USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol II > Part 60
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In Burke's General Armory appears the following arms : " Wads- worth (Yorkshire). Gules, three fleur-de-lis stalked and slipped argent." "Same arms: Crest on a globe of the world, winged proper; an eagle rising, or."
Elijah Wadsworth was born in Edinburg, Portage county, Ohio, Jan- uary 5, 1822, and died in San Francisco, May 17, 1886. Unfortunately the record of most of his career has been mislaid or lost, and especially the early years of his eventful history cannot be traced with accuracy. He had always been prominent in every community in which he has lived, and with Siskiyou county in particular his energy and enterprise were con- nected for material progress and prosperity. He established his home in Yreka in 1852, and opened a banking house, also acting as agent for Rhode and Lusks Express and afterward as agent for Wells, Fargo and Company. He continued his business alone for a time, and then entered into partner- ship with his brother Henry. On September 11, 1882, the brothers entered into a copartnership with Jerome Churchill, L. Husman and N. D. Julian, the new company buying the private bank and opening a state bank under the name of the Siskiyou County Bank, capitalized at one hundred thou- sand dollars. Mr. Wadsworth was one of the directors, and the officers were: President, Jerome Churchill; vice-president, L. Husman, and cash- ier, F. E. Wadsworth. On the death of Mr. Husman, Mr. H. V. Gillis became vice-president. All these men find further mention on other pages of this work. Mr. Elijah Wadsworth was a thorough business man, and his honest methods were rewarded with the greatest success. He was active and public-spirited as a citizen, and took a leading part in all move- ments originated for the welfare of the people and the advancement of the county.
Church and educational affairs found in him a strong support, and he made possible many enterprises of this kind in northern California. He was one of the founders of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in Yreka, having been a faithful and active member of Yreka Lodge No. 19 and Siskiyou Encampment No. 15 until the time of his death. His politi- cal record is also a credit to his memory. He was an active Republican, and frequently represented his party in state conventions, and was also a delegate to the national convention. He was elected state senator in 1865
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from the twenty-eighth district. He spent his declining years in Oakland, free from business cares, and his life of enterprise and usefulness has been continued in Yreka by his son.
He was married in Sacramento, California, December 25, 1857, to Mary J. Kelly, a native of Baltimore, Maryland. There were three chil- dren: Frederick E., cashier of the Siskiyou County Bank; Mary Eliza, wife of Dr. John W. Robertson, a physician of Livermore; and James H., in the lumber business at Willits, California.
Frederick E. Wadsworth was born in Yreka, February 20, 1859, and was educated in the public schools, graduating from the Oakland high school in the class of 1879. He then was in the employ of the Wells, Fargo and Company at Belleville. Nevada, for a year before coming to Yreka to take the position of cashier in the newly organized Siskiyou County Bank, with which solid financial institution he has been connected as cashier to the present time. He is one of the brightest and most popular young business men of the county, and has placed himself in the lead in many important business undertakings.
He is a Republican and influential in local and county politics, having attended the county conventions. He has been through all the chairs of the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
He was married, June 21, 1883, to Miss Carrie May Patterson, a native of Indiana and a daughter of Dr. George W. Patterson, a hotel man of Michigan City, Indiana. She is a niece of Jerome Churchill, whose biography adorns other pages of this volume, and is more remotely con- nected with Mrs. Jerome Churchill, who was a Patterson before her mar- riage. The one child born of this marriage is deceased.
JAMES PHELAN.
James Phelan, merchant prince and financier of San Francisco, was so intimately connected with the commercial history of this city from the in- ception of its great development until his death that his life and deeds form an essential and enduring part of San Francisco's integrity as a commer- cial center. His name is also honored as that of one of the pioneer forty- miners, and he was led by his keen foresight and business sense to become one of the founders of trade and commerce in the Pacific coast metropolis.
