El Dorado County Biographies


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

 
 
SAMUEL LAWSON (LARSEN)
 
            Mr. [William] Fowler�s friend, associate and business partner, was 
born in Bergen, Norway, May 30th, 1824.  He is the second son of a family of 
three children, born to Larsen Samuelson and Ellen (Bolletto).  At the age of 
thirteen he quit the public school and for three years was an office or errand 
boy; when sixteen years old he began sailing on the high seas, his first voyage 
was to Spanish ports.  In 1842 he came to South America, and during the years 
1843-4 shipped from Valparaiso; between Christmas and New Year�s days of 1845, 
he arrived in New York city.  In 1850 he decided to visit California and shipped 
on board the bark Hazzard, from Salem, Massachusetts, under Captain Barstow, via 
Cape Horn to San Francisco.  Before leaving New York harbor he had made the 
acquaintance of William J. Fowler, and as time passed on the acquaintance 
ripened into friendship and affection that rarely exists between men.  Excepting 
a short time, consumed by Mr. Lawson in a trip to British Columbia, they have 
been constant associates, business partners and friends.  They share alike in 
the expenses and profits of all their business transactions.  Underneath a 
cluster of three black and one live oak tree on their farm in the foot hills of 
the Sierra Nevadas we find St. Albans� cottage, their mountain home, as neatly 
kept as though a housewife presided there; and was well provided with books, 
periodicals and newspapers.  When the stranger or friend calls in he meets with 
a hearty, generous welcome from intelligent men, whose only neglect of social 
duty has been in living single. They have been generous in the expenditure of 
their means in support of the needy when called on to assist.  Their summers are 
spent in looking after the fruits on the place and winters in mining some.  Both 
men live in the full confidence of all who know them.  Their mountain home is 
frequently a scene of life and gayety, when neighbors both old and young gather 
in to spend a Sunday afternoon or evening in singing and sipping of their native 
wine.  A view of their cottage and portraits of themselves will be found on 
other pages in this volume.
 
Historical Souvenir of El Dorado County, California with Illustrations & 
Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men & Pioneers - Oakland, Cal. - Paolo 
Sioli, Publisher, 1883. p - 242
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler