Sierra County Biographies

William B. Rawden

Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Nov. 2004

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


 
The subject of this sketch was born in Voxhall, Surrey county, England, December 
21, 1835. He went to sea at the age of twelve, and followed this life for two 
years, when he landed at Quebec, and went to Connecticut in June, 1849. He came 
to California in 1855, landing at San Francisco on the first of September. He 
mined in Calaveras county, and at Alleghany and Forest City, Sierra county, 
until 1863, when he came to Sierra valley, and took charge of Wood�s store in 
Randolph. Six months after, he bought Weil�s brewery, and ran it two years, when 
he gave it up and bought a half-interest in a planing mill at Randolph, his 
partner being J. D. Myers. They greatly enlarged and improved the mill, and did 
a fine business. In 1876 he bought out Myers, and since has run it alone. He 
bought the saw-mill property of James Davidson, two miles from Randolph, in the 
spring of 1880, where he has 320 acres of fine timber land. He was married 
November 22, 1870, to Miss M. E. Gates, who was born in Lee county, Illinois, 
September 11, 1845. Their children are Blanche, Mary Ellen, and Addie L. 
(deceased). Mr. Rawden is a member of Sierra Valley Lodge No. 184, F. & A. M.
 
Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 
1513 to 1850. - Fariss and Smith, San Francisco,  1882. p 274