He was born in Queen's county. Ireland, and in 1827, when six years old. was brought by his parents to New York city, where he received his education in the public schools. He was largely a self-made man, achieving his own success from the time he left the parental home. His instincts led him to the commercial life, and he was in business in Philadelphia and New Orleans for several years, and got a fair start on the career which he afterward adornedi. The gold fever of 1849 attracted him to the Pacific coast, but with other ideas than those that brought most men hither. He saw that the influx of civilization would mean the building up of a great commercial center with vast opportunities for trade. With his characteristic energy and quickness of carrying out his purposes. therefore, he shipped
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large cargoes of general merchandise in three vessels from New York to San Francisco, and he himself went by way of the isthmus route. While crossing at Panama he was seized with the Panama fever, and at the same time learned of the loss of one of his ships. He was a man who never slacked energy because of discouragements, and he went on and ar- rived in San Francisco in August, 1849, and there established the firm of J. and M. Phelan.
The conflagration of 1851, which inflicted heavy losses on the young city, burned his store, but he persevered, and his name throughout his long commercial career in this city was associated with success and was a guar- antee of good faith in all enterprises. He was among the first merchants to ship California wheat to England. He established the First National Bank of San Francisco, with two million dollars' capital, and served as its first president. He founded the Mutual Savings Bank, and organized and became vice-president of the American Contracting and Dredging Com- pany, for the purpose of dredging the Panama canal, and this enterprise netted over one thousand per cent in four years. He also became a large owner of real estate in several states, built the Phelan Building in San Francisco and was owner of the Stevens House on lower Broadway, New York.
Mr. Phelan's career of wonderful commercial success on the Pacific coast lasted over forty years, and he was seventy-one years old at the time of his death, December 23, 1892. He left a fortune of many mil- lions, which descended to his widow, two daughters and one son. He had throughout his life been a man of generous impulses and of broad humani- tarian purposes, and in his will many bequests were made to charity. His years had been filled with activity. and while he made his success by in- tense energy and application to the details of his business, his broad mind grasped the larger principles of life as well as of commerce, and his noble and beneficent character was a power for good wherever he went.
JAMES D. PHELAN.
James Duval Phelan, the only son of James Phelan, whose successful career is sketched above, has inherited the ability and character of his father, and has become one of the most prominent men in western politics, finance and society.
He is a San Franciscan by birth and early training, and his most im- portant successes have been wrought out within call of his birthplace. He graduated from St. Ignatius College with the degree of A. B., and after- ward studied law in the University of California. He then took an ex- tended tour through Europe, returning to San Francisco to become the junior member of the firm of James Phelan. He has devoted himself more particularly to banking enterprises, although he has a host of other pur- suits and interests. He is president of the Mutual Savings Bank and a director in the First National Bank of San Francisco, of which his father was the first president; is also a director in the First National Bank of San Jose, and other financial institutions.
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He is identified with many clubs and organizations, for social, business and public purposes. He is president of the Bohemian Club, of the Hall Association of the Native Sons of the Golden West, and of the Associa- tion for the Improvement and Adornment of San Francisco, which was recently formed for beautifying this city. He has membership with the Pacific Union, Olympic, University and Commercial clubs and the Art As- sociation of San Francisco and the Society of California Pioneers. He served in the National Guard on the staff of Governor Bartlett and on the staff of the Second Brigade, and represented the Fifth Congressional Dis- trict on the World's Fair Commission at Chicago, being vice president of the body.
Mr. Phelan is perhaps best known to the public of San Francisco for his efficient administration as mayor of the city. After one of the hottest fights in the history of San Francisco politics he was elected to the mayor- alty in 1896, and two years later his administration was stamped with pop- ular approval by his re-election. With the famous new charter of the city, which was adopted by the people and the legislature in 1900, his name will forever be connected, and under that charter he was chosen mayor for the third time, his term expiring in January, 1902, after five years of service which set a high mark in the history of executive administration in this city. In 1900 he received the Democratic complimentary vote of the legis- lature for United States senator. In 1902 he was commissioned by the governor to visit Washington to promote the passage of the Chinese exclu- sion law, and during the following year he was traveling in Europe.
