Lake County Biographies ANDREW ROCCA This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm This gentleman, whose portrait will be found in the body of this work, was born in Italy, October 8, 1838. At the age of fifteen he came to California and located in Mariposa County, where he engaged in mining for three years. He then went to Tuolumne County and followed mining on the Tuolumne River for about one year. He then purchased a ditch which he conducted for about six years, using the water in his own operations and selling it to others. He then disposed of his ditch and returned to Mariposa County and purchased the celebrated Bower Cave Mine, where he mined for fourteen months. Then, on account of poor health, he went to San Francisco, where he was treated for about four months. While here he bought into the Golden Rock Water Company�s ditch in Tuolumne County, and returned to that county, where he remained for eight years. He then proceeded to Shasta County and became interested in the Spring Creek Ditch Mining Company, and remained there about sixteen months. While there in 1876 he was elected by the Directors as Superintendent of the Great Western Quicksilver Mine, in Lake County, where he has since resided. He is a thorough-going, practical miner, and is the right man for the position he holds. He was married, April 14, 1880, to Miss Mary Thompson. History of Napa and Lake Counties, California, publ. 1881 � pg. 269-270 ANDREW ROCCA. � Lake county has been most generously endowed in her natural resources. While her agricultural capabilities seem to be gain- ing the lead now, as farmers take advantage of her unrivaled climate and rich soil, her mines have for years contributed a large share to her producing capacity. It is in connection with mining especially that Andrew Rocca has had a hand in building up the fortunes of this region, and he has also been one of the most valuable factors in another field, the development of water projects in this and other parts of California. His faculty for the successful handling of large undertakings amounts to genius, as results testify. At pres- ent Mr. Rocca is principally occupied with the operation of the Helen quick- silver mine near Middletown. The Great Western, another quicksilver mine in the same locality, was under his superintendence for a period of twenty- four years, until worked out. Mr. Rocca has been mining in California prac- tically all the time since his arrival here, early in 1854. and in that connection is one of the best known men in the state. More than that, although he has acquired wealth he has not done so at the expense of any other's fortune. All his transactions have brought wealth to the territory in which they have been conducted, his methods and dealings have been irreproachable, and as a consequence his friends are legion. Mr. Rocca was born and brought up at Genoa, Italy, and the birthplace of Christopher Columbus is one of his early memories. When he was four years old he had an attack of typhoid fever, and his father, Bartholomew Rocca, contracted the disease supposedly from him and died, so that his son barely remembers him. The father left the family in comfortable circum- stances, having had a large hotel and general merchandise store, which the mother continued for a short time after his death, being a woman of consid- erable education and executive ability. Then she sold the store and carried on the hotel, and she lived to the age of sixty-four years, dying in Genoa. Her maiden name was Marie Ginocchio. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bartholomew Rocca: Anna, Louisa, Catherine, one that died young, Andrew. Rosa and Joseph B. Born October 8, 1838, Mr. Rocca left Genoa on his fifteenth birthday, October 8, 1853, bound for California with two companies, one a boy of six- teen, the other a man of thirty-one years. He never afterward saw his mother (having never gone back on a visit) or any other member of the family except his brother Joseph B. Rocca, who was the only one besides himself to come to America: Joseph B. Rocca has been a miner, has been in- every one of the Pacific coast states, and is now carrying on a large ranch at Madrone, Cal., having an immense vineyard. Andrew Rocca and his two companions journeyed by way of France to England, where they took passage for New York, landing December 18, 1853. Two days later, on the 20th, they set sail for Panama, crossed the Isthmus and embarked on the steamship Golden Gate for San Francisco. For eight days everything went well. Then, without warning, the shaft broke. The steamer Uncle Sam, passing, offered assistance, but Captain Whiting of the Golden Gate refused all aid for his vessel, which was wrecked at San Diego, being disabled and so short of water and provisions that passengers and crew alike were almost famished. The captain claimed that the ship was as good as ever and that the water in the hold came from waves washing overboard, not from a leak. However, he set three hundred men to work to bail it out, but they bailed until exhausted without lowering it one bit. Then a diver was sent down and reported there was no bottom to the ship, which was full of sand. In spite of the effort of many of the passengers, Mr. Rocca included, to be allowed to land, the captain refused and kept them there for twenty-four hours and were then landed, and twelve hours later three hun- dred of them came on the towboat Goliath, Mr. Rocca one of them, and five hundred of the passengers on the Brother Jonathan, the balance as best they could, Mr. Rocca landing in San Francisco in January, 1854. He went to Bear valley, in Mariposa county, and engaged successfully in placer mining, which he followed on a large scale from 1860 to 1867, being the most extensive operator of that kind in Tuolumne county. He accumulated considerable there. In 1869 Mr. Rocca became superintendent of the Golden Rock Water Com- pany, in Tuolumne county, of which he was also part owner and one of the organizers and financiers, and he operated it very successfully, both as a business proposition and public utility, until 1875. The water was put to many uses, and the proposition was very popular. In 1875 Mr. Rocca sold his interest and moved to San Francisco with the intention of remaining in that city, having decided to retire from active mining business. However, a few days later he called on Abraham Halsey, with whom he was well ac- quainted, and who