, enlisting on the 6th of May of that year as a member of Company H, Twenty-fourth Illinois Infantry. He was promoted suc- cessively to the rank of second lieutenant, first lieutenant, captain and major of his regiment. In the fall of 1862 Colonel Frederick Hecker, who was colonel of the regiment, resigned together with twenty of his officers, among whom was Mr. Salomon. In company with Colonel Hecker our subject formed a new regiment, which was known as the Eighty-second Illinois or the new Hecker regiment, and became one of the celebrated commands of the army. In this Mr. Salomon was made lieutenant colonel and on the resignation of Colonel Hecker early in 1864 he was promoted to the position of colonel of the regiment, which he commanded from a period prior to the battle of Gettysburg until the close of the war, when he was brevetted brig- adier general " for distinguished gallantry and meritorious service." After the cessation of hostilities General Salomon returned to Chicago and was elected county clerk, in which position he served for four years. In 1869 he was appointed by President Grant as governor of Washington territory and upon leaving Chicago was presented with a silver table service by many of
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the most prominent citizens of Chicago, headed by General Phil Sheri- dan, the " hero of Winchester," who is accounted one of the three greatest generals of the Civil war. This service was handsomely engraved and was a fitting testimonial of the esteem in which General Salomon was so uniform- ly held in Chicago and by his fellow army officers. After serving as gov- ernor of Washington for four years he resigned in order to remove to San Francisco, where in 1875 he entered upon the practice of law. In 1898 he was appointed assistant district attorney for the city and county of San Francisco. He has a large and important clientage connecting him with much of the litigation tried in the courts of his district, and is well qualified for the important duties of the profession, being strong in argument, logical in reasoning and with a keenly analytical mind that enables him to readily determine the relative value of the points involved in cases with which he is connected.
General Salomon has been honored in various walks of life, for his fit- ness for leadership and his marked ability are widely recognized. In 1887 he was elected department commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in California, having been an honored representative of the organization since 1866. He was one of the organizers and for eight years was com- mander in chief of the Army and Navy Republican League of San Fran- cisco. He was the choice of a large number of the Grand Army men on the Pacific coast for the position of brigadier general in the volunteer service for the campaign in the Philippines, but General Harrison Grey Otis, of Los Angeles, was given the appointment. In 1888 General Salomon was elected to the California legislature and during the sessions was recognized leader of the Republican forces, being regarded as the ablest speaker in the assem- bly. He has taken an active part in the presidential campaigns during the past thirty years and he has a statesman's grasp of affairs, keeping thorough- ly informed concerning the great political questions of the day.
On the 20th of February, 1860, was celebrated the marriage of General Salomon and Miss Sophia Greenhut, a sister of J. B. Greenhut, of Peoria, Illinois, and a daughter of Benedict and Minnie (Pollock) Greenhut. Her father died during her infancy. To Mr. and Mrs. Salomon have been born three sons and three daughters: One son, Emil, died when three years old in Chicago, and a daughter, Minnie, universally beloved and highly esteemed, died at the age of twenty-two in San Francisco. Ben I., serving as deputy in the tax collector's office, is president of the Civil Service League, and is also well known and popular in social circles of San Francisco. Dr. Max Salomon is a prominent physician and a graduate of Cooper and Heidelberg University. He has for nine years been city physician for the German Hos- pital and Benevolent Society of San Francisco. Carrie is the wife of M. M. Stern, general agent for the Central Pacific Railroad Company at San Fran- cisco, for the past seventeen years. Annie is residing with her sister, Mrs. Stern. The wife and mother died in the year 1893. General Salomon is a distinguished Mason, having attained the thirty-second degree of that order and he is also identified with several social organizations. Early in life imbued with a laudable ambition, he has steadily advanced in those walks of
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life demanding intellectuality, business ability and fidelity, and to-day he commands the respect and esteem not only of his community, but of the people throughout the state. Over the record of his public career and his private life there falls no shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil, for he has ever been most loyal to the duties of friendship and citizenship and his his- tory well deserves a place in the annals of his adopted state.
THOMAS JENKINS.
Thomas Jenkins, as president of the school board, is one of the organ- izers of the Union high school of Elk Grove, and as county supervisor he has done invaluable service for the community in which he lives. He is well known in Florin, where he makes his home, and is justly accounted one of the representative citizens of the community. His efforts in behalf of the public have been exerted along lines that have proved of great and lasting benefit, and his official duties are ever performed with a view to substantial progress, reform and upbuilding.
