Sacramento Valley Biographies

R. W. Browning

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, March 2009

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



         The vice-president of the Bank of Yolo has achieved
his present financial prominence solely through his own efforts, and while
traveling the hard road of the pioneer land tiller of the west. As a youth
of nineteen he first took up the burden of existence on the coast September
27, 1854, having traveled overland all the way from Monroe county, Ky.,
where he was born December 1, 1833. The same fall he located on his present
farm of five hundred acres four miles southwest of Woodland, and for fifty
years has come and gone along these highways, a man who has won increasing
honor and influence with every passing year. Mr. Browning's father, Charles,
was born in South Carolina, in 1799, and moved with his parents to Kentucky
when a small child, his death occurring in Yolo county in 1861, aged
sixty-two years. His wife, Elizabeth (Crawford) Browning, was born in
Kentucky,  a daughter of James and Ann (Hibbit) Crawford, both natives of
Kentucky, where they died when well advanced in years. They were members of
the Christian Church. Mrs. Elizabeth Browning also died in Yolo county, in
1882, aged seventy-nine years. Both she and her husband were devout members
of the Christian Church, and the latter was a follower of Whig principles
until the disintegration of the party, when he became a Democrat. Mr. and
Mrs. Browning became the parents of eight children, as follows: James C.,
deceased; Mrs. Ann Brandon, deceased; Mrs. Martha Welch; W. Y. Browning;
Mrs. Jane Lawson; R. W. Browning; Mrs. Elizabeth Barnes; and Mrs. Mary
Dameron, deceased.
          His farm improvements well under way, Mr. Browning took advantage
of the limited facilities for transporting goods between Sacramento and the
mines, and from 1861 until 1865 operated a freighting outfit of his own
during the summer season. He was successful also with his farm, devoting it
to general produce, wheat and dairying, each year adding to its value as a
producing center. His additions have been on the practical and substantial
order, and the house erected in 1889, which supplanted that in which the
family had under-gone pioneer hardships, is still a comfortable and fine
appearing structure, having been erected with the same painstaking care as
has characterized all of the efforts of its owner. The home is presided over
by Mrs. Browning, who was formerly Martha Kincheloe, now living on a farm
six miles southwest of Wood-land. Ten children have been born of this union.
The eldest daughter, Lela, first became the wife of Lamson Merritt, by whom
she has two daughters, Florence C. and Gladys A.; after his death she became
the wife of John Reith, Jr. William M. Browning is a resident of Woodland
and county auditor of Yolo county, having been elected in 1902; Elizabeth is
the wife of A. C. Huston of Woodland; Philip Ludwell and Victorine are at
home; Zora is the wife of Henry J. Bush, a merchant of Woodland; Donald M.
is on the home place; Charles B. is a resident of Redlands; and Irma and
Harry H. are at home.
           For a number of years Mr. Browning has been connected with the
Bank of Yolo, and is now serving as its vice-president. The bank is one of
the solid monetary institutions of the county, and owes its reliability to
the substantial men who own its stock and control its business. Mr. Browning
is a Democrat in politics, and though never an aspirant for office, has held
the position of school trustee for twenty years. Fraternally he is
identified with Woodland Lodge No. 156, F. & A. M. No one in this section is
held in higher esteem than this enter-prising citizen, nor has any
contributed in greater degree to its solid and reliable upbuilding.

"History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the
Sacramento Valley, California," J. M. Guinn, The Chapman Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1906, Page 285.