JAMES C. CAMPBELL.
The history of the industrial development of California for many years was practically the record of its mining interests, and even yet this work stands as the most important line of activity in the state. It has contributed millions to the wealth of the country and furnished a field of labor to thou- sands of employes. James C. Campbell, representing this line of activity, is now superintendent and part owner of the Mountaineer mine near Nevada City.
He was born in East Saginaw, Michigan, on the 5th of December, 1850. His father, Archibald Campbell, was born in Argyleshire, Scotland, and was a representative of the old and prominent Campbell clan. He followed the sea for many years, becoming captain of a vessel, and about 1845 he settled in Saginaw, Michigan, where he loaned money on property. Those who were indebted to him failing to pay, he had to take the property, and thus he became the owner of nearly all of the real estate on which East Saginaw stands to-day. He married Miss Elizabeth Cockburn, who was born in Ber- wick, Scotland, and was a descendant of the Cockburn family, well known in the land of the hills and heather. His death occurred in the year 1894. while his wife passed away in 1896. Their children were James C .; John B., who is now a practicing physician in the state of Nevada; David C .. an attorney of Montgomery; and Mrs. Margaret Newman, who is residing in Howell, Michigan.
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James C. Campbell began his education in the public schools of his na- tive city and afterward attended the University of Michigan. On complet- ing his education he turned his attention to the lumber trade and lumber supply business in Saginaw, where he continued until 1873, when he came to California. He spent the first year in San Francisco and then went to the mines at White Pine. Nevada, where he continued for seven years. La- ter he visited New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, spending five years in the last-named state. In January, 1887, he returned to California and oper- ated in mining in Shasta county for a year. He was subsequently at Browns- ville, Yuba county, in Browns Valley for eight years and opened up the Browns Valley mines. On the Ist of October, 1899, he arrived in Nevada City, where he accepted the superintendency of the Mountaineer gold mines. For six months he was connected with that company, and then turned his attention to other ventures, taking hold of Stiles property, now known as the Sierra Queen mine. . This he placed upon a paying basis and then sold. He afterward took charge of the Murchie property, but resigned the posi- tion of superintendent on the Ist of December, 1903, in order to again be- come superintendent of the Mountaineer gold mines.
The Mountaineer group and Summit group embrace fifteen different claims and constitute a continuous piece of property three miles in length. The business was incorporated with a capital stock of one million two hun- dred thousand dollars, but is not listed. Mr. Campbell has a financial in- terest in this as he has had in all other properties which he has ever handled. It is a free-milling property, which has paid nearly one million dollars in dividends. It is equipped with a twenty-stamp mill, a hoisting and com- pressing plant, and in fact is fully supplied with everything needed for the development of the mines and the preparation of the ore for the market. Under the management of Mr. Campbell the Mountaineer mines have again become a paying property, yielding a good dividend. This is due to his excellent powers of management, his practical knowledge of mining interests and of ores, and his utilization of every means at hand to make this a pay- ing industry. When he opened up the Browns Valley mines he took up the water rights that in course of time were developed and resulted in the estab- lishment of the Bay County Electric & Power Company. His work in that district also resulted in the investment of about two million five hundred thousand dollars, and dividends are being paid on every dollar.
In 1871, in Detroit, Michigan. Mr. Campbell was united in marriage to Miss Benarda O'Sullivan, a native of London, Canada. They have one daughter, Mrs. Barker, the wife of Curtis N. Barker, of San José, Califor- nia. Mr. Campbell is a Republican in his political views and belongs to the Masonic fraternity, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks. He has found in the great and growing western country the business opportunities he sought, and through the care- ful husbanding of his resources, through intelligent and well directed energy and practical management has gained a full measure of success and has be- come a factor in the development of California's rich mineral resources.
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EDWARD POWER COLGAN.