Mr. Jenkins was born in Carmarthenshire, Wales, July 18, 1852. His father was Morris Jenkins, also a native of Wales and a representative of an old family of prominence in that country. He devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits and died in the year 1881. His wife, Margaret Reese, was likewise born in the little rock-ribbed country of Wales and was a daughter of Thomas Reese, who was also a member of one of the old and respected families of that country. She survived her husband for about ten years, passing away in 1899. Two brothers of our subject are yet living : John, who is a gardener on the state capitol grounds of Sacramento, Cali- fornia ; and David, who is a farmer of Sacramento county.
Mr. Thomas Jenkins was a little lad of only four summers when brought by his parents to America, and was reared in Sacramento county, having come to California in 1861, crossing the plains with his parents from Utah. He pursued his education in the public schools of Sacramento county, and having concluded his studies at the age of nineteen years went upon a farm with his father in Sacramento county and has since devoted his energies to agricultural pursuits. At the age of twenty-one years he acquired a tract of land and started out upon an independent business career. He has made good use of his time and opportunities, has labored earnestly and persistently and has therefore won the success which is the just reward of diligence and enterprise. His holdings at present, situated near Elk Grove, Sacramento county, comprise three hundred and twenty acres of rich land. He follows diversified farming, raising hay, grain and stock, and everything about his place is neat and thrifty in appearance, indicating his careful supervision of his farm, his thorough understanding of modern methods of agriculture and his practical work in field and meadow.
Mr. Jenkins while leading a busy life as a farmer has also faithfully performed his duties of citizenship, and has put forth earnest and effective effort in behalf of his county. He is a Republican in politics, believing firmly in the principles of the party, doing all in his power to promote its
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growth and insure its success, and has been active in state and county con- ventions as a delegate. He has also delivered many campaign addresses in his county in the interests of the Republican party and its candidates. His fellow townsmen, mindful of what he has done, have frequently chosen him to positions of political preferment. He served as road overseer from 1875 until 1890, and in the latter year was elected supervisor from the fifth district for a term of four years. At each subsequent election he has been again chosen for the office, and his present term will continue until January, 1907. He has advanced the interests of the county by securing the building of new roads and bridges and other work that has been of material good. During his service on the board he also advocated the purchase of a new site for the county offices and the present one between Sixth and Seventh and H and I streets was secured. Above all he is practical in his work, bringing to his official duties the keen discernment of a business man who is me- thodical, systematic and at the same time enterprising. He is one of the organizers of the Union high school at Elk Grove and was elected the first president of the board in 1893. The Union high school district com- prises the sixteenth school district and has sixteen trustees. He served for several terms as school trustee in the Reese district. Socially he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with the Fra- ternal Brotherhood.
Mr. Jenkins was married on the 5th of October, 1873, in Oakland, California, to Miss Adelaide Harrington, a native of Illinois and a daugh- ter of Henry Harrington, a farmer of that state and a representative of one of the old American families, whose ancestral connection with the new world antedates the Revolutionary war. The first representative of the name in this country came from Ireland. Her father was a soldier of the Civil war. To Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins have been born two sons and five daughters, of whom are yet living: Arthur, a civil engineer and contrac- tor of Sacramento county; David, who has graduated from the grammar school and is now taking an engineering course at the Ada, Ohio, Engin- eering College; Annie, Eunice and Amy, who are residing with their par- ents. For almost a half century Mr. Jenkins has resided on the Pacific coast, and, although not American born, he has witnessed the transition of this part of the country from frontier conditions to that of an advanced civilization and has cheerfully borne his share of the burdens and hard- ships incident to development here. He is never remiss in his duties of citizenship, and as the years have gone by his fidelity in all life's relations has won for him the warmest regard and respect of his fellow townsmen.
ERNEST STRATTON BIRDSALL.
Ernest Stratton Birdsall is the well known olive grower of East Au- burn, Placer county, and ranks prominently among the fruit men of the northern part of that state because of his successful prosecution of the olive industry, as well as for his identification with other important enter- prises. He is a young man of most progressive and energetic disposition,
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and ever since leaving college has been performing an active part in the affairs of his community, not only as a shrewd business man but as a public- spirited citizen.
