Contra Costa County Biography

MORTIMER W. BELSHAW, deceased, 

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, December, 2006.

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


was born in Herkimer County, New York, April 20, 1830, son of William and Mary 
(Rhodes) Belshaw. Without assistance from anyone he acquired an education 
superior to most of his associates. At sixteen years of age he began to teach 
school during the winter months; with the money thus earned he took a course of 
study in Oxford Academy, Chenango County, New York. About the same time he 
learned the trade of watchmaker and jeweler. Later he entered Geneva (now 
Hobart) College, from which he was graduated in 1850. For two years subsequent 
to graduation Mr. Belshaw acted as collector for the Erie Canal locks at Little 
Falls. Meanwhile he had heard reports about California and its 
possibilities�attracted by these reports he decided to seek a livelihood on the 
Coast. In 1852 he came via the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, thence 
proceeding to Mokelumne Hill, Calaveras County, where he worked as carpenter for 
a time. His next business venture was the opening of a jewelry store at 
Fiddletown, Amador County, where he also held the position as agent for the 
Wells Fargo Express Company. About 1864 he removed to San Francisco, where he 
became connected with the Pacific Refinery. Possessing mechanical genius, he 
invented a number of useful devices, among them the Belshaw water-gate, still 
used in many mining districts. In 1868 he went to Inyo County and opened the 
Cerro Gordo Mines. While there he successfully solved the problem of smelting 
the rebellious galena ore and invented the water-jacket furnace now used in all 
smelters. An important enterprise in connection with the mines was the 
establishment of a freight route that utilized about fifteen hundred mules and 
horses for the conveyance of the bullion over the mountains and desert. On 
severing his connection with the mines as manager he retained a large financial 
interest. Mr. Belshaw came to Antioch in 1877, and in company with Judson and 
Rouse opened the Empire Coal Mines in the foothills of Mount Diablo. They built 
a railroad and dockage. As a stockholder and director, he was interested in the 
Kennedy Mining & Milling Company, near Jackson, Amador County. He was president 
of the Gwin Mine Development Company of Calaveras County. He was the Republican 
candidate for assemblyman from Amador County in 1856. Many of his articles 
bearing upon the silver question were published in papers throughout California 
as well as in other parts of the country. The failure of his health led to his 
retirement from personal control of his various interests. After an illness of 
six months he died at the home of his son, in Antioch, April 28, 1898. Mr. 
Belshaw was united in marriage in 1858 to Miss Jane E. Oxner, a native of 
Herkimer County, New York; she died in 1900, at the age of sixty-four years. 
Their older son, William Conrad, was born June 5, 1859, and died July 5, 1864.
 
Source: "The History of Contra Costa County, California," Elms Publ. Co., 1918, 
pp. 432-433