Plumas County Biographies

Charles Gregory Rodgers 

Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Dec. 2004 

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

 
son of Charles and Rebecca Rodgers, was born at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, 
August 16, 1837. When he was four years old his parents removed to Bellville, 
Mifflin county, Pennsylvania. He attended school at Bellville for seven months, 
and the remainder of his education has been gathered in the school of life. At 
the age of thirteen he commenced work in a general merchandise store in 
Bellville, for his board and clothes. Through his energy and attention to 
business he advanced step by step, from errand-boy to manager of the business. 
In the spring of 1858 he started for the west, and traveled through Missouri and 
Kansas, spending that winter in Illinois. In April, 1859, he started for 
California with a mule team, arriving at Inskip, Butte county, in August. He 
went to work on what was called the Miners� ditch, for three dollars per day, 
half in cash and half in water scrip. In a short time he bought a mining claim 
that was considered worthless, on the line of the ditch he had been working on. 
The scrip procured water for his mining claim. He went to work on it with a man 
by the name of Carroll, working with a rocker. It paid them about five dollars 
per day each for about a month. The winter coming on, they were compelled to 
quit work. They wintered at Inskip, and in the spring went to work on their 
claim again, ground-sluicing, until that fall, making $8.50 per day to the man. 
By this time he concluded that the claim was worked out, and they abandoned it. 
He spent the winter at Wyman�s ravine, and in the spring of 1861 started for 
Plumas county on foot, not having money enough to buy a mule. He got to Wolf 
Creek in July, and began prospecting. He worked there for two years, but with 
little success, and at the end of that time was in debt to a fellow-miner ten 
cents for postage. From there he went to Crescent Mills, feeding in that for 
Blood & Pulsifer for about six months. He worked at various mills in that 
vicinity, and at mining, until October, 1876, when he was appointed 
superintendent of the Green Mountain Gold Mining Company�s properties. He has 
always been engaged in prospecting and endeavoring to develop mines, at times 
being heavily involved on that account. When he was most involved, to the amount 
of $15,000, his health gave out, and he was sick for nearly a year. At times the 
future looked very dark to him; but he kept his courage up, and finally paid all 
his liabilities, and to-day is in easy circumstances. Through energy and skill 
he has made the Green Mountain one of the best paying mines in the state, and 
for himself an enviable reputation as a mine and mill manager. August 16, 1876, 
he was married to Miss Libby M. Hamler of Utica, Licking county, Ohio. They have 
had two children: Philip James, born September 4, 1877, and Oscar Charles, born 
April 4, 1879, both at Green Mountain. He is a member of Greenville Lodge, I. O. 
O. F., and Greenville Lodge, A. O. U. W.; in politics a democrat.
 
Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 
1513 to 1850. � Fariss and Smith, San Francisco,  1882. p 303