Mr. Birdsall was born in Sacramento, June 27, 1876, being a son of Frederick and Esther (Stratton) Birdsall. His father, a native of New York and of an old Dutch family long settled in that state, was one of the leading citizens of California for almost fifty years, until his death, which occurred in 1899. He came around the Horn to San Francisco in 1851, and arrived with the intention of mining, but instead embarked in the general supply business in Paradise and later in Deadwood, both in Placer county. After leaving this county he was in the milling business in Day- ton, Nevada, and later put into execution the plan of building a railroad from Lodi to Calaveras county, which, after completed, he sold to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. He then acquired the South Yuba river water rights, and put in the water system at Auburn. He owned the North Fork and Bear River ditches, but eventually disposed of the entire system to the South Yuba Water Company. About that time he bought seventy acres of land in Auburn, known as the Aeolia Heights property, and commenced improving it with the especial purpose of olive culture. He went to Europe and studied the olive growing industry in southern France and Italy, and on his return built a residence on his place and began the setting out of olive trees. He also sold a few lots for residence pur- poses. He had started this enterprise in 1886, and in due course of time his orchard began bearing in accordance with his most sanguine anticipa- tions. He was a very successful and broad-minded man in every phase of his life. He was a strong Republican in politics. He was a director in the Sacramento Bank, and he made his home in Sacramento and attained prom- inence in both business and social circles. He was associated with such men as Governor Booth and Cy Wheeler. His wife, Esther Birdsall, was reared in Ohio, and at the time of the Civil war her father had charge of the telegraph lines through Ohio and into Kentucky. She is of an old American family of English descent, and resides on Aeolia Heights at Au- burn. One son, Fred W., a physician, died in 1896, and there are two daughters : Miss Etta A .; and Jennett, wife of Fred W. Kiesel, cashier of the California State Bank of Sacramento.
Mr. Ernest S. Birdsall graduated from the high school in Sacramento in 1896, and then attended the University of California with the class of 1900. He then showed his energy by beginning work for the San Fran- cisco Gas and Electric Company as a coal shoveler, and remained with the company two years, finally as assistant buyer. He then took charge of his father's place on Aeolia Heights, and has continued the operation of this beautiful olive farm ever since. The production has been increasing from the first, as the trees have become older, and the output is now mainly of pure olive oil and as a side line pickled ripe olives. This orchard has demon- strated that the foothills of Placer county are well adapted for the profitable culture of the olive. The yield for the past season from sixty acres was about fifteen hundred gallons of pure olive oil, of the very highest quality,
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and all of which is put under cork and sealed right on the place. This oil, known as Birdsall's Aeolia Olive Oil, has gained a well deserved repu- tation in the northern part of the state, and received the highest award at the National Irrigation Congress held in Ogden in 1903, and gold medal and recommendation at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. The output of pickled ripe olives is about five hundred gallons per year. It is a growing industry, and, with such a progressive man as Mr. Birdsall at its head, is certain to enjoy increasing success.
Mr. Birdsall is an active Republican, and was chairman of the county convention at its last session and is a member of the county central com- mittee. He is a Mason, and is a member of the Theta Chi high school fraternity, and the Chi Phi and the Theta Nu Epsilon college fraternities. He was married in Sacramento, June 7. 1899, to Miss Mabel Blair, a native of Placerville and a daughter of John Blair, of Scotch descent, who was one of the pioneers to California, and who is in the hide and fur business in Sacramento and also of the firm of J. and J. Blair, lumber dealers of Plac- erville. Mr. and Mrs. Birdsall have had two children: Fred Blair Bird- sall, who died November 16, 1904. aged two years ten months, and a daughter, Blair Birdsall.
SAMUEL HOLMES DILLE.
Samuel Holmes Dille is one of the most prominent mine owners and operators in Grass Valley and Nevada county, and he has been identified with this one vicinity of California for over forty years, and has been a typical Californian since the "days of old, the days of gold " in 1850. He is a fine sample of the well preserved and progressive American, and his success has been the result of self-achievement and strenuous endeavor since early boyhood. He has never lacked the requisite amount of energy, purpose or ability in order to carry out his plans and take advantage of the opportunities whenever and however they came in his way, and this con- stant resourcefulness has given him rank among the foremost men of his community and crowns his honored old age with the laurels of success and worth.
Mr. Dille was born in the state of Ohio, June 28, 1828, a son of Jolin C. and Mary (Holmes) Dille, both of Revolutionary stock, and the former of Irish and the latter of English descent. His grandfather was a conti- nental soldier. John C. Dille was a native of Pennsylvania, followed the occupation of farming, and was a prominent man in Indiana, where he held the office of justice of the peace for twelve years. He died in 1861, and his wife, who was a native of West Virginia, died in 1843. John C. Dille by a second marriage had two sons, Hiram M. and Martin Luther, both of whom reside in Ohio.
