Mendocino County Biographies

Henry Oscar Irish

Transcribed by: Pat Howard

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


	The subject of this sketch, whose portrait appears in this 
work, was born in Orleans county, New York, March 21, 1819, and was the oldest 
son of Perry and Amanda Farwell Irish. At the age of fifteen he apprenticed 
himself to learn the painter�s trade, serving three years at it. He then 
followed his trade in his native county till 1847, when he went to Chicago, 
Illinois, where he worked at his trade till 1852. April 17th of that year he 
left Chicago and started across the plains for California with ox-teams, and 
they arrived in Placerville October 15th. He began mining at that place, which 
business he continued till September, 1856. He then moved to Anderson valley and 
there combined farming and stock-raising, which business he still continues. 
June 14, 1849, he married Miss Frances, daughter of George and Catherine Mercer 
Martin, born in Genesee county, New York, November 9, 1830. Their children are: 
Eugene H., born June 16, 1856; Edwin A. born January 15, 1859; Helen F., born 
April 22, 1861; Carrie E., born November 15, 1863; Perry M., born November 14, 
1865; Frank W., born February 8, 1868; Willie W., born May 16, 1871; John W. 
born March 5, 1873; Ida May, born September 14, 1876.
 
SOURCE: History of Mendocino County, California - San Francisco, Cal. Alley, 
Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1880 Pp. 511