Sacramento Valley Biographies

W. Y. BROWNING

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, May 2009.

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



         It is known to have been comparatively rare for one of the early
California pioneers to accomplish three trips to the west ere the railroads
had come to the relief of travelers, yet such was the case of W. Y.
Browning, who came overland in 1850, has twice returned to the scenes among
which his youth was passed in Kentucky, and since 1862 has lived on his
present farm, locating on the part of it which is now his home in 1882. Mr.
Browning is one of the most zealous and successful of the farmers around
Woodland, where he is engaged in general farming and stock-raising, owning
five hundred and forty acres of land under a high state of cultivation. A
specialty is made of Shorthorn cattle, thoroughbred Shropshire sheep and
Berkshire hogs, also of grain, and the im-provements on the farm are such as
would appeal to any enterprising farmer of today as being consistent,
practical and up-to-date. In 1903 he erected one of the finest rural
residences in this section, and has furnished it in modern style throughout,
surrounding his family with all of the comforts and even luxuries which tend
to make country life of the present desirable and agreeable. 

        Mr. Browning was born in Jackson County, Tenn., March 15, 1829, his
father, Charles Browning having located there many years before, on a farm
three miles south of the Kentucky line. The elder Browning was born in North
Carolina, February 4, 1799, and moved with his parents to Tennessee, and
later to Kentucky. In the latter state he married Elizabeth Crawford, who
was born in Kentucky, November 4, 1803, and who bore him eight children,
five of whom are living, W. Y. being the fourth. Shortly after the birth of
the latter the parents moved from Jackson county, Tenn., across the line
into Monroe county, Ky., where the boy was reared on a farm and educated in
the public schools. At the age of twenty he left home and went to Moniteau
county, Mo., and in the spring of 1850 joined a company and crossed the
plains with ox-teams. He was a little over four months on the way, arriving
at Hangtown, August 22, 1850, and soon afterward engaged in mining near
Drytown. Not having much faith in placer mining, in the spring of 1851, he
went to Gibsonville, in the northern part of the state, where he was
reasonably successful and in the fall of the same year went to Marysville,
remaining until the following spring.

          Mr. Browning first visited Yolo county in the spring of 1852, but
soon afterward removed to Sacramento and engaged in freighting to the
various mines in the vicinity. In the fall of that year he took up a claim
three miles northwest of Woodland, in Yolo county, and thereon engaged in
stock-raising until 1854. By this time he had obtained a fair start in the
west, and had been enthusiastic in his praise of the great and promising
coast country. Returning to his former home in Kentucky by way of Panama, he
again crossed the plains in the spring of the same year, bringing with him
his parents, and his brother, R. W. Browning. With him also he brought a
herd of one hundred cattle, at the end of his six months' journey having but
a third of them left, but with these starting a cattle-raising enterprise
upon his ranch. In 1856 he went to Missouri by way of Panama, and in
Moniteau county, March 27, of that year, married Rowena Howard, who was a
native of that county, and whose mother died in Yolo county at the advanced
age of ninety-two years. With his wife Mr. Browning came back west the same,
remained on his claim until 1858, and then engaged in farming near Buckeye
until 1860. He then located five miles southwest of Woodland until removing
to his present farm in 1862.

          Mr. Browning is a public spirited and enterprising man, a stanch
Democrat, and an active worker in the Christian Church of Woodland.
Fraternally he is identified with the Masons, belonging to Woodland Lodge
No. 156. He has not only made a name for himself in the west, but has reared
a fine family of children, all of whom are a credit to his training and
upright example. His oldest daughter, Grizella, is the wife of Dr. B. F.
Clarke, of San Francisco; Matilda is the wife of W. A. Hall, of Oakland,
Cal.; Charles L. is a practicing physician of Chico, having graduated from
the Cooper Institute and the Hesperian College at Woodland; William H. is
living at home; Mary is at home; and Ida is the wife of Warren Hannum, of
Alaska.

"History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the
Sacramento Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, The Chapman Publishing Company,
Chicago, 1906, Pages 512-513.