Alameda County Biographies

SOLOMON M. BABBITT

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 

	Was born in Austinburgh, Ashtabula County, Ohio, August 7, 1824, and is the son of 
David and Eunice (Curtis) Babbitt.  Having been taken by his parents to Saybrook, in the same 
county, he there resided until 1837, in the spring of which year he accompanied his parents to 
Naperville, Du Page County, Illinois, where he lost his mother, after whose death he concluded 
to come to California.  Traveling by way of the plains he reached Hangtown, where he engaged in 
mining for a year, then returned to Illinois, purchased his father�s farm and that adjoining, 
which renting he established himself in business in Algonquin, McHenry County, in the same 
State, and during the Rebellion served as United States Marshal there.  He now added the lumber 
trade to his other affairs, and followed it until 1869, when he moved to Elgin, Kane County; 
but in November, 1874, once more came to California, bringing his wife and family with him.  
Locating in Oakland, he established himself as a wholesale commission merchant, and is now the 
senior partner in the firm of Babbitt, Manuel & Gilpin, at NO. 471 Eleventh Street.  Mr. Babbitt 
was elected to the City Council of Oakland for the Second Ward, in March, 1883.  Married, in 
Naperville, Miss Lucinda Balch, and has two children, viz.:  Mary (now Mrs. Z. T. Gilpin), and 
Hattie.

History of Alameda County, California�, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883, p. 1001