Edward Power Colgan, deceased, was for many years one of the leading citizens of Santa Rosa, and as proprietor of the Santa Rosa House became known throughout the state and built up a deservedly high reputation for his hotel. He was likewise numbered among the very oldest citizens of Santa Rosa, if not one of its fathers, for at the time of his advent into this present beau- tiful vicinity no such place had been laid out or acquired an existence and a name. He had consequently much to do with the development and progress of the town, in addition to nurturing his own private enterprise into a steady growth and career of prosperity. He is remembered as a public-spirited man, faithful to his obligations and responsibilities, devoted to friends and family, thoroughly upright and honorable in all the relations of life, and at his taking off from the living it was felt that the place he had so long filled in the community could not soon find so noble an occupant.
Mr. Colgan was born in the city of New York, July 30, 1823, and was reared and educated there. He also got his start and training in the restau- rant business in that city. He came to California in 1849, by way of Cape Horn, and on his arrival in San Francisco started a restaurant near the wharf, where he remained until the floods drove him out. He was then engaged in the liquor business for a short time, and on October 12, 1853, arrived in Santa Rosa. Although the town had not vet been laid out, he started what for years was known as the Santa Rosa House, and conducted the business until his death. The hotel was small and primitive at first, but its management and facilities kept pace with the progress of the times, and he made additions until it was the largest public house in the county.
Mr. Colgan was a member of the United Americans. He was married on July 28. 1851, to Miss Elizabeth Staib, a native of Baden, Germany. Her father, Jacob Staib, was also a native of Baden, and in 1848 his wife brought her family to the United States, and in the following year Mrs. Colgan and her sister came to California. Mr. and Mrs. Colgan had six children: Eliza- beth Ann married Henry Baker, of Santa Rosa; Edward P. is the state con- troller of California; and Charles, Abraham L., George W. and Henry Newton.
ALBERT MALTMAN.
Albert Maltman, superintendent and owner in the Murchie mines near Nevada City, was born in that city January 19, 1860. The family ancestry can be traced back to German officers who settled in Scotland at the time of the invasion of that country by the sons of the fatherland. Representatives of the name came to this country in the early part of the eighteenth century. As German officers they were prominent in Scotland, and there the genealogical tree branched out for several centuries. In America the Maltman family was represented in the war of 1812, while Edward Miller, a half-brother of Oscar Maltman, the father of Mr. Maltman, was a soldier of the Civil war, defend- ing the Union cause.
Oscar Maltman was related to the Van Cortlands of New York, one of
Q Maturau.
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the prominent old Knickerbocker families. He came to California in 1850, making the journey around Cape Horn. Here he began business as a real estate dealer in San Francisco, but, becoming imbued with the gold fever, he went to the mining districts along the Feather and American rivers on prospecting trips and finally in the same year arrived in Nevada City. He and his brother William were the original locators of the Manzinita gravel mine within a mile of Nevada City, one of the first discovered gold-bearing districts. Mr. Oscar Maltman then turned his attention to the chlorination of gold sulphurets-refractory ores-taking up Platiner's experiments. At that time he was in partnership with Fred Deetkin. At first failure attended their efforts to use the chlorination process, and both gentlemen went from California to Virginia City. Nevada, at the time of the gold excitement there, but the Indians drove them out. About that time Mr. Oscar Maltman pur- chased Mr. Deetkin's interest in the chlorination work and success soon attended his experiments in this direction. The present state of perfection that has been attained in the chlorination process is due to Oscar Maltman, he having carried on the business successfully for over forty years, and what is now known as the Pioneer Reduction Works of Nevada county grew from the original experiments of forty-seven years ago. The text books on metal- lurgy from time to time have given others credit for the development of this process in so far as it relates to its practical application in mining, but the records disclose the fact that the first practical application was made by Oscar Maltman at the present site of the Nevada City Reduction Works in 1857. He was always interested in mines of Nevada and surrounding counties until his death, which occurred in 1891. Mr. Maltman was very well known and popular, and was regarded as an authority on metallurgy and mining opera- tions. He possessed the greatest intelligence and integrity that was so char- acteristic of people of that period when a man was estimated by his true worth without regard to his position. It is said that had he devoted himself entirely to literature he would have gained distinction as a scholar and humorist, and he was quoted all over the country for his native wit and humor. Like the majority of the California pioneers he was a man of most liberal impulses and great generosity, and as long as he had a dollar in his purse no friend need ever go hungry, for he was willing to share with all.
