Sutter-Yuba County Biographies


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



WILLIAM T. MULLIN
 
            A practical and progressive rancher, and a man of excellent business 
talent, residing two miles east of Oregon House, William T. Mullin has been 
intimately associated with the agricultural development and growth of this 
section, where he has acquired land from time to time until he now owns 1100 
acres, on which he is engaged in general farming and stock-raising, though 
recently he has begun to sell off his choice beef stock, and plans to retire 
gradually from active business cares.  His birth occurred near the Timbuctoo 
Mine, in Yuba County, September 9, 1865, and he was the fifth in a family of 
nine children born to Stephen G. and Harriet (Thornton) Mullin.  Stephen G. 
Mullin was born in New Brunswick and accompanied his parents to Maine as a boy.  
With his family, comprising his wife and one son, Henry, he came to California 
in 1856 via Panama and engaged as a miner at Timbuctoo.  Later he bought land in 
Sicard Flat, which he sold about 1867, when he took up 160 acres of land in the 
Oregon House district, twenty-eight miles northeast of Marysville.  The mother 
was born in Maine, and passed away in 1887, aged forty-eight years.  She was 
survived by her husband until 1901, who was then seventy-two years old.  They 
had nine children:  Henry, residing in Honolulu; Alfred, living near Forbestown; 
Mrs. Hattie Rowe, who died in Humboldt County; Howard, of Humboldt County; 
William T., of this review; Mrs. Sarah Fisher, who died in Siskiyou County; 
Bird, of Siskiyou County; Edwin, of Sonoma; and Van, also of Sonoma.
            William T. Mullin was reared and educated in the Oregon House 
district, and was brought up on the farm and trained in agriculture, which has 
been the means of securing him a comfortable independence.  At Marysville, on 
August 12, 1901, he was married to Miss Emma Forbes, a daughter of Alexander R. 
and Catherine (Kraker) Forbes, natives of Scotland and Germany, respectively.  
The genealogy of Mrs. Mullin reverts to the Scottish Highlands.  For many 
generations the male ancestors were soldiers in the Highland regiments of the 
British army, chiefly the Gordon Highlanders.  As an adjutant of his regiment, 
the grandfather, John Forbes, bore a part in numerous engagements, among them 
the memorable battle of Waterloo.  After a service of twenty-one years in the 
same regiment, he resigned his commission and immigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada, 
where he served as an adjutant in the East Canadian Militia during the Fenian 
outbreak.  At the time of his death he had passed his ninetieth year.  Alexander 
R. Forbes grew to manhood in Nova Scotia, Canada, coming from that country to 
the Pacific Coast at an early age.  For some time he followed the blacksmith�s 
trade, in addition to trying his luck at various mining camps.  For a time he 
worked in Sierra County; but in 1867 he settled upon a farm, in the Oregon House 
Valley, Yuba County, where he added stock-raising to the growing of grain.  
After coming to the West he married Catherine Kraker, who was born in Germany, 
and came to America at twelve years of age.  From the time of his arrival in 
California in 1851 until his death in 1897, he was warmly interested in the 
growth and progress of the State, in which he bore his part as a public-spirited 
citizen and progressive farmer.  The mother survived him until 1916.  They had 
seven children:  Clarence, who died in Browns Valley; Gen. Edwin A., a prominent 
attorney of Marysville, and adjutant-general of California at the time of his 
death on June 18, 1915; William, supervisor of the fourth district, Yuba County, 
who resides on the Forbes Ranch; Emma, Mrs. Mullin; Gordon, in Westwood; Katie, 
Mrs. Thomas Yore, of Stockton; and Carrie, who died in 1904.  Mrs. Mullin was 
born at Brandy City, Sierra County, but was reared at Oregon House.  Mr. and 
Mrs. Mullin are the parents of one daughter, Roby, a graduate of Ursaline 
College, Santa Rosa, and now the wife of J. H. Skinner of Oregon Hill.  Mr. 
Mullin was for some years a trustee of the Oregon House school district, and for 
the past sixteen years has served as constable of Parks Bar Township.  He is a 
Republican and in former years was a member of the Republican County Central 
Committee.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 756-759