Mr. Samuel H. Dille was educated in the country schools of Ohio, and was reared to farm labor, a good share of which fell to his lot at an early age. At the age of fourteen, after the death of his mother, he began learning the carpenter's trade, and continued to work at that occupation while living in Ohio. In 1850 he started with a mule team across the plains
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to California, and arrived in Weaverville, Placer county, July 13, 1850, having at that time money to the amount of one bit, with the cheapest meal costing a dollar. He went on to Sacramento, and began driving a wagon for a store. For four months he was employed in the Rhoades and Sturges Bank, after which he placer mined in Chinese Camp. In 1851 he went to San Francisco and resumed carpentering until the following fall, when he went up the Yuba river and engaged in the lumber business until 1852. After disposing of his interests there he went to Shasta county, where he mined during the winter of 1852-3, and then returned to Park's Bar on the Yuba and resumed placer mining. In the summer he married, and in the fall of 1853 began ranching on what is known as the Big Bonanza ranch. He continued raising cattle until 1858, and during that time, in 1856, was elected deputy sheriff of Yuba county and filled the office two years. After selling his ranch he was in Comptonville during one winter, was at Park's Bar for several years, and in 1863 took up his permanent abode at Grass Valley. He followed carpentering for thirty-five years of the time since then, and had many contracts for building mills throughout this part of the state. In 1899 he began buying and selling mines and min- ing stock. He is the owner of all but one share of the Lamarque Mine Con- solidated, which has been bonded to Mr. Rosenfield, of San Francisco, who is now opening the property. Mr. Dille is president of the Hartrey Con- solidated Company, which owns two claims between the famous Allison ranch and the Homeward Bound. He is also interested in considerable other mining stock, and has been connected with a number of mining com- panies in Nevada county and has invested much money in the development of properties.
Mr. Dille affiliates with the encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is also a member of the California State Grange. He has for many years been interested, from a public-spirited and unselfish point of view, in Republican politics. During the past thirty-five years he has attended every county convention but two. He was a delegate from Yuba county to the state convention which nominated Leland Stanford for governor, and was also a member of the convention that voted instructions to the national delegates to support Harrison for the presidency. He was on the Nevada county central committee for many years, and has always been considered an influential factor in political affairs, although his friends have never prevailed on him to be a candidate for office. He was city trus- tee of Grass Valley from 1873 to 1881, and for one year was president of the board, otherwise mayor of the town.
Mr. Dille was married at Park's Bar, July 3. 1853, to Miss Susan Ann Nash. At that time there were eight hundred men and five women in the camp. Mrs. Dille was a native of Indiana, of Revolutionary ancestry and of Scotch lineage. Her father, James Nash, was born in Pennsylvania. Mrs. Dille died, leaving one daughter, Miss Mary Emma, who died Sep- tember 21, 1861. Captain S. H. Dille was married a second time, to Miss Dolly Provines. She is the oldest daughter of one of the pioneer Grass Valley residents, Matthew Provines, who is one of the ablest and oldest mill men in the state.
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COL. FELIX G. HEAD.
A glance at the history of past centuries will indicate at once what would be the condition of the world if the mining interests no longer had a part in the industrial and commercial life. Only a few centuries ago agri- culture was almost the only occupation of man. A landed proprietor sur- rounded himself with his tenants and his serfs who tilled his broad fields, while he reaped the reward of their labors; but when the rich mineral re- sources of the world were placed upon the market industry found its way into new and broader fields, minerals were used in the production of hun- dreds of inventions, and the business of nations was revolutionized. Then considering those facts we can in a measure determine the value to mankind of the mining interests. One who is connected with the rich mineral re- sources of the west is Col. Felix G. Head, who is now identified with mining interests in the Tonopah district.
A native of Lawrence county, Indiana, Mr. Head was born on the 23d of July, 1844, his parents being Frank A. and Sarah M. Head, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Indiana. The father was a stock farmer and in the year 1848 removed to Illinois, settling in Hancock county. In the family were but two sons, George W. Head being now a retired journalist of Snohomish, Washington.
Col. Felix G. Head was reared upon his father's farm in Hancock county, Illinois, and was educated in the public schools, pursuing a course preparatory to entering college. In 1861, however, he abandoned the idea of entering a more advanced institution of learning in order that he might give his aid to his country then involved in Civil war. He enlisted in the Union army as a member of the One Hundred and Eighteenth Illinois Vol- unteer Infantry and served throughout the period of hostilities, participating in many important engagements. He was mustered out at Springfield in 1865, following the cessation of hostilities.
After the war Col. Head became identified with journalistic work, being connected with various newspaper enterprises in Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas. In 1895 he came to California and established the Jackson Herald in Amador county, continuing the publication of this until 1902, at which time he became identified with the Tonopah mining inter- ests. He is now an extensive stockholder and director in the Princess Maude, which is one of the best mining properties of the Tonopah country, and is also a director and stockholder in the Huron Mining Co., which is operating in Grass valley, about twenty miles east of the city of Grass Valley.
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