was largely interested in mining. Among Mr. Halsey's properties was a two hundred acre placer in Shasta county, in which he inter- ested Mr. Rocca, persuading him to take the management and a seventh inter- est in the ownership, so in June. 1876. we find him on Spring creek, two miles from Shasta, building eight miles of ditches and flumes with the aid of sixty to eighty men. The result was a flow of water of two thousand miner's inches. He then installed two six-inch hydraulic giant engines and began operations. The power was so great that in six weeks' time the debris filled the Sacramento river to such an extent that they knew it would be only a short time until they would be forced by the court to cease operations, as was the case with miners below them on the river, so they discontinued the work and the manager retired to San Francisco. However, the hydraulic sys- tem he had installed for this mining enterprise on Saltpork Ridge was con- sidered one of the finest in California, and it was due to his supervision and enterprising spirit that the result was eminently satisfactory from an engineer- ing and operating standpoint. But his reputation as a miner and mine manager was established and of very real importance to the directors of the Great Western quicksilver mine, lo whom his old friend Abraham Halsey proposed his election as superin- tendent, entirely without Mr. Rocca's solicitation or knowledge. H. M. Newhall was president of the company. The proposition met with approval, and September 12, 1876, Mr. Rocca came to Lake county to assume his new duties, which he performed so satisfactorily that he held the position for the succeeding twenty-four years, resigning when the mine was exhausted. Dur- ing that period more than three million dollars worth of quicksilver was taken out. In 1899 Mr. Rocca bought the American quicksilver mine property near Middletown, comprising forty-one acres, and he has purchased several other claims near or adjoining since, besides taking up government land. It is now known as the Helen mine, and is producing well, thirty men being employed, in 1913 three hundred and three flasks were taken out, and rich discoveries have been made recently. The Helen mine was originally patented under that name but changed by the subsequent owners, though when Mr. Rocca pur- chased it he gave it the original name. It is located about seven miles above Middletown at the head of Dry creek, in the foothills of Pine mountain. Aside from the mine property of forty-one acres he owns about six hundred acres of agricultural and timber land, from which he obtains timber for his tunnels and mines. The plant is equipped with a fifty ton Scott furnace together with a retort for the reduction of the soot. But while lie has made a reputation in mining Mr. Rocca has also done big things in other fields, particularly the planning and installing of the water projects so especially valuable to agricultural interests in this state. In Lake county especially he has also been instrumental in promoting improvements along that line. In 1887 he built what is now known as the Callayomi mill on Putah creek and installed the waterpower by which it is operated. This he sold some years ago to his neighbor, the late Mr. McKinley, father of the McKinley Brothers, who now operate the flour mill and the light and power plant, conducting the business of the latter as the Callayomi & Middletown Light & Power Company. Besides, Mr. Rocca has handled some large real estate deals. He bought a tract of four thousand acres with John C. Valentine, and after developing it in various ways, particularly as a profitable dairy proposition, sold it to Hon. Nathan W. Hall, of Los Angeles. He also improved the Thomas Bives ranch in Long valley, Lake county, which comprises four hundred and eighty acres. He still retains large interests, being the heaviest taxpayer in the county. Business success has not affected Mr. Rocca's sense of proportion or his ideas on his obligations to his fellow men. His excellent judgment has made him a wise employer, and he has always aimed to treat all his asso- ciates right, his motto being, "Meet on the level and part on the square.� His employes have the same consideration, a fact which is so generally recog- nized that he is one of the most popular employers in this part of the state. His operations have not only opened a means of living to many, but have disclosed possibilities and realized others to such an extent that they have added largely to the general prosperity. Mr. Rocca was made a Mason in Mount Jefferson Lodge No. 107, in Garrote, now Groveland, Tuolumne county, in the year 1873, though he is now a member of Callayomi Lodge No. 282, Middletown, of which he is past master. He is also a member of St. Helena Chapter No. 63. R. A. M., Napa Commandery No. 34, K. T., the Order of the Eastern Star, and is a member of the Pioneer Masonic Association at San Francisco. Mr. Rocca married in Elk Grove, Sacramento county. Miss Mary Ruby Thompson, a native of Eldorado county, Cal., the daughter of Bernard and Amanda (Bartholomew) Thompson. In 1898. while making a trip to Calis- toga, the family had a runaway on the toll road in which they were thrown from the buggy, resulting in serious injury to all, but especially to Mrs. Rocca. who received a scalp wound. She recovered, and it was thought permanently, but in February. 1906, the sudden bursting of a blood vessel caused her death eight days later, on the 25th, at the age of forty-seven years. She was the mother of seven children : Lillian, the eldest, is the wife of C. H. Lord, who resides in Santa Clara; Beatrice M. is the wife of Warren Bates, a contractor, of Mountain View, Santa Clara county : Florence Genevieve is married to Cecil McFarland, of Folsom, Cal., who is in the Natoma Land & Mining Com- pany ; Andrew, Jr., is a civil engineer, engaged at the Snowstorm mine, Larson, Idaho; Bernard Thompson is a student in the University of California, class of 1915, preparing for the profession of mining and civil engineering; Idalene Bartholomew lives at home ; Helen Mitchell is a student in the high school at Healdsburg, class of 1915. History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California With Biographical Sketches History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry Illustrated, Complete In One Volume Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914 Transcribed by Peggy Hooper