Sutter-Yuba County Biographies


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



 
THOMAS WILLIAM PEIRANO
 
            No small part of the enviable fame of Marysville as an important 
modern center with a historic background is due to the fact that she may boast 
of a considerable number of men and women of affairs, in the various fields of 
activity, who compare favorably with the best anywhere else in the Golden State 
in experience and ability to do their share of the world�s work; and among these 
enterprising local leaders is Thomas William Peirano, the well-established and 
popular contractor.  A Canadian by birth, he first saw the light at Mount 
Forest, Ontario, on January 12, 1868.  He is a son of Francis and Sarah (Smith) 
Peirano, natives of Genoa, Italy, and Ontario, respectively.  Francis Peirano 
was a musician who came from Italy to Ontario.  In 1872 the family removed to 
Negaunee, Marquette County, Mich., where he followed his profession and also was 
court interpreter.  He died there in April, 1883, leaving a widow and ten 
children.  Mrs. Peirano soon discovered that the city was no place in which to 
raise her boys; so she homesteaded land, and with the aid of her children proved 
up on it; and there she continued until her death, on October 13, 1923, at the 
age of eighty-six.  She was a remarkable woman, of much energy and great 
fortitude, and was loved by all with whom she came in contact.  Grandfather 
Smith lived to be 108 years old, while the grandmother passed on at the age of 
ninety-two.  She was a wonderful business manager, and accumulated an 800-acre 
stock ranch besides her home place.
            Thomas W. Peirano is the sixth child in order of birth in a family 
of ten children, of whom six are living, and is the only one in California.  He 
was reared in Marquette County, Mich., up to his fifteenth year, and was 
educated in the public schools.  Coming West to Kansas, in 1883, he settled on a 
farm in Ellsworth County until 1888, when he came out to California, arriving in 
Marysville in October of that year.  Soon afterward he helped to lay the rails 
for a railroad of private ownership from Marysville to Knight�s Landing, which 
was later bought by the Southern Pacific Railroad.  He then entered the employ 
of the local street railway, driving a mule car when David E. Knight was 
president, and after a while he became superintendent of the road.  He continued 
as superintendent  for about eight years, until the road was sold to the 
Northern Electric Railroad Company.  Then he apprenticed himself to Ike Luke, a 
contractor, and learned the cement and concrete worker�s trade.  Some twelve 
years ago, he established himself in business as a cement and concrete 
contractor; and since then he has laid many miles of sidewalks, curbs and 
gutters in both Marysville and Yuba City.  He laid the immense concrete floor of 
50,000 square feet in the Dunning Bros. Garage on Fourth Street, the largest 
ground floor, in a one-story garage, in California.  He also built a wall in the 
garage at the corner of Fourth and E Streets, 22 feet high by 163 feet long, 
laid the floors in many other garages, the floor in the warehouse at East 
Nicolaus, the floors and concrete manger in Mary Gray�s dairy barn in District 
No. 10, Yuba County, to accommodate 120 cows, and the foundations for various 
residences.  In addition, he has built and sold four houses in Marysville.  Mr. 
Peirano has also been interested in horticulture, having owned an eighteen-acre 
peach and prune orchard and a twenty-five-acre almond orchard, which he planted, 
but both of which he has since sold.  He now owns a ten-acre peach orchard, 
which he also planted and developed.
            On December 16, 1897, at Yuba City, Mr. Peirano was married to Miss 
Rose Bremer, a popular daughter of San Francisco, whose father, August Bremer, 
was an early settler of Sutter County.  He was born at Grand Rapids, Mich., and 
coming out to California he was married to Marie Bittrolf.  Locating at Yuba 
City, he improved twenty-four acres, setting out an orchard of peaches, almonds, 
and oranges, and also planting a part to grapes.  This development was all 
accomplished by his own labor, and he is now a well-to-do orchardist.  His wife 
passed away in 1915, leaving two children:  Rose, now Mrs. Peirano; and Frank, a 
merchant in Yuba City.  Rose Bremer was educated in the public schools of Yuba 
City, making her home with her parents until her marriage to Mr. Peirano.  Their 
union has been blessed with five children.  Francis died at eight years of age; 
Estelle is now Mrs. Crowhurst, of Sutter County; Marie is training for a nurse 
at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco; while Winnie and Wilma are twins, 
attending school in Marysville.  Mrs. Peirano is a member of the Marysville Art 
Club and the Catholic Ladies� Relief Society; and during the war she was an 
active member of the local chapter of the American Red Cross. 
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p.  559-560