Oscar Maltman was united in marriage to Miss Hanna Newman, who was born in New Jersey and was a representative of an old family that fur- nished members to the patriot army in the Revolutionary war. The ancestry is traced far back to France, and the first of the name settling in New Jersey engaged in the tilling of the soil there. There is also a strong religious strain in the family, such as characterized the early Puritans. Mrs. Maltman came to California soon after her husband located here, and endured all of the hardships incident to the establishment of civilization upon the frontier. She died.in 1863, leaving three sons and one daughter. The latter is Annie, the wife of Albert M. Allen, who is engaged in business in Los Angeles, Cali- fornia.
Albert Maltman, the only son now living, was a student in the public schools of Brooklyn, New York, and in the high schools of Nevada City, Cali-
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fornia, where he completed a course with the class of 1879. He also pursued a short course in the Mound College at San Francisco and put aside his text books at the age of nineteen years, at which time he entered his father's employ in the chlorination works in Nevada City. For two years he was a student in the laboratory and afterward assumed the management of the works. In 1881 he accepted a position in connection with some gold and silver mines as assistant superintendent at Guadaloupe Y Calvo in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. He remained there two years and then returned to Nevada City, where he assumed the management of his father's chlorination works and also took control of his business in connection with the interests he had in different mines. In 1885 he was appointed assistant superintendent of the Sierra Buttes mine in Sierra county and remained for two years, after which he removed to West Point, Calaveras county, California, and established reduc- tion works for the purpose of reducing rebellious ores. He was very success- ful there and eventually sold out. He then took up his abode in Tuolumne county and established reduction works in Sonora, conducting the enterprise there for two years, when he accepted a position as manager of a mine in Shasta county, having control at that point for about a year.
When Albert Maltman returned to Nevada City he established general reduction works at Grass Valley and conducted the enterprise for about five years, at the end of which time his plant was destroyed by fire. In the meantime he had become interested in several mines in Grass Valley and assumed the management of the Inkerman and La Marque. After his reduc- tion plant was destroyed he was appointed metallurgist and constructing engineer of the mines of the London Exploration Company of New Zealand. He remained in New Zealand for about four years and then returned to Nevada City to resume the management of the Murchie gold mines, consoli- dated (1903), and has since been in control here. The Murchie mines con- solidated, consist of a mineral patent covering four hundred and thirty-two acres of ground and embrace fourteen distinct gold-bearing veins. At pres- ent there is a well equipped hoisting apparatus in the main vein with a shaft of seven hundred and fifty feet in depth, also a modern mill with a crushing capacity of fifty tons per day and free water power. There are at present about forty-five men employed and the property is paying dividends on its stock. It yields free milling and concentrating ore, the value being mostly in the concentrates, running in gold and silver. The works and all of the machinery are of most modern construction, and of a character that produce the best results. The installation of the mill was of recent date, and in this work Mr. Maltman has not followed the old stereotyped methods, but has planned all with a view to economizing labor and minimizing the cost of pro- duction and reduction of ore. He was also the promoter of the Empire Gold Mining Company of Gold Valley, Sierra county; was one of the promoters of the Osborn Hill Gold Mining Company of Grass Valley; the Inkerman and La Marque Mining Company, of Grass Valley, of which he was formerly superintendent; is one of the promoters and one of the superintendents of the Gaston Ridge gold mines, consolidated; and also of several other